The traveling rap festival Rock The Bells was a big deal for many years, but it’s been dormant since Nas and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony headlined the 2012 edition. So it’s cool to report that Rock The Bells is returning this summer. This year, we’re only getting one Rock The Bells date; it’s coming to Forest Hills Stadium in Queens 8/6. The bill is definitely nostalgic, but if you love rap music, there’s a whole lot of exciting stuff in there.

Rock The Bells is named after a classic 1985 banger from LL Cool J, and it’s cool to see that LL is headlining this year’s festival in his home borough of Queens. Press materials list LL as the “founder” of the festival, but as far as I can tell, he’s never played it before. (LL actually won a lawsuit over the festival’s name in 2019, so this might be a “Rock The Bells in name only” type of situation.)

LL will perform with DJ Z-Trip, and the bill also features fellow rap legends like Ice Cube, Jadakiss, and Lil Kim. Plenty of other New York favorites will be on hand: Fat Joe and Remy Ma, Dipset, N.O.R.E., and the reunited Digable Planets. And while Southern rap didn’t get too much play at past Rock The Bells fests, this one has Rick Ross, Trina, and Scarface, whose set will mark the 20th anniversary of his late-career classic The Fix. Roxanne Shanté, another Queens legend, will host the show, and more acts will be announced in the days to come. You can find all the relevant info here.