Goin’ Back to… Whiskey? LL Cool J and Knob Creek Are Teaming up on a New Bourbon
The worlds of hip-hop and whiskey are no strangers, with some high-profile collaborations hitting shelves in recent years. The most recent of these comes from Rock The Bells, the company founded by hip-hop legend LL Cool J, which just announced a partnership with Knob Creek on a new limited-edition bourbon.
Knob Creek is part of the Jim Beam Small Batch Collection, a series of whiskeys that are produced at the James B. Beam Distilling Co. in Kentucky (the collection also includes Booker’s, Basil Hayden, and Baker’s). Knob Creek’s core lineup consists of bourbon and rye whiskeys, but the brand has some single barrel expressions as well that usually hit the mark. The new Knob Creek x Rock The Bells falls into that category, a single barrel bourbon released in conjunction with LL’s lifestyle and media brand, Rock The Bells, which is known for its traveling music festival of the same name. There is not a whole lot of information about this new whiskey, other than that it’s a single barrel bourbon aged for nine years. Wu-Tang Clan rapper Raekwon appeared as featured talent at a few liquor stores earlier this month to sign bottles of the new bourbon and promote its release.
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This comes on the heels of last fall’s Knob Creek collaboration with rapper and Louisville native Jack Harlow. Proceeds from the sale of that bourbon went to benefit Harlow’s nonprofit Jack Harlow Foundation, and the whiskey was said to be selected by Beam master distillers Fred and Freddie Noe along with Maggie and Brian Harlow (Jack’s parents). Earlier this month it was announced that Wu-Tang producer and rapper the RZA was partnering with Ballantine’s on 7 American Barrel x RZA Limited Edition, a blended scotch aged for seven years and finished in American oak casks. This was supposedly inspired by a poem the RZA wrote about his experience visiting Scotland. And over the past few years hip-hop artists like Drake (Virginia Black) and A$AP Rocky (Mercer + Prince) have dipped their toes into the whiskey world.
As mentioned before, Knob Creek x Rock The Bells is a limited release and is only available at a few select liquor stores in New York City at the moment. But you can find the entire Knob Creek lineup available to purchase now from retailers like ReserveBar.
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