James Tood Smith III is a hip-hop performer and actor better known as LL Cool J (which stands for “Ladies Love Cool James”). He has been a successful recording artist for more than two decades and has appeared in several films. In this portrait by painter Kehinde Wiley, LL Cool J replicates the pose of magnate John D. Rockefeller Sr. from a famous 1917 portrait by John Singer Sargent.

LL Cool J
By Kehinde Wiley
Oil on canvas, 2005
LL Cool J; © Kehinde Wiley