The Grammy Awards celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of hip-hop Sunday evening with a 14-minute efficiency, full of luminaries from the style’s previous and current.
Greater than 20 of hip-hop’s greatest artists ascended onto the Grammys stage for an thrilling cross-generational medley that turned one of many highlights of this 12 months’s awards ceremony. Followers the world over, and spectators in attendance (like Jay-Z), had been enthralled as they watched hip-hop’s pioneers and rising stars each get the showcase they deserved on “music’s greatest evening.” Nowhere else have we had the possibility to see Public Enemy share the stage with Lil Child, or Melle Mel carry out in the identical room as GloRilla. The efficiency might simply have solely targeted on old-fashioned or new faculty stars, however Questlove, who curated the lineup, was good sufficient to amplify everybody for hip-hop’s birthday.
Here’s a full listing of each artist who appeared on stage for the Grammy’s celebrated hip-hop tribute:
Black Thought: Black Thought, who co-founded The Roots with Questlove in 1987, launched the efficiency medley with rhymes about how hip-hop debuted 50 years in the past “and took the world by storm.”
Grandmaster Flash: Credited with pioneering crossfades, Grandmaster Flash set the tone of early Eighties hip-hop. Thought of hip-hop’s most necessary DJ, he carried out two of his early hits, 1979’s “Flash to the Beat” (with MCs Melle Mel and Scorpio) and 1982’s “The Message” (with MCs Melle Mel, Rahiem, and Barshon), each tracks that served as blueprints for the subsequent 4 a long time of rap.
Run-DMC: Run-DMC catapulted to fame due to heavy MTV play of tracks like 1985’s “King of Rock,” which the trio’s two surviving members, MCs Run and DMC, showcased triumphantly on the Grammys.
LL Cool J: After the Beastie Boys and producer Rick Rubin championed LL Cool J as a teen, the perennially Kangol-wearing MC rapidly turned one of many Eighties’ deftest lyricists and continued his reign decade after decade. On the Grammys, he carried out his 1985 breakthrough hit, “I Can’t Reside With out My Radio” (which he cowrote with Rubin), and 1986’s “Rock the Bells” with an help from the perennially underrated DJ Jazzy Jeff.
Salt-n-Pepa: MCs Cheryl James and Sandra Denton reunited as Salt-N-Pepa for a efficiency of “My Mic Sounds Good,” from their 1986 debut Sizzling, Cool, & Vicious. It turned the primary gold, then platinum album by ladies who rap.
Rakim: Rakim rapped his first single with DJ Eric B, “Eric B Is President.” The hip-hop duo is usually revered as one in every of music’s biggest as leaders of the style’s Golden Period.
Public Enemy: Hip-hop’s authentic rebels, Public Enemy, comprised of rapper Chuck D and hype man Taste Fav, soundtracked Black discontent with vigor, notably with their second album It Takes a Nation of Hundreds of thousands to Maintain Us Again. “Insurgent With out a Pause” was the primary single from it.
De La Soul : The rap trio whose jazz-infused work got here to outline underground hip-hop, carried out the track “Buddy” on the Grammys.
Scarface: The member of the legendary Houston hip-hop group the Geto Boys carried out “My Thoughts’s Enjoying Tips On Me” on the largest stage in music.
Ice – T: The gangsta rap icon, who gained each underground and mainstream success, received the gang excited when he launched into “New Jack Hustler (Nino’s Theme),” the 1991 hit that was nominated for a Grammy for Greatest Rap Solo Efficiency.
Queen Latifah: The rap pioneer who paved the way in which for ladies in hip-hop surprised the viewers as she carried out “U.N.I.T.Y.,” the 1993 hit single with a potent message about uplifting and defending Black ladies.
Methodology Man: “M.E.T.H.O.D. Man” from the Wu-Tang Clan’s Enter The 36 Chambers album made Methodology Man the primary breakout solo star from the Staten Island group. “I’ll Be There for You/You’re All I Must Get By” with Mary J. Blige (and his later work with Redman) helped push him additional into fame, and he’s since develop into a film and TV star, too.
Huge Boi: One-half of Atlanta’s legendary Outkast, Huge Boi’s rapid-fire movement and memorable wit, which he displayed on the Grammys stage throughout a solo efficiency of “ATLiens,” offset Andre 3000 to legendary impact on seminal albums reminiscent of Stankonia and Aquemini.
Busta Rhymes: The New York rapper began out because the star of Leaders Of The New College, then broke out as a soloist together with his show-stealing “State of affairs” verse. Since then he’s entrenched himself as an imaginative, tongue-twisting lyricist on classics like “Put Your Arms The place My Eyes Can See,” and “Contact It,” together with his hypeman Spliff Star by his facet the entire time. He carried out his hyper-speed verse off Chris Brown’s “Take a look at Me Now” throughout the medley.
Missy Elliott: Missy Elliott is one in every of hip-hop’s biggest innovators — flipping beats, enjoying choruses backwards (actually), and taking rap into the membership. Rolling Stone ranked her “Miss E … So Addictive” quantity seven on its listing of greatest rap albums, and “Get Ur Freak On” because the eighth greatest track of all time. Onstage, she launched into a high-powered medley that included “Get Ur Freak On” and “Lose Management.”
Nelly: The St. Louis rapper put the Midwest on the mainstream map with effortlessly catchy hits like 2000’s “Nation Grammar” and “EI.” On the Grammys, he carried out his career-defining 2002 smash “Sizzling in Herre,” produced by the Neptunes and constructed round a pattern of go-go legend Chuck Brown.
Too $hort: One in all rap’s raunchiest voices going again to the Eighties, Too $hort made his mark early on with albums like 1988’s Life Is… Too $hort — and stored minting membership classics properly into the twenty first century. “Blow the Whistle,” the track he carried out throughout the hip hop tribute, was successful in 2006.
Swizz Beatz & The Lox: The Yonkers-born Lox, the trio of Jadakiss, Kinds P, and Sheek Louch, are beloved for the gritty lyricism they unleashed on beloved albums reminiscent of We Are The Streets, their Ruff Ryders debut buoyed by Swizz Beatz’ surging manufacturing. All three males have since launched into solo careers, with Jadakiss changing into “Mr. Verzuz,” and took the stage to point out off the very best of their expertise.
Lil Child: Since dropping Good Timing in 2017, the younger rapper has been on what looks like a chronic run, with songs like “Freestyle,” “Greater Image ” and “Drip Too Onerous” (with Gunna) displaying off his mesh of catchy melody, dexterous lyricism, and grim depictions of the Atlanta streets.
Lil Uzi Vert: Even by hip-hop’s daring requirements, the boundary-pushing Lil Uzi Vert looks like an outlier. Songs like “XO Tour Llif3,” “The Method Life Goes,” and now “Simply Wanna Rock” have made the Philadelphia (or Mars) native a Gen Z favourite.
GloRilla: The rapper, who skyrocketed out of Memphis, took the hip-hop world by storm since she launched her viral megahit “F.N.F (Let’s Go).” Group-ups with rap heavyweights like Cardi B and Moneybagg Yo rapidly adopted, and fewer than a 12 months after her first main launch, she’s middle stage on the Grammys.