The Grammy's "Tribute To Hip Hop" Performance Might Have Been The Greatest Grammy Moment Ever
Grammy.com - On Jan. 31, six-time GRAMMY winner Questlove announced he is co-curating the Hip-Hop 50 tribute performance for the 2023 GRAMMYs.
The performance is part of an initiative to honor the 50th anniversary of hip-hop in partnership with Mass Appeal. The artist lineup will be announced in the coming days, but as Questlove hinted in his announcement, it will see "some of the biggest names from the genre coming together to celebrate hip-hop history — its past, its present, its future."
First off, Busta Rhymes. Holy shit man. Hasn't skipped a beat.
Secondly, this got announced earlier in the week, but honestly had zero idea that they were bringing out the names they brought out for this.
If you saw it live, you know what I'm talking about. It was like everybody from our childhood, and some pre-dating it, all rolled into one long medley performance. It was fucking incredible. Partly because of how out-of-nowhere it came tonight. And partly because of how the energy just continued to build the entire thing to the point it had you up out of your seat dancing in your living room singing along to every word.
Sugar Hill, Black Thought, Big Boi, Busta Rhymes, De La Soul, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Missy Elliott, Grandmaster Flash, Grandmaster Mele Mel & Scorpio, Ice-T, Method Man, Nelly, Public Enemy, LL Cool J, Queen Latifah, Rakim, RUN-DMC, Salt-N-Pepa, Too $hort, Jadakiss, Jazzy Jeff, are just some of the names who came out to perform.
It just kept building and building and building. It ramped up to the point where Jadakiss and the LOX were out there doing "We Gon Make It" (at the fucking Grammys!!!)
And then Lil Baby came out… and things went off a cliff.
It came to a screeching halt. But it was all good because up until that point I think it was the greatest thing I've ever seen on the Grammys.
The biggest jaw dropper of the night, by a mile was seeing Too $hort come out and performing "Blow The Whistle". No bullshit.
Tell me we're not in a simulation.
—-UPDATE—-
somebody finally uploaded the whole thing in good quality-
My ONLY criticisms on this, are that they skipped a good 10 year sequence in this. I mean, arguably the greatest 10 years if we're being honest. 2005-2015 basically. No Beastie Boys. No Biggie verse. No Pac. No Death Row period. No Kanye obviously but also no Dip Set, Cam ron, no DMX verse, no Eminem, no 50 Cent of G Unit. But Lil Baby?
And lastly, Andre 3000. Can you please just do the world a favor and rejoin Big Boi? For the love of God. Just a few songs. A short live performance would be unreal, but a couple new songs isn't asking much. The world needs it. Showing up tonight on stage for the ATLiens performance would have brought the fucking house down. Twitter would have crashed.
p.s. - of course DJ Khaled's obnoxious ass tried to insert himself into this tribute a dozen different times. Guy is the absolute fucking worst cornball.
p.s. - Mr. Meth is a suave mfer.
p.p.p.s. - can't lie. never crossed my mind, but i respect this take