Hip-hop’s 50 Year Anniversary

The Hip-hop Corner #1

Left to right, Busta Rhymes, Flava Flav, LL Cool J and more represent hip-hop’s 50 year anniversary with an amazing perfomance at the 2023 Grammy Awards show.

by MADHATTER

50 years of Hip-hop – The Grammy’s tribute and why its important

Hip-hop and the Grammys have not always had a “love” relationship. It took the Grammys over 10 years to recognize hiphop music as a legitimate art form. In 1989 the first Grammy award for hip-hop was given to DJ jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince for their commercially successful and culturally acceptable hit song “Parents just don’t understand”. The fact that the Grammy’s did not give Hip-hop music a platform until a charismatic, attractive, young rapper who did not use profanity in his raps emerged is an indication of something systemic, but we will talk about that another day. Even though Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince took home the music industry’s most coveted award, they protested and did not appear to receive it. Multiple members of the hip-hop elite had also decided to protest the Grammys in solidarity because the Grammys were not giving the “Best Rap Performance” air time on television. The ironic thing is Hip-hop will eventually be a part of everything that the Grammys will do from that day forward; visually and musically.

Queen Latifah rocking the mic at the 2023 Grammy Awards.

Well, today hip-hop is a multi-billion-dollar industry that has influenced almost every genre of music, worldwide. Hiphop style, culture, slang, and creative fundamentals have found their way into all aspects of American music. From Jazz to country music, hip-hop’s influence can be heard and seen as it has changed the landscape of music. Hip-hop culture has now become synonymous with American culture, placing hiphop more aligned with Americans than Country Music or Rock.

Over the last 34 years, the Grammy’s have continued to disrespect an art form that is, in its creation, born of American spirit and perseverance. Instead of embracing, promoting, and supporting the most influential product the United States has ever created and exported, they continued to shun multi-platinum artists such as DMX, The Notorious B.I.G, N.W.A, Ice Cube, Public Enemy, A Tribe Called Quest, MC Lyte, and RUN DMC. Some of these artists were nominated, but all of these artists fell short of taking home music’s most wanted honor.

As the years passed and hip-hop continued to gain popularity worldwide, mainstream media and corporations were forced to recognize its power to influence. With this explosion in popularity, the Grammys began including hip-hop more visibly and added more awards, nine in total. But even when the Grammys takes a step forward for hip-hop it takes a leap backward. In 2014 rap group Macklemore & Ryan Lewis took home the Grammy for their album “The Heist” over Kendrick Lamar’s “Good Kid: M.A.A.D City” Kendrick Lamar is now a “Pulitzer Prize” winner and has gone on has won 160 awards from 399 nominations, including 13 Grammy Awards.

It’s been a long rocky road between hip/ hop and the Grammys, but this article is focused on the positive. This article is focused on the amazing performance that took center stage at the 2023 Grammy awards. A performance that highlighted the 50-year history of an art form that has been underappreciated since its creation. The performance was incredible and made sure to showcase hip-hop artists that made major impacts in Hip-hops’ rise to global dominance. From the old school to the new, the Grammys represented Hip-hop music for thirteen-plus minutes and represented it well.

Questlove, the drummer from the iconic rap band “The Roots”, was tasked with the extremely difficult assignment of putting together the 50-year tribute. His Quest, no pun intended LOL was to represent hip-hop historically, culturally, locality, and respectfully and, in my opinion, he did just that. Questlove approached the tribute performance from the point of view of a true fan, enlisting artists and choosing songs that were more geared towards the “hip-hop head” without alienating the average contemporary listener. Instead of “Push it” Salt-N-Pepa’s biggest hit, they sang “My Mic Sounds Nice”, instead of “Walk this Way” RunDMC’s most recognizable hit, they busted out with “King Of Rock”. The whole performance was delightful and could be enjoyed by everyone from Gen X to Gen Z.

What was most important, in my opinion, was the representation of key influential artists and localities. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five opened the show and rightly so. They are credited with being one of the most impactful rap groups of all time, with their groundbreaking rhymes and development of what is today known as turntablism. Their vinyl records and Flashes turntables are archived in the Smithsonian National Museum of American history. Grandmaster Flash is the pioneer of what became the standard in today’s DJ culture, without his ingenuity and creativity we may not have what we know as Hip-hop music today. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five are a highly honored group in the history of hip-hop music and were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 2007.

Rakim take the stage and represent his peers that some regard as the G.O.A.T (Greatest of all time) of lyricism and delivery, at least I know I do. A writer for Rolling Stone Magazine called Rakim’s album “Don’t Sweat the Technique”, “Ice-grilled, laid-back, diamond-sharp: Rakim is a front-runner in the race for Best Rapper Ever, and this album is a big reason why.” Rolling Stone Magazine. Rakim has always garnered respect amongst his peers and seeing him on the Grammy stage representing Hip-hop’s 50th anniversary was incredible to witness.

As the performance moved into its second act, De La Soul the Grammy award-winning groundbreaking hiphop group was representing the DAISY age with a classic hip-hop song called “Buddy”. Sadly, one member was missing from the performance and passed away a few days later. R.I.P Trugoy. Scarface from the Geto Boys and Ice-T represented the gangsta era of hip-hop, thankfully it was not the focal point of the night as Hip-hop is not at all represented by its most negative form. Method Man represented the Wu-tang legacy, Big Boi represented the South and Outkast’s contribution to the celebrated music, while Busta Rhyme ripped the stage with an incredible show of breath controls and his patented quick rhyme flow.

90s and 2000s very well as The Lox served as a Rough Rider / Bad Boy Record duel representation. My favorite moment of the whole night was when the Bay Area, CA representative took the stage and, rightly so, it was Too Short. Too Short, who has been a trailblazer for west coast hip-hop since the mid-1980s, is still active in today’s hip-hop seen as a solo artist and a member of the West Coast super group, “Mount Westmore”.

In the first segment of the performance Run DMC and LL Cool J rocked the stage with their pioneering hits, as well as DJ Jazzy Jeff, Salt-N-Pepa, and Public Enemy. All of them deserve their own articles for their contribution to Hip-hop, and I will most likely tackle that at a later date. But, as a hip-hop fanatic, it was seeing

The second portion of the show was undoubtedly taken over by two of the dopest ladies in Hip-hop, Missy Elliot and Queen Latifah. Together these two women have done more for the furtherance of Hip-hop than any of the men that shared that second act. Both Missy and Queen Latifah are recipients of Grammy awards and are both highly influential in the movement for female empowerment laid-back, diamond-sharp: Rakim is a front-runner in the race for Best Rapper Ever, and this album is a big reason why.” Rolling Stone Magazine. Rakim has always garnered respect amongst his peers and seeing him on the Grammy stage representing Hiphop’s 50th anniversary was incredible to witness.

The third chapter of the Grammys Hiphop 50th anniversary tribute was dedicated to the new generation of Hip-hop. Nelly and Swizz Beats represented the

Too Short is most notably the pioneer of the independent record label movement of the 1990s. E-40, Master P, Cash Money, and many others all owe their successes to the ingenuity of Too Short to sell his records out of the trunk of his car. This independent hand-to-hand record sales movement made it possible for Hip-hop to break free of Major Label control and created a new generation of multi-million dollar black and Latino entrepreneurs.

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five “The Message” album cover released Oct 3rd, 1982

The show’s final act was paying respect to the new generation of rappers and hip-hop artists as the Grammys gave Lil Baby a moment to shine with a dope freestyle of one of his most popular songs. Glorilla who is arguably the hottest female rapper out today closed the performance with her smash hit single, F.N.F (Lets go).

The Grammys 50th anniversary Hip-hop tribute performance closed with all the artists taking the stage to signify solidarity among generations of hip-hop artists and fans. This gesture of unity among Hip-hop artists, old and new, is a welcomed sight as the two generations have had some recent issues lately with the newer younger artist disrespecting the legacy of pioneering older rappers. I digress, but that topic will be addressed in the future. Although the Grammys have had their history of dissing Hip-hop consistently over decades, they did Hip-hop justice by highlighting five decades of amazingly talented artist both old and new.