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Grammys Celebrate 50 Years of Hip-Hop With Epic Tribute
Hip-hop hooray.
Hip-hop turned 50 and received a star-studded salute at the 65th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday. Backed by The Roots, 33 rappers—from Grandmaster Flash to GloRilla—took the stage at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles to celebrate the milestone. The 10-minute retrospective kicked off with an introduction from LL Cool J and Black Thought before Grandmaster Flash performed “The Message.”
Run-DMC brought it back with “King of Rock,” followed by Salt-N-Pepa and DJ Spinderella with “R U Ready.” The legendary lineup continued with Rakim, Public Enemy, Scarface, Ice-T, and Queen Latifah, who performed “U.N.I.T.Y.”
JAY-Z rapped along from his seat as Method Man performed “Wu-Tang Clan.” Busta Rhymes had the crowd hype with “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See” and his spitfire verse from Chris Brown’s “Look at Me Now,” while Missy Elliott shook the stage with “Lose Control.”
They were followed by Nelly, Too $hort, and The Lox, as well as today’s hitmakers including Lil Baby and GloRilla, who had the audience on its feet with “F.N.F. (Let’s Go).”
Lil Uzi Vert brought everyone together for the epic finale, soundtracked by his anthem “Just Wanna Rock.”
Watch the history-making performance below.
Wow, shout out the genius Questlove’s direction. #Grammys2023’s celebration performance of 50 years of hip hop with so many legends part one… amazing pic.twitter.com/9OoOfzWGtC
— heysocialmedia (@zamnzapitalism) February 6, 2023