Questlove Explains Rappers Not In Hip-Hop Tribute

At the Grammys last night (February 5), the Recording Academy paid tribute to 50 years of hip-hop history with a 10-minute, all-star performance from a number of the most important rappers ever. With anything of this sort that attempts to be all-encompassing, though, some people are bound to be upset. It’s impossible to include every rapper, and as for why some didn’t make the cut, Questlove, who put the whole thing together, offered a lengthy explanation.

He began by generally breaking it down on Twitter today, tweeting, “general ?s answered about last night: (some are asking if we are playing erasure games so uh….yeah I don’t play that so—in answering the questions of ‘why wasn’t dada there?) 1. already booked 2. declined our offer straight up 3. or a third option im not gonna get into.”

He then teased a bigger endeavor in this realm coming up: “or we made a decision to wait for the 2 hour August taping.”

After going into more depth, he addressed questions some Twitter users had. One person asked, “Why was there no representation of talent from the 2010’s,” and Questlove replied, “because they said ‘no’, or they walked out.” Another said, “I’m sure there were all types of circumstances, but Ice-T as the Only LA representative, in Staples Center, in Los Angeles… is WILD!! Great performance otherwise.” Questlove answered, “welp: I asked like 10 legends so….sometimes you gotta go with the one who wants you. again might not be your preference but most of hip hop has side gigs. Acting was the main issue. lotta movies being shot.”

Meanwhile, in an interview, he explained Will Smith’s absence specifically, saying, “They started shooting Bad Boys 4 this week, so he couldn’t make rehearsals. He wanted to do it.”

Find Questlove’s original thread below.

“general ?s answered about last night: (some are asking if we are playing erasure games so uh….yeah I don’t play that so—in answering the questions of ‘why wasn’t dada there?)

1. already booked
2. declined our offer straight up
3. or a third option im not gonna get into

or we made a decision to wait for the 2 hour August taping

—we decided to eschew those who passed away, & give flowers to the living —for starters I learned with VH1 Honors not all rappers are good MCs and bad karaoke is a danger slope. And WAY too many legends passed so someone’s estate was gonna be heated.

this went through a crazy evolution. all my suggestions were 20 min presentations with Breakbeats/Graf Legends/Dancers/DJ/Beatboxers—-you’ll be shocked how fast 25-40 secs goes by and you don’t even get the halfway mark of 1995l remember 1973 to 2023 was the goal

we were aware of playing our biases out (if it were me alone? idda just skewered to my teenyears). at one point I said ‘we should do ALL women!!’ —that idea didn’t get too …..far (we didnt have time to do a ‘Some Kind Of Monster’/Kumbya thing to make that a reality)

& this is NOT leading to a tired narrative that women don’t get along because there MORE concerns on the men side of things too (happiest moment seeing LL & Ice T just chillin—)—but yeah the most asked question was ‘who all gone be there?’ which is understandable.

we had a criteria we wanted to follow: alive? harmonizing? turntablism? fighting shape? NYC? LA? BAY? ATL? NAWLINS? HOUSTON? MIDWEST? born before 1960? born after 1995? Superlyrical? Stylistic? Original? generally known by at least 2 generations?

now granted they might not be your favorite (and there were 2 crucial 11th hour (more like 10 mins before taping) cancellations that mighta made it look like we were biased in our choices. but just understand we literally tried to SQUEEEEEEEZE everyone in.”