Hip-hop hooray: Questlove continues quest to celebrate hip-hop history in new concert special
A night celebrating music, history and excellence in the industry, “A Grammy Salute to 50 Years of Hiphop” airs Sunday, Dec. 10, on CBS, simultaneously available to stream on Paramount+.
Presented by The Recording Academy, Jesse Collins Entertainment and CBS, this live concert special looks back on five decades of hip-hop history, saluting genre giants in an event that took place Wednesday, Nov. 8, at the Youtube Theater at Hollywood Park in Inglewood, California.
The two-hour tribute special will feature performances from legends of the genre and Grammy-winning artists, including: LL Cool J (“Bigger and Deffer,” 1987), Queen Latifah (“All Hail the Queen,” 1989), De La Soul (“De La Soul Is Dead,” 1991), Jermaine Dupri (“Life in 1472,” 1998), Black Thought (“Streams of Thought, Vol. 1,” 2018), Common (“BE,” 2005), Three 6 Mafia (“Mystic Stylez,” 1995), 2 Chainz (“Based on a T.R.U. Story,” 2012), Glorilla (“Anyways, Life’s Great,” 2022), Arrested Development (“Don’t Fight Your Demons,” 2020), Too $hort (“Blow the Whistle,” 2006), Roxanne Shante (“Bad Sister,” 1989), Black Sheep (“A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing,” 1991) and Questlove (“Phrenology,” 2002), among others.
According to Billboard magazine, “two of these acts made hip-hop history. In 1993, Arrested Development became the first hip-hop act to win the Grammy for best new artist. In 2006, Three 6 Mafia became the first hiphop act to perform a nominated song on the Academy Awards telecast. ‘It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp’ [by Three 6 Mafia] went on to win the Oscar.”
Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson of Two One Five Entertainment and LL Cool J will also serve as executive producers of the special. Questlove previously helped to produce the recent ‘50 Years of Hip-hop’ segment during the 65th annual Grammy Awards (which aired Feb. 5 of this year), during which he presented a 15-minute spot featuring three dozen rap acts. This “kicked off a year of hip-hop celebrations [highlighting] the importance and dominance of the genre,” Billboard explains, as Aug. 11, 2023, marks the exact 50th anniversary of a backto-school party held in The Bronx that many point to as the spark that ignited the hip-hop culture we know today.
An event “celebrating the profound history and monumental cultural impact that hip-hop has made around the world” (Grammy.com), “A Grammy Salute to 50 Years of Hip-hop” airs Sunday, Dec. 10, on CBS, also available to stream on Paramount+.