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A Hip-Hop Celebration

GRAMMY Foundation's annual Music Preservation Project event to explore the evolution of hip-hop

GRAMMYs/Dec 3, 2014 - 05:06 am

The GRAMMY Foundation will host Word Revolution: A Celebration Of The Evolution Of Hip-Hop — the 13th Annual GRAMMY Foundation Music Preservation Project — on Thursday, Feb. 10 at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles. The event will feature live musical performances and historical footage from preservation archives.

Performers will include GRAMMY winners Arrested Development and Chrisette Michele; current GRAMMY nominee El DeBarge; 9th Wonder and Marsha Ambrosius; Beat Freaks from "America's Best Dance Crew"; DJ Beverly Bond; DJ Jazzy Jeff; Kid Capri; Lil' Mama; MC Lyte; A Tribe Called Quest's Phife Dawg; DJ Skee; and Recording Academy Texas Chapter President Paul Wall, among others. The evening's musical director will be producer/bassist Adam Blackstone.

Word Revolution: A Celebration Of The Evolution Of Hip-Hop will explore hip-hop as an art form, and celebrate the invaluable contributions of the genre and its influence on the American cultural landscape. Produced by the GRAMMY Foundation in conjunction with Centric, a BET Network, and sponsored in part by Classic Wines of California and Jackson Limousine, this GRAMMY Week celebration will promote the GRAMMY Foundation's mission of recognizing and preserving our musical past, so that future generations can continue to benefit from an appreciation and understanding of those contributions.

General admission tickets are $25 each. For tickets and information, click here or contact 866.811.4111.

The 53rd Annual GRAMMY Awards will take place live on Sunday, Feb. 13 at Staples Center in Los Angeles and will be broadcast in high definition and 5.1 surround sound on the CBS Television Network from 8–11:30 p.m. (ET/PT). The show also will be supported on radio worldwide via Westwood One, and covered online at GRAMMY.com and CBS.com, and on YouTube. For updates and breaking news, please visit The Recording Academy's social networks on Twitter and Facebook

 

GRAMMY.com’s 50th Anniversary Of Hip-Hop Coverage: A Recap
A tribute to the 50th anniversary of hip-hop at the 2023 GRAMMYs

Photo: Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

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GRAMMY.com’s 50th Anniversary Of Hip-Hop Coverage: A Recap

The Recording Academy’s celebration of hip-hop’s 50th anniversary included televised events and captivating interviews. Check out the wide range of articles and features produced by GRAMMY.com commemorating this musical milestone.

GRAMMYs/Dec 28, 2023 - 02:51 pm

When we look back at the Recording Academy’s 2023, the 50th anniversary of hip-hop will loom exceptionally large.

The ongoing celebration permeated every facet of the world’s leading society of music professionals this year, from the 65th Annual Awards Ceremony in February to the special airing of "A GRAMMY Salute To Hip-Hop" in December — a dense, thrillingly kaleidoscopic televised tribute to the breadth of this genre.

One major accompaniment to this was coverage of the genre’s legacy via GRAMMY.com, the editorial site run by the Recording Academy. If you haven’t been keeping up, we’ve got you covered. Here’s a highlight reel of the work GRAMMY.com published in honor of the 50th anniversary of hip-hop.

We Profiled Rising Stars

From Lola Brooke to Tkay Maidza, GRAMMY.com engaged in comprehensive in-depth interviews with artists who are at the forefront of shaping the future of hip-hop, and held a roundtable discussion about exactly what the next 50 years might look like. 

We Published Conversations With Legends

DJ Kool Herc and Questlove, who have played unquestionable roles in hip-hop’s continuing evolution, spoke to GRAMMY.com about their profound and abiding connections to the idiom.

The Contributions Of Women Were Highlighted

Without the inspired vision of countless women, hip-hop would not be what it is today. The "Ladies First" segment, which kicked off "A GRAMMY Salute To Hip-Hop" featuring Queen Latifah, Monie Love, and MC Lyte, among other lady greats with Spinderella as DJ, was an ode to this. 

In acknowledgment of female trailblazers in a world dominated by men, GRAMMY.com wrote about teen girl pioneers, women behind the scenes, a revealing Netflix doc, and women artists pushing the genre forward in 2023, from Ice Spice to Lil Simz.

We Revisted Hip-Hop’s Biggest Releases

From Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) to Jay-Z’s The Black Album to Cardi B’s Invasion of Privacy, GRAMMY.com dove deep into the core hip-hop canon. We also broke down the genre’s development decade by decade through the 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s, 10s, and 20s, with a focus on classic albums from each era.

Listen To GRAMMY.com's 50th Anniversary Of Hip-Hop Playlist: 50 Songs That Show The Genre's Evolution

We Criss-Crossed The Country

GRAMMY.com’s series of regional guides — from the Bay Area and SoCal, to Texas and the Dirty South, to D.C. and NYC highlight hip-hop’s diversity of culture and sound.

We Went International

Although hip-hop is a quintessentially American phenomenon, its impact, appeal, and influence has spread worldwide. The international appetite for hip-hop was showcased in coverage of Latinx and Argentinian rappers to know, as well as five international hip-hop scenes to know: France, Nigeria, Brazil, South Africa, and England.

We Explored Hip-Hop’s Larger Impact

Hip-hop is more than a sound. It’s a culture that permeates almost every sector of life. Showcasing this effervescence, GRAMMY.com ran pieces about the evolution of hip-hop’s influence on educational curriculum worldwide, as well as its biggest fashion and style moments.

We Covered On Stage Celebrations

"A GRAMMY Salute To 50 Years Of Hip-Hop," the two-hour special that aired in December on CBS and is available on demand on Paramount+ represented a culmination of the Recording Academy’s 50th year anniversary celebration.

Revisit the 2023 GRAMMYs’ hip-hop revue, and check out a recap of "A GRAMMY Salute" with photos, a rundown of all the performers and songs and coverage of the Black Music Collective’s Recording Academy honors in February.

It Didn’t Stop There…

Notable coverage also included the evolution of the mixtape, 11 Hip-Hop Subgenres to Know and 10 Binge-worthy Hip-Hop Podcasts, as well as a breakdown of Jay-Z’s Songbook and Snoop Dogg’s discography.

For everything GRAMMY.com and all things hip-hop — including our rap-focused run in the GRAMMY Rewind series — visit here.

2023 In Review: 5 Trends That Defined Hip-Hop

How DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince Created The Ultimate Prototype For The Producer/Rapper Duo
DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince performing at "A GRAMMY Salute To 50 Years Of Hip-Hop."

Photo: Sonja Flemming/CBS via Getty Images

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How DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince Created The Ultimate Prototype For The Producer/Rapper Duo

Ahead of their much-anticipated reunion on the CBS special "A GRAMMY Salute to 50 Years of Hip-Hop," take a look at the groundbreaking ways DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince bolstered the power of the hip-hop duo.

GRAMMYs/Dec 8, 2023 - 05:12 pm

There were plenty of rapper/DJ duos before DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince. Most notably, T La Rock & Jazzy Jay released the influential 1984 single "It's Yours," Def Jam's first release as a rap label run by Rick Rubin and Russell Simmons. There was Mantronix, consisting of MC Tee and producer Kurtis Mantronik, who had their first hit with "Fresh Is the Word" a year later. Well before that, '70s hip-hop pioneer Kool Herc was a DJ known for getting the party started with rhymer Coke La Rock.

But the Philadelphia duo of Jeffrey Townes and Will Smith went beyond their predecessors in several important ways, and set up a prototype of the rapper/DJ — or, as music-making techniques changed, rapper/producer — combination that would explode in the years following their success.

By the time Jeff and Will (and their third member, beatboxer Ready Rock C) released their first single in 1986, duos were a thing in pop music: Soft Cell, Erasure, Eurythmics. The prominence of musical pairs would continue to grow over the next few years, largely because of technology. 

As a 1987 Philadelphia Inquirer article headlined "Pop’s New Dynamic Duos" pointed out, "The electronic age has yielded not only a new kind of music, via synthesizers, sequencers, drum machines, digital audio computers, hardware and software, but it has also spawned a new kind of group: duos in which one [person] sings and the other pushes buttons."

This division of labor — one person on music and one on lyrics — worked perfectly in hip-hop, a genre that came out of parties where a DJ spun records and someone on a mic hyped up the crowd. But when it came to DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince, unlike some of their predecessors, it was clear they were a team: Not only were they co-billed, but the DJ's name came first. 

That's largely because Jeff was the virtuoso. While Will had the movie-star chemistry and funny stories, Jeff was the music obsessive and the innovative record-spinner who implemented new techniques — most notably, the robotic-sounding "transformer" scratch, which Will takes credit for naming in his 2021 memoir. 

And Jeff was the one who proved his hip-hop bona fides by defeating all comers and being crowned the best DJ in the land at the 1986 New Music Seminar. It's a scene that rightfully opens up the very first episode of Smith's new podcast, a good indication of exactly how important that battle was to Will, Jeff and the entire hip-hop world at the time. (You can listen to Jeff's winning routines here).

Explore More Of "A GRAMMY Salute to 50 Years of Hip-Hop"

Putting Jeff's name first in the pairing made sense in a number of ways: not only was he unimpeachably credentialed and respected, but the order itself was also a nod to the DJ's primacy in the origins of hip-hop, and in the group's home city of Philly. Whether all of those ideas were consciously considered in how they named themselves or not, they were all there in how the duo was considered.

The equality of members was emphasized from the very beginning in their music, too. Sure, their first single was the wacky, I Dream of Jeannie theme-quoting story-song "Girls Ain't Nothing But Trouble." But their second was a tribute to "The Magnificent Jazzy Jeff."

They kept that balance throughout their early career as a group. Their second album, He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper, had it throughout — in its title, and especially in its songs.

The record marked another pivotal moment for rap, as it was the genre's first double album. The first two sides had plenty of Will's stories ("Parents Just Don't Understand"; "A Nightmare on My Street"), but sides C and D — billed as a "Bonus Scratch Album" — belonged almost entirely to Jeff.

Whether it was Will and Jeff's success, the overall prominence of duos across genres, or just something in the water, within a few years of DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince getting their start, co-billed DJ/emcee duos were pretty much everywhere. There was Eric B & Rakim, whose first single came out the same year as Will and Jeff's, and Cash Money & Marvelous, who released their first single one year later. 

We also can't forget L.A.'s entry into the sweepstakes, Rodney-O & Joe Cooley, whose 1987 single "Everlasting Bass" was the city's pre-gangsta rap anthem. X-Clan compatriots Unique & Dashan came out in 1989 and, like Rodney-O and Cooley, billed the rapper first. DJ Chuck Chillout & Kool Chip had limited releases as a team — one single and one album to follow it up — but they made an impact regardless. By the dawn of the 1990s, the equally billed DJ/rapper duo was a hip-hop trope. 

It was a format that would morph over the years. First, into groups like Gang Starr, which consisted of a rapper and a DJ/producer subsumed under a single entity name. Later, into MF DOOM's album-length producer collaborations like Madvillainy (Madlib) and The Mouse and the Mask (Danger Mouse). And even today, into rapper/producer pairings like Drake and Noah "40" Shebib, 21 Savage and Metro Boomin, or The Alchemist and essentially everybody in the world

Without DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince, the world might not have paid so much attention to all of these efforts. If there's one thing that Jeff and Will showed us, it's that in rap music or anywhere else, there's real power in teamwork.

DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince will reunite as part of "A GRAMMY Salute To 50 Years Of Hip-Hop," which will air Sunday, Dec. 10, from 8:30 to 10:30 p.m. ET and 8 to 10 p.m. PT. Tune in on the CBS Television Network, and stream live and on demand on Paramount+.

DJ Jazzy Jeff And The Fresh Prince To Reunite Onstage At "A GRAMMY Salute To 50 Years Of Hip-Hop"
DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince in 2005

Photo: KMazur/WireImage via Getty Images

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DJ Jazzy Jeff And The Fresh Prince To Reunite Onstage At "A GRAMMY Salute To 50 Years Of Hip-Hop"

The famous duo will join previously announced performers, like LL Cool J, Queen Latifah, Common, Cypress Hill, E-40, and Latto, at "A GRAMMY Salute to 50 Years of Hip-Hop," airing Dec. 10 on CBS and Paramount+.

GRAMMYs/Nov 1, 2023 - 02:00 pm

This article was updated Sunday, Dec. 10, to add the full performer lineup.

Can you recite every word of the "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" theme song? If so, that's ever more of a reason to tune into "A GRAMMY Salute to 50 Years of Hip-Hop" — which goes down Wednesday, Nov. 8, at YouTube Theater in Inglewood, California, and airs Sunday, Dec. 10, at 8:30 p.m. ET/8 p.m. PT on CBS and Paramount+. Indeed, DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince are set to reunite at the star-studded event, in celebration of this quintessential American genre and global cultural phenomenon.

DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince will join previously announced performers Black Thought, Bun B, Common, De La Soul, Jermaine Dupri, J.J. Fad, Talib Kweli, The Lady Of Rage, LL COOL J, MC Sha-Rock, Monie Love, The Pharcyde, Queen Latifah, Questlove, Rakim, Remy Ma, Uncle Luke, and Yo-Yo.

Newly announced performers include rap icons and next-gen hip-hop superstars 2 Chainz, T.I., Gunna, Too $hort, Latto, E-40, Big Daddy Kane, GloRilla, Juvenile, Three 6 Mafia, Cypress Hill, Jeezy, DJ Quik, MC Lyte, Roxanne Shanté, Warren G, YG, Digable Planets, Arrested Development, Spinderella, Black Sheep, and Luniz. See the full performer lineup.

The concert will take place at YouTube Theater in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Nov. 8. Tickets are available to the public now. The tribute special will air Sunday, Dec. 10, at 8:30 p.m. ET/8 p.m. PT on the CBS Television Network and streaming live and on demand on Paramount+.

Explore More Of "A GRAMMY Salute to 50 Years of Hip-Hop"

Full concert details are below:

Concert:
Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2023
Doors: 6 p.m. PT
Concert: 7 p.m. PT          

Venue:
YouTube Theater
1011 Stadium Dr.
Inglewood, CA 90305

Full List Of Confirmed Performers For "A GRAMMY Salute To 50 Years Of Hip-Hop": 

2 Chainz

Akon

Arrested Development

Battlecat

Big Daddy Kane

Black Sheep

Black Thought

Blaqbonez

Boosie Badazz

Bun B

Chance The Rapper

Coi LeRay

Common

Cypress Hill

D-Nice

De La Soul

Digable Planets

DJ Diamond Kuts

DJ Greg Street

DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince

DJ Quik

DJ Trauma

Doug E. Fresh

E-40

GloRilla

Gunna

J.J. Fad

Jeezy

Jermaine Dupri

Kool DJ Red Alert

The Lady of Rage

Latto

LL Cool J

Luniz

MC Lyte

MC Sha-Rock

Monie Love

Mustard

Nelly

The Pharcyde

Public Enemy

Queen Latifah

Questlove

Rakim

Remy Ma

Rick Ross

Roddy Ricch

Roxanne Shanté

Spinderella

Styles P

T.I.

Talib Kweli

Three 6 Mafia

Too $hort

Tyga

Uncle Luke

Warren G

YG

Yo-Yo

^Names in bold indicate newly added artists.

Purchase tickets here.

Don't miss this one-of-a-kind monument to a world-shifting genre and culture — now with a dash of the one and only Fresh Prince!

Stay tuned to GRAMMY.com for more news and updates about "A GRAMMY Salute to 50 Years of Hip-Hop."

A GRAMMY Salute to 50 Years of Hip-Hop is produced by Jesse Collins Entertainment. Jesse Collins, Shawn Gee, Dionne Harmon, Claudine Joseph, LL COOL J, Fatima Robinson, Jeannae Rouzan-Clay, and Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson for Two One Five Entertainment serve as executive producers and Marcelo Gama as director of the special.

Hip-Hop Just Rang In 50 Years As A Genre. What Will Its Next 50 Years Look Like?

Additional Performers Added To "A GRAMMY Salute to 50 Years of Hip-Hop" Live Concert Special: 2 Chainz, T.I., Gunna, Too $hort, Latto, E-40, Big Daddy Kane, GloRilla, Three 6 Mafia & More Confirmed
“A GRAMMY Salute to 50 Years of Hip-Hop” airs Sunday, Dec. 10, at 8:30 – 10:30 p.m. ET/PT on the CBS Television Network and streams live and on demand on Paramount+

Image courtesy of the Recording Academy

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Additional Performers Added To "A GRAMMY Salute to 50 Years of Hip-Hop" Live Concert Special: 2 Chainz, T.I., Gunna, Too $hort, Latto, E-40, Big Daddy Kane, GloRilla, Three 6 Mafia & More Confirmed

The star-studded tribute will take place Wednesday, Nov. 8, at YouTube Theater at Hollywood Park in Inglewood, California. Tickets are on sale now. "A GRAMMY Salute to 50 Years of Hip-Hop" will air on Sunday, Dec. 10, on CBS and Paramount+.

GRAMMYs/Oct 27, 2023 - 01:59 pm

This article was updated Sunday, Dec. 10, to add the full performer lineup.

The massive lineup for the "A GRAMMY Salute to 50 Years of Hip-Hop" live concert special just got bigger and more legendary with the addition of rap icons and next-gen hip-hop superstars: 2 Chainz, T.I., Gunna, Too $hort, Latto, E-40, Big Daddy Kane, GloRilla, Juvenile, Three 6 Mafia, Cypress Hill, Jeezy, DJ Quik, MC Lyte, Roxanne Shanté, Warren G, YG, Digable Planets, Arrested Development, Spinderella, Black Sheep, and Luniz have all been added to the lineup.

They join previously announced performers Black Thought, Bun B, Common, De La Soul, Jermaine Dupri, J.J. Fad, Talib Kweli, The Lady Of Rage, LL COOL J, MC Sha-Rock, Monie Love, The Pharcyde, Queen Latifah, Questlove, Rakim, Remy Ma, Uncle Luke, and Yo-Yo, who will perform at a once-in-a-lifetime live concert special celebrating the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, which the Recording Academy is honoring all year long across 2023. See the full performer lineup.

Read More: 50 Artists Who Changed Rap: Jay-Z, The Notorious B.I.G., Dr. Dre, Nicki Minaj, Kendrick Lamar, Eminem & More

Airing Sunday, Dec. 10, at 8:30 p.m. ET/8 p.m. PT on the CBS Television Network and streaming live and on demand on Paramount+, "A GRAMMY Salute to 50 Years of Hip-Hop" is a two-hour live concert special that will showcase the profound history of hip-hop and celebrate the genre's monumental cultural impact around the world. The special will feature exclusive performances from hip-hop legends and GRAMMY-winning artists and much more.

The live concert comprising the "A GRAMMY Salute To 50 Years Of Hip-Hop" special, which is open to the public, will take place on Wednesday, Nov. 8, at YouTube Theater at Hollywood Park in Inglewood, California. Footage from the concert will then air on Sunday, Dec. 10, as a live concert TV special.

Tickets for the "A GRAMMY Salute To 50 Years Of Hip-Hop" live concert are available to the public now.

Explore More Of "A GRAMMY Salute to 50 Years of Hip-Hop"

Full concert details are below:

Concert:
Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2023 (tonight)
Doors: 6 p.m. PT
Concert: 7 p.m. PT          

Venue:
YouTube Theater
1011 Stadium Dr.
Inglewood, CA 90305

Full List Of Confirmed Performers For "A GRAMMY Salute To 50 Years Of Hip-Hop": 

2 Chainz

Akon

Arrested Development

Battlecat

Big Daddy Kane

Black Sheep

Black Thought

Blaqbonez

Boosie Badazz

Bun B

Chance The Rapper

Coi LeRay

Common

Cypress Hill

D-Nice

De La Soul

Digable Planets

DJ Diamond Kuts

DJ Greg Street

DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince

DJ Quik

DJ Trauma

Doug E. Fresh

E-40

GloRilla

Gunna

J.J. Fad

Jeezy

Jermaine Dupri

Kool DJ Red Alert

The Lady of Rage

Latto

LL Cool J

Luniz

MC Lyte

MC Sha-Rock

Monie Love

Mustard

Nelly

The Pharcyde

Public Enemy

Queen Latifah

Questlove

Rakim

Remy Ma

Rick Ross

Roddy Ricch

Roxanne Shanté

Spinderella

Styles P

T.I.

Talib Kweli

Three 6 Mafia

Too $hort

Tyga

Uncle Luke

Warren G

YG

Yo-Yo

^Names in bold indicate newly added artists.

Purchase tickets here.

Stay tuned to GRAMMY.com for more news and updates about "A GRAMMY Salute to 50 Years of Hip-Hop."

A GRAMMY Salute to 50 Years of Hip-Hop is produced by Jesse Collins Entertainment. Jesse Collins, Shawn Gee, Dionne Harmon, Claudine Joseph, LL COOL J, Fatima Robinson, Jeannae Rouzan-Clay, and Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson for Two One Five Entertainment serve as executive producers and Marcelo Gama as director of the special.

Hip-Hop Just Rang In 50 Years As A Genre. What Will Its Next 50 Years Look Like?