JAY-Z once attempted to have the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame rebranded to reflect Hip Hop’s cultural and commercial impact, according to the organization’s top boss.
John Sykes, the chairman of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, made the revelation in an interview with Vulture.
Asked about the broad definition of rock and roll as a musical genre, Sykes said: “The best story to convey this was when a great friend of mine, JAY-Z, got inducted a few years ago. I was so excited. But he told me, ‘Rock is dead. It should be called the Hip Hop Hall of Fame.’ And I said, ‘Well, Hip Hop is rock and roll.’
“He goes, ‘No, it isn’t.’ And I said, ‘We’ve got to do a better job explaining it. Little Richard, Otis Redding, Chuck Berry — these artists were the cornerstones of rock and roll. If you look at the sounds over the years, those artists ended up influencing Hip Hop.'”
Sykes continued: “JAY-Z hemmed and hawed, but he showed up to the ceremony. That made me feel like we had done our job to communicate that rock and roll is open to all.”
JAY-Z was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2021 alongside fellow rap legend LL Cool J.
During his acceptance speech, the Roc Nation mogul said: “It’s an incredible honor. Growing up, we ain’t think we could be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. We were told that Hip Hop was a fad. And much like punk rock, it gave us this anti-culture, this subgenre, and there were heroes in it.”
He then paid tribute to those who paved the way for him: “Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, KRS-One, Chuck D and, of course, a fellow inductee LL Cool J. I would watch these and they had big rope chains and leather and sometimes even the red, black and green medallions.
“Whatever they wore, everybody would wear it the next day. And I was like, ‘That’s what I want to do. I want to be like those guys.'”
Jay is one of 13 Hip Hop acts who have been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame alongside the likes of 2Pac, Eminem, Biggie, Run-DMC, N.W.A, Public Enemy, Missy Elliott and A Tribe Called Quest.
People worry and try to rebel against the most unimportant shit in the world
Hiphop is NOT rock n roll. And rock n roll isn’t dead at all. It isn’t the most widely consumed genre of music, and today’s rock is generally not rock n roll, but a sub genre of rock, kind of like how most “hiphop” today is a sub genre of pop hop. Why not just have a hiphop hall of fame separately? And rockstars are way cooler than hiphop stars. Hiphop stars are mostly lames. Rock legends had much more interesting lives. And I love hiphop music, but rock is something else.
Also, legacy rock acts can still sell albums and fill arenas, no matter how old they get. They can have fanbases for DECADES, while rap fans just move on to the next flavor of the month. But most important, they live longer
If there’s a beef, they beef different. There might be some public back and forth, but nobody dies senselessly over it.
@N/A this is no lie. I saw Wu in Vegas in March, the entire mid 5th row had 8 of about 20 people. No lie, security told us to spread out.
just have them separate makes sense doesn’t it
Watch all the hip hop fans push back against a win for hip hop because they’re JayZ haters. This dude literally out here fighting for black men getting out of jail and hip hop taking over NFL shows and yall poo poo him. Yall so used to fake that you pick fake over real. 50 cent wouldn’t do a gdamn thing for black folks but you like him cause he funny while he out here getting people indicted (for YEARS)