With hip-hop’s official 50th birthday just months away, the 2023 Grammy Awards helped kick off the year-long festivities with the maximalist tribute performance encompassing (most of) the past 50 years of rap music.
Introduced by LL Cool J, curated by Questlove, and narrated by Black Thought, the performance started with foundational favorites like Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s “The Message” and zoomed through the ’80s, ’90s, and (some of) the 2000s. Along the way, a slew of hip-hop titans put in appearances, including De La Soul, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Ice-T, Method Man, Missy Elliott, Nelly, Run-DMC, Salt-N-Pepa, Too $hort, and more.
The performance was one of three hip-hop-focused performances for the night. The others were DJ Khaled and Jay-Z performing “God Did” and Quavo performing “Without You” in tribute to Takeoff during the In Memoriam segment.
You can see the full list of songs from the 50 Years Of Hip-Hop performance below.
Grandmaster Flash with Barshon, [Rahiem]], Melle Mel and Scorpio/Ethiopian King — “Flash to the Beat” & “The Message”
Run-DMC — “King of Rock”
LL Cool J — “I Can’t Live Without My Radio” & “Rock the Bells”
Rakim — “My Mic Sounds Nice” & “Eric B. Is President”
Chuck D and Flavor Flav — “Rebel Without a Pause”
De La Soul — “Buddy”
Scarface — “Mind Playing Tricks on Me”
Ice-T — “New Jack Hustler (Nino’s Theme)”
Queen Latifah — “U.N.I.T.Y.”
Method Man — “Method Man”
Big Boi — “ATLiens”
Busta Rhymes and Spliff Star — “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See” & “Look at Me Now”
Missy Elliott — “Lose Control”
Nelly and City Spud — “Hot in Herre”
Too $hort — “Blow the Whistle”
Swizz Beatz and The Lox — “We Gonna Make It”
Lil Baby — “Freestyle”
GloRilla — “F.N.F. (Let’s Go)”
Lil Uzi Vert — “Just Wanna Rock”
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. .
