Why hip-hop belongs in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
N.W.A. is used to controversy.
After all, the hip-hop innovators — Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, MC Ren and DJ Yella — rocketed straight outta Compton, California, to superstardom in 1988, building the gangsta rap genre around protest anthems like “Express Yourself” and “[Expletive] tha Police,” which outlined the same use of excessive force against minorities that is being challenged today.
So it’s no surprise that N.W.A.’s inclusion in the 2016 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame class, set to be inducted in a ceremony at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Friday, April 8, is causing a ruckus.
After the inductees were announced, Kiss’ Gene Simmons, a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer himself, snarkily tweeted, “I’m all for NWA in ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME. . . . Hey, when is LED ZEP induction in HIP HOP HALL OF FAME???” It’s a continuation of comments that Simmons unveiled in 2014, saying, “You’ve got Grandmaster Flash in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Run-D.M.C. in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? You’re killing me. That doesn’t mean those aren’t good artists. But they don’t play guitar. They sample and they talk. Not even sing.”
It’s weird, though. You’d think Simmons, of all people, would see the connection between those claiming Elvis Presley’s hips and The Beatles’ moptops and Kiss’ outrageous stage antics were destroying America and those making similar claims about N.W.A.’s music.
That’s the way the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame sees it. “In some ways, it’s surprising that this generated so much controversy in the first place,” says Jason Hanley, vice president of education and visitor engagement at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland. “It’s not just rhythm and blues meets country in Memphis and rock and roll is born. . . . We have early influences from jazz, from gospel, from bluegrass and blues and all of those things. Just the way that we look at those many styles coming into the birth of rock and roll, we also look at the many ways that that moment broadens out into so many different musical styles that are under the umbrella of rock and roll. There’s already funk and soul and psychedelic rock and, in many ways, hip-hop is part of that story.”
Hanley, a native of Holbrook, says that the Rock Hall has inducted hip-hop acts that have told that genre’s growth well. “You started with Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five and that’s about as close as you’re going to get to the beginning,” he says. “Then you inducted some of the incredible second-generation hip-hop artists from the Beastie Boys to Run-DMC to Public Enemy. And now with N.W.A., you’re seeing the next important part of that story — the part of hip-hop that seems the most connected to the path of rock and roll. N.W.A. is a rebellious band. They’re a band that was filled with controversy when they came out. They were a group that blew away a lot of people’s preconceptions about what hip-hop was or could be. . . . It made it feel dangerous again in many ways.”
For its part, N.W.A. isn’t really focused on controversy anymore. Ice Cube is known more as an actor these days, even though he still raps. Dr. Dre is as much the tech tycoon behind Beats headphones as he is the in-demand producer who launched Eminem. MC Ren has more or less retired, according to his collaborator Paris, though he has worked with Paris and Public Enemy in recent years. And DJ Yella, after a stint as a porn director, is back to DJing full time again. Eazy-E died from complications related to AIDS in 1995.
Ice Cube says N.W.A. plans to reunite at Barclays Center, marking the first time the surviving members will perform together in 26 years. (Could Kendrick Lamar, who will induct the group into the Rock Hall, fill in for Eazy-E? Maybe Snoop Dogg?) And it’s possible the group may also perform together at Coachella.
And Cube says he is honored by the induction into the Rock Hall and isn’t questioning whether N.W.A. belongs at all.
“Rap is a piece of rock & roll, but there’s also a piece of soul, a piece of R&B, a piece of blues — all of that music that comes before it,” he told Rolling Stone. “I think rap captures the spirit of rock and roll just like rappers and guys who do rock and roll capture the same spirit. They might go in different directions with it, but it’s the same spirit.”
The rest of the class
Aside from N.W.A., who first became eligible in 2012, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee class of 2016 — including songwriter-producer Bert Berns, best known for writing “Piece of My Heart,” which became a Janis Joplin classic — is filled with musicians who have been waiting many years for the honor. Here’s a look at the inductees and a surprising amount of controversy that goes with them:
CHEAP TRICK
BEST KNOWN FOR A breakthrough in 1979 with “Live at Budokan,” one of the biggest live albums in rock history, and the hit “I Want You to Want Me,” which benefitted from the directness and the adrenaline rush that comes in concert.
CONTROVERSY Drummer Bun E. Carlos left the band in 2010 after fighting with singer Robin Zander and then sued over distribution of earnings. It’s not clear whether the other original members will allow Carlos to perform with them, according to Rolling Stone.
BIGGEST HIT “The Flame” (1988, No. 1, 2 weeks)
INDUCTED BY Kid Rock
CHICAGO
BEST KNOWN FOR Two distinct, successful halves of a career — the horn-filled, ambitious mix of jazz, pop and rock in the ’70s marked with “25 or 6 to 4” and the ballad-heavy, adult pop of the ’80s with “Hard to Say I’m Sorry.”
CONTROVERSY Peter Cetera, who sang many of the band’s biggest hits and went solo in 1985, says on his website that his ideas for performing at the induction were rejected and that he didn’t want to “reintroduce the same negativity” into his life. He will not participate in the induction.
BIGGEST HIT “If You Leave Me Now” (1976, No. 1, 2 weeks)
INDUCTED BY Rob Thomas
DEEP PURPLE
BEST KNOWN FOR Laying the foundation for heavy metal and hard rock with thunderous, guitar-driven classics like “Smoke on the Water.”
CONTROVERSY The current incarnation of Deep Purple — including singer Ian Gillan, bassist Roger Glover and drummer Ian Paice — decided that they would perform at the ceremony, meaning previous members, including guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, who lives in Port Jefferson, and singer David Coverdale, would be out. Blackmore announced he would not attend the induction.
BIGGEST HIT “Smoke on the Water” (1973, No. 4)
INDUCTED BY Metallica’s Lars Ulrich
STEVE MILLER
BEST KNOWN FOR Sharpening the Bay Area rock sound and a bit of blues into a hit-making machine in the late ’70s from “Rock’n Me” to “Fly Like an Eagle”
CONTROVERSY None really, other than people realizing that Miller is really the only member of the Steve Miller Band.
BIGGEST HIT “Abracadabra” (1982, No. 1, 1 week)
INDUCTED BY Black Keys
— GLENN GAMBOA
WHO Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony
WHEN | WHERE 7 p.m. Friday, April 8, Barclays Center, Brooklyn. (HBO will air an edited version of the ceremony April 30.)
INFO $55.50-$505.50; 800-745-3000, ticketmaster.com
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