With the newly announced Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nominees, rapper Q-Tip says that hip-hop is to thank for the state of music.
Q-Tip’s group, A Tribe Called Quest, is among the rap acts nominated this year. Q-Tip says he spoke with LL Cool J, who was inducted last year, about the impact that Tribe had on music and how they helped shift the culture.
“We played in front of more rock audiences than rap audiences,” Tip recalled telling LL. A Tribe Called Quest toured with Green Day, Smashing Pumpkins, Hole, and Beastie Boys, which helped bring hip-hop in front of a predominantly white audience.
“I feel like the story of music and music’s evolution can’t happen without hip-hop artists,” he added.
The “Bonita Applebum” star says that with the recent inductions of hip-hop stars such as Biggie, 2 Pac, and Jay-Z, the idea of rock and roll has evolved.
“The synonymous instrument with rock is the guitar, and the face of rock and roll is the white male face. As innovation goes on, one of the ideas of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is to praise innovation,” he said before adding, “the root of rock and roll was Black faces.”
He also referenced Chuck Berry, Sam Cooke, James Brown, and Ray Charles, who were inducted, as examples of the prominent Black acts who successfully shaped rock and roll.
