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”
List of performers at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards
Artist(s) Song(s)
Bad Bunny “El Apagón”
“Después de la Playa”[14]
Brandi Carlile “Broken Horses”[14]
Stevie Wonder
WanMor
Smokey Robinson
Chris Stapleton Tribute to Berry Gordy and Smokey Robinson
“The Way You Do the Things You Do”
“The Tears of a Clown”
“Higher Ground”[14]
Lizzo “About Damn Time”
“Special”[14]
Harry Styles “As It Was”[14]
Kacey Musgraves
Quavo
Maverick City Music
Sheryl Crow
Mick Fleetwood
Bonnie Raitt In Memoriam
“Coal Miner’s Daughter”
(tribute to Loretta Lynn)
“Without You”
“See You Again”
(tribute to Takeoff)
“Songbird”
(tribute to Christine McVie)[14]
Sam Smith and Kim Petras “Unholy”[14]
Mary J. Blige “Good Morning Gorgeous”[14]
The Roots
Black Thought
Grandmaster Flash with Barshon, [Rahiem]], Melle Mel and Scorpio/Ethiopian King
Run-DMC
LL Cool J
DJ Jazzy Jeff
Salt-N-Pepa
Rakim
Chuck D and Flavor Flav
De La Soul
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. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.