2023 Grammy Awards to Celebrate 50 Years of Hip-Hop With Star-Studded Segment

The 65th Annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 5, will include a star-studded segment celebrating the 50th anniversary of hip-hop. It will include performances by Big Boi, Busta Rhymes with Spliff Star, De La Soul, DJ Drama, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Missy Elliott, Future, GloRilla, Grandmaster Flash, Grandmaster Mele Mel & Scorpio/Ethiopian King, Ice-T, Lil Baby, Lil Wayne, The Lox, Method Man, Nelly, Public Enemy, Queen Latifah, Rahiem, Rakim, RUN-DMC, Salt-N-Pepa and Spinderella, Scarface, Swizz Beatz and Too $hort.

LL Cool J will introduce the segment, perform and give a dedication to hip-hop. Questlove will serve as producer and musical director, The Roots will provide music and Black Thought will narrate.

LL Cool J won two Grammys in rap categories in the 1990s for “Mama Said Knock You Out” and “Hey Lover.” He hosted the Grammy telecast for five consecutive years from 2012 to 2016. Questlove is a six-time Grammy winner, including three awards with The Roots. He won both a Grammy and an Oscar last year for his music documentary Summer of Soul. Black Thought has won two Grammys – one with The Roots and one for best musical theater album for his contribution to Hamilton.

The segment is being produced by Questlove, Jesse Collins, Patrick Menton of Fulwell 73, creative producer Fatima Robinson, and Shawn Gee, Questlove’s manager and president of LNU.

“For five decades, hip-hop has not only been a defining force in music, but a major influence on our culture,” Harvey Mason Jr., CEO of the Recording Academy, said in a statement. “Its contributions to art, fashion, sport, politics, and society cannot be overstated. I’m so proud that we are honoring it in such a spectacular way on the Grammy stage. It is just the beginning of our yearlong celebration of this essential genre of music.”

The Grammys will also honor hip-hop with one of three breakout performances in this year’s In Memoriam segment.

On Wednesday (Feb. 1), the Academy announced that the In Memoriam segment at the 2023 Grammy Awards will include breakout tributes to three diverse artists who died last fall — Loretta Lynn, Christine McVie and Quavo.

Kacey Musgraves will perform Lynn’s 1970 classic “Coal Miner’s Daughter” in tribute to the country legend, who died on Oct. 4 at age 90; Sheryl Crow, Mick Fleetwood and Bonnie Raitt will team to perform “Songbird” from Fleetwood Mac’s album of the year-winning Rumours to honor McVie, who died on Nov. 30 at age 79; and Maverick City Music will join Quavo for Quavo’s sentimental ballad “Without You” to honor Takeoff, who died on Nov. 1 at just 28.

Also, Cardi B, who four years ago became the first female solo artist to win a Grammy for best rap album, will serve as a presenter on the show.

And the Grammys aren’t done celebrating hip-hop’s anniversary. In partnership with the Recording Academy, CBS will broadcast a special hip-hop music event later in 2023.

The 65th Annual Grammy Awards will air live from Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles and will be hosted for the third year in a row by Emmy-winning comedian Trevor Noah. The show will be broadcast live on Sunday, Feb. 5, at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on CBS and will be available to stream live and on demand on Paramount+.

The Recording Academy made its first performers announcement on Wednesday (Jan. 25), revealing that Lizzo, Bad Bunny, Mary J. Blige, Carlile, Luke Combs, Steve Lacy, and Sam Smith and Kim Petras would take the stage. Harry Styles was announced as an addition to the lineup on Sunday (Jan. 29) during the fourth quarter of the AFC Championship game. The game aired on CBS, the Grammys’ network since 1973.

With LL Cool J’s participation in the show, three past Grammy hosts will be on board. Billy Crystal, who hosted the show from 1987 to 1989, and James Corden, who hosted in 2017-18, are set as presenters.

The 65th Annual Grammy Awards are produced by Fulwell 73 Productions for the Recording Academy. Raj Kapoor serves as showrunner and executive producer, alongside Ben Winston and Jesse Collins as executive producers. Phil Heyes joins the team for the first time as director. Eric Cook is co-executive producer with Tabitha Dumo, Tiana Gandelman, Patrick Menton and David Wild as producers.

Prior to the telecast, the Grammy Awards Premiere Ceremony will be broadcast live from the Microsoft Theater at 12:30 p.m. PT and will be streamed live on live.Grammy.com. Randy Rainbow, a first-time Grammy nominee this year for best comedy album for A Little Brains, A Little Talent, is co-hosting the show. His co-host has yet to be named.

The all-star segment on Sunday’s Grammy Awards and the upcoming “event” on CBS are part of Paramount Global’s companywide initiative to honor the 50th anniversary of hip-hop. Paramount announced an extensive slate of new and returning content offerings and initiatives that celebrates the culture across the media and entertainment company’s portfolio of leading broadcast, cable, streaming and digital brands.