Questlove on why Will Smith wasn’t in the 2023 Grammys’ hip-hop tribute
Questlove has explained why Will Smith didn’t appear in the hip-hop medley at last night’s Grammy Awards.
The musician helped to curate the performance, which celebrated the 50th anniversary of hip-hop’s beginnings and brought together some of the genre’s biggest names. Missy Elliott, Future and GloRilla were among the performers, alongside the likes of De La Soul, Lil Wayne, Public Enemy, Run-DMC and Salt-N-Pepa.
The performance featured snippets of numerous iconic songs, from the genre’s early days to now, and was introduced by LL Cool J, while Black Thought served as the narrator. Among the performances were Run-DMC’s ‘King Of Rock’, LL Cool J’s ‘Rock The Bells’, Queen Latifah’s ‘U.N.I.T.Y.’ and Missy Elliott’s ‘Lose Control’. Representing modern-day hip-hop, Lil Baby delivered a clip of ‘Freestyle’, while GloRilla helped bring things to a wrap with ‘F.N.F. (Let’s Go)’.
Smith might have been expected to appear in the medley, but was noticeably absent. However, Questlove later explained his absence, and mentioned that he was “99.4 committed” to be a part of the performance.
50-year anniversary of hip-hop performance at the #GRAMMYs by some of the greats including RunDMC, LL Cool J, Salt N Peppa, Ice T, Queen Latifah, Wu-Tang, Big Boi, Busta Rhymes, Missy Elliott, Nelly, Too Short, GloRilla, The Roots, and more… pic.twitter.com/HmGB0bvGZX
— Leon Carrington (@LeonCarrington) February 6, 2023
“They started shooting Bad Boys 4 this week, so he couldn’t make rehearsals.” Questlove clarified to Entertainment Tonight. “He wanted to do it.”
Smith infamously slapped Chris Rock on-stage during last year’s Oscars ceremony following a joke about his wife Jada’s shaved head. At the time, Rock was about to present the award for Best Documentary, which Questlove went on to win for his film Summer Of Soul. The documentary celebrates the oft-overlooked 1969 music festival, The Harlem Cultural Festival.
Smith went on to apologise to Questlove as well as to Rock, his family and Rock’s family in an emotional video posted last July. “It really breaks my heart to have stolen and tarnished your moment,” Smith said to his “fellow nominees” in the video. “I can still see Questlove’s eyes. It happened on Questlove’s award, and you know, it’s like, ‘I’m sorry’ really isn’t sufficient.”
Following the incident, Smith resigned from the Academy in April 2022. He was later banned from all Academy events for 10 years.
Rock joked about the Oscars slap during a stand-up set with Dave Chappelle in May, where he remarked: “I got smacked by the softest n***a that ever rapped.”
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Emma Wilkes
NME
