Zulu Nation pioneer Afrika Bambaataa, whose inventive turntable techniques changed rap and electronic music, was nominated for the 2008 class. Regardless of whether Biggie Smalls enters the hallowed Hall in 2020, there’s plenty more hip-hop icons eligible for future consideration – including a few names who have been up for the honor before without securing entry. Yeah, N.W.A caught some flack when they were inducted, but it seemingly had less to do with them not being ‘rock’ enough in ‘tude than it did conservative listeners angry that the “Fuck tha Police” dudes were in the same club as Elvis Presley. So considering that artists whose music indelibly impacted rock music (and pop culture in general) have been inducted since the ’80s, it was only a matter of time before a hip-hop artist entered the Hall.Īfter all, you’d be hard-pressed to find a rocker who started in the ’90s that hasn’t been influenced by rap music, be it the hard-hitting rhythms of Run-D.M.C., the pummeling sonic attack of Public Enemy or the magnetic, poetic charisma of Tupac Shakur. King, Sam Cooke and Aretha Franklin were understandable shoo-ins to the Rock Hall, and you’re lying if you say ‘rock’ is the main genre they belong to). A great many of the earliest acts inducted into the Rock Hall were primarily R&B, blues, soul or country artists whose attitude and performance style impacted rock (and no, not just in the ‘early influences’ category: B.B. Thankfully, in the 12 years that followed the first induction of a hip-hop artist into the RRHOF, the tired ‘But it’s the Rock Hall’ wailing has died down as critics and fans adjust to our genre agnostic era, where ‘rock’ is more an attitude than a strictly defined sound.Īnd it’s about time - even in its early days, the Rock Hall was never exclusionary based on a strict definition of rock music.
was shortlisted for the Class of 2020 if he gets in, the late Brooklyn icon will be just the seventh rap act in the Rock Hall. Since then, the Rock Hall has inducted four additional hip-hop groups into its ranks - Run-D.M.C.
Despite some myopic protests, the Rock Hall inducted Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, whose inventive DJ techniques and socio-political messaging elevated the genre to new creative heights in the ’80s. Even when the Hall began inducting rock n’ roll icons in 1986, rap was still seen as a curiosity – there was only one album, Run-D.M.C.‘s Raising Hell, that had gone platinum.įast forward to 2007. When the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame formed in 1983, plenty of industry gate-keepers insisted hip-hop was merely a flash-in-the-pan trend.
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