NEW YORK: Rap crossed musical genres and broke cultural barriers on Monday when the first hip-hop artists were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Pioneering hip-hop artists Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five were ushered into the prestigious group of artists, as well as rock groups Van Halen - without the attendance of several members - as well as R.E.
M., punk rock poet Patti Smith and 1960s all-girl group The Ronettes. On stage inside New York's Waldorf Astoria hotel, Grandmaster Flash, aka Joseph Saddler, performed the record-scratching technique he helped establish along with MC's Melle Mel, Rahiem, Scorpio and Kid Creole, mixing a string of their hits including sampling Chic's Good Times and Melle Mel's White Lines.
Backstage, Grandmaster Flash, dressed in white sneakers and white peak cap, said he remembered a time when the "culture called hip hop was just a passing ship in the night," but "I called it a flash of brilliance, excuse the pun." He said being added into the Hall of Fame was a final respect. R.
E.M. was introduced by Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder, who called their music "truly all-encompassing.
" Amid tensions among Van Halen's members, only one of the band's lead singers - Sammy Hagar - and ex-bass player Michael Anthony turned up for the show. Absent was another former lead singer David Lee Roth, who is reported to have disagreed on what to perform - and guitarist Eddie Van Halen, who had announced four days ago he would enter rehab. Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards inducted 1960s three-member girl group The Ronettes, who worked with producer Phil Spector.
The evening honored soul icon James Brown, who died in December. It also was dedicated to Atlantic records and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame founder Ahmet Ertegun, who also died in December and whose passion for black music launched the careers of acts ranging from Ray Charles to Aretha Franklin. Artists become eligible for Hall of Fame induction 25 years after the release of their first record and are represented in a permanent exhibit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum in Cleveland, Ohio.
Patti Smith, head swaying and shirt flying, performed her cover of The Rolling Stones' Gimme Shelter, and one of her best known songs composed with Bruce Springsteen Because the Night, which propelled her 1978 album Easter. The night ultimately belonged to hip-hop, with many of the inductees paying tribute to Grandmaster Flash and the other DJ's. But some performers were not so enthusiastic.
Backstage when asked what she thought of hip hop, Aretha Franklin replied hesitantly, "I love, some of it, it's fabulous - some of it.
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