Jay-Z tried to change Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to Hip-Hop Hall of Fame
Jay-Z took issue with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s name and attempted to rebrand it to reflect the times, according to the chairman of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, John Sykes, who recently opened up about a conversation he had with Hov.
According to Sykes, who also serves as the president of iHeartMedia Entertainment Enterprises, Jay claimed that rock was a thing of the past and that hip-hop is now leading the way. However, Sykes was adamant that hip-hop was a form of rock and roll.
When asked about the definition of rock and roll, he told Vulture, “The best story to convey this was when a great friend of mine, Jay-Z, got inducted a few years ago. I was so excited. But he told me, ‘Rock is dead. It should be called the Hip-Hop Hall of Fame.’ And I said, ‘Well, hip-hop is rock and roll.’
“He goes, ‘No, it isn’t.’ And I said, ‘We’ve got to do a better job explaining it. Little Richard, Otis Redding, Chuck Berry — these artists were the cornerstones of rock and roll. If you look at the sounds over the years, those artists ended up influencing hip-hop.’”
He added, “Jay-Z hemmed and hawed, but he showed up to the ceremony. That made me feel like we had done our job to communicate that rock and roll is open to all.”
Jay was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021, calling the nomination an “incredible honour” and speaking about how far hip-hop has come. “Growing up, we ain’t think we could be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,” he said. “We were told that hip-hop was a fad. And much like punk rock, it gave us this anti-culture, this subgenre, and there were heroes in it.”
He continued, “Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, KRS-One, Chuck D and, of course, a fellow inductee LL Cool J. I would watch these and they had big rope chains and leather and sometimes even the red, black and green medallions. Whatever they wore, everybody would wear it the next day. And I was like, ‘That’s what I want to do. I want to be like those guys.’”