Philadelphia producer, instrumentalist and former member of The Roots, Questlove, has recently revealed that he was deeply hurt that some legendary MCs declined to perform at this year’s HipHop50 Grammys performance.
Earlier this year, hip-hop celebrated its 50th anniversary, and the emcee was appointed to executively produce the ‘Grammy Salute to 50 Years of Hip-Hop’ special performance. However, certain artists declined to perform for the celebration.
On December 10th, the Roots drummer took to X/Twitter to answer fans who had Questions about the performance. When asked about who rejected his offer and whether or not he was disappointed, the musician (real name Ahmir Thompson) revealed who hurt him.
Disclosing that MC Hammer turned down his offer to perform, Questlove commented his response “hurt the most.” “We begged him to open,” Quest explained. “We really wanted him to have his flowers.”
Although MC Hammer (real name Stanley Burrell) hasn’t responded directly to Thompson, earlier this year, he explained to his fans that he would not be performing at any of the festivities. At 2Pac’s street naming ceremony in Oakland, he insisted, “You ain’t hear me go to none of these ‘Hip Hop 50’ — and just for the record, I got invited to every one!”
He continued, “But I really don’t have the patience for the fakeness. I’m really 60 years old. I can’t get with the fakeness of it all. I could do it with a young cat, but I can’t go around old cats and still be pretending.”
In addition to his Hammer regrets, Questlove responded to a question about why figures such as Ice Cube, 50 Cent, Run-DMC, and the Wu-Tang Clan weren’t on the bill, to which he responded, “Not like we didn’t ask.”