Questlove has finally responded to the backlash he received over the 50th anniversary Hip-Hop tribute that took place at the 2023 Grammy Awards.
Although the performance garnered great reviews and even helped the Grammys reach a three-year viewership high, many fans and viewers had a lot to say regarding artists who were left out of the tribute.
After the negative feedback, the Philadelphia-born rapper took to his Twitter to respond to the critics. He explained how difficult it was to include all generations and regions in what was only a 15-minute performance. He also dealt with artists bailing at the last minute.
“General ?s answered about last night: (some are asking if we are playing erasure games so uh….yeah I don’t play that so—in answering the questions of “why wasn’t dada there?) 1. already booked 2. declined our offer straight up 3. or a third option im not gonna get into,” he tweeted on February 6.
Questlove then went on to explain that they purposely strayed away from paying homage to late artists.
“We had a criteria we wanted to follow: alive? harmonizing? turntablism? fighting shape? NYC? LA? BAY? ATL? NAWLINS? HOUSTON? MIDWEST? born before 1960? born after 1995? Superlyrical? Stylistic? Original? generally known by at least 2 generations?” he added.