Instead of
guitars, there were turntables. Scratches replaced soaring
riffs. An induction speech was read off a Blackberry.
The hip-hop era
arrived Monday at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Grandmaster Flash
and the Furious Five were the first hip-hop act to be
inducted into the Rock Hall, joining other acts that
represented a wide swath of artists: college-rock
favorites R.E.M., punk rock poet Patti Smith, hard
rockers Van Halen, and '60s girl group the Ronettes.
Jay-Z, the
recently unretired rapper and Def Jam Records president,
noted how far rap has come since the days when
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five exposed the
world to gritty stories about the streets of New York
on songs like ''The Message.''
''Thirty years
later rappers have become rock stars, movie stars,
leaders, educators, philanthropists, even CEOs,'' he said,
reading his induction speech from his Blackberry.
''None of this would have been possible without the
work of these men.''
Backstage,
Grandmaster Flash talked about how hard-fought hip-hop's now
universal acceptance had been.
''There were some
that called it a fad. They called it a flash of
brilliance, excuse my pun. I think the significance of going
into this organization is it's the final place for
corporate respect,'' he said. ''They all finally
accepted and embraced this wonderful culture we call
hip-hop.''
But while it was
most certainly accepted, the embrace was not as warm as
it could have been; the rappers got perhaps the most
reserved ovation of the night, with an almost lukewarm
response to their somewhat haphazard medley
performance.
The night's
biggest ovation may have been for the woman who swore she'd
never make it in: Patti Smith. The bohemian poet straddled
the hippie and punk eras, with her album Horses
setting a standard for literate rock. At the induction
ceremony, she performed her biggest hit, ''Because the
Night,'' cowritten with Bruce Springsteen, as well
as the Rolling Stones' classic ''Gimme Shelter.''
Passed over in
previous years, an emotional Smith remembered friends and
family who didn't live to see the day--and jokingly
recalled an argument with her husband, MC5's Fred
''Sonic'' Smith, shortly before he died.
He told her she
would get into the hall and that she would feel guilty
because he would not make it--even though he was more
deserving, he said. He asked her when she did make the
hall to ''please accept it like a lady and not to say
any curse words.'' She obliged.
If the absence of
her late loved ones made Smith's induction bittersweet,
the absence of most of Van Halen's founding members was
downright sour. Eddie Van Halen, who went to rehab
last week, was a no-show, as was his brother Alex.
Former lead singer David Lee Roth boycotted in a dispute
over which song he would sing.
The only two who
were present were Sammy Hagar and bassist Michael
Anthony. Velvet Revolver performed two of the band's hits
before Hagar and Anthony performed with the night's
house band, led by Paul Shaffer.
Hagar said he
wished his bandmates could be there, but ''it's out of our
control.''
''It's hard for
Mike and I to be up here to do this, but you couldn't
have kept me away from this with a shotgun,'' Hagar said.
There was a happy
reunion, though, for R.E.M., as they welcomed back
drummer Bill Berry, who left the band in 1997 after
suffering an aneurysm onstage two years earlier.
R.E.M. largely
invented the college-radio scene in the 1980s with songs
like ''Radio Free Europe.'' They became mainstream stars
with hits like ''Losing My Religion'' and ''Everybody
Hurts.''
Stipe said his
late grandmother once grabbed him by the arm and said what
R.E.M. means to her is " 'remember every moment.' And this
is a moment I shall never forget.''
With jewelry
dangling from his hair, a mustachioed Keith Richards
inducted the Ronettes, the New York City girl group who sang
pop symphonies like ''Be My Baby'' and ''Baby I Love
You.'' He recalled hearing them the first time on a
tour together in England.
''They could sing
all their way right through a wall of sound,'' Richards
said. ''They didn't need anything. They touched my heart
right there and then, and they touch it still.''
Lead singer
Ronnie Spector thanked a list of people from Cher to
Springsteen to her publicist--but made no mention of
ex-husband Phil Spector, the producer whose gigantic
''wall of sound'' is synonymous with the act. The snub
was underscored when she gave a special thank-you ''to
our first producer,'' then cleared her throat.
Ronnie Spector
had an acrimonious split with the legendary music man
decades ago. His trial for the murder of an actress at his
suburban Los Angeles mansion is due to start next
week.
After the
Ronettes sang a trio of their hits, Shaffer came to the
microphone to read a note from Phil Spector, who said, ''I
wish them all the happiness and good fortune the world
has to offer.''
Two of rock's
most influential figures--and members of its
hall--received tributes: Civil rights activist
the Reverend Al Sharpton honored James Brown, while
hall officials remembered one of the institution's founders,
record executive Ahmet Ertegun. Both died in December.
One of the
evening's highlights came as Aretha Franklin, one of
Ertegun's greatest artists at Atlantic, sang the first
million-seller she made with him, ''I Never Loved a
Man (The Way I Love You).'' (Nekesa Mumbi Moody, AP)