Last year at Hip Hop Honors we saluted the inventiveness of A Tribe Called Quest. On the cusp of this year’s show Phife Dawg himself sent a shout out to the royalty being celebrated, Cypress HIll, De La Soul, Naughty By Nature, and Slick Rick, Too $hort. Check the very end. Dude does a decent Slick Rick impression.

Watch awesome moments from last year’s Hip Hop Honors.

Listen to A Tribe Called Quest’s music on Rhapsody.

Watch Hip Hop Honors 2008 on VH1 on Monday, October 6, 10 pm ET.

The controversy over Nas‘ forthcoming ablum, Nigger, is growing more intense with news that one of its songs subverts the old Dr. Pepper jingle by replacing the word “Pepper” with the N-word:

“I’m a nigger, he’s a nigger,
she’s a nigger, we’re a nigger
Wouldn’t you like to be a nigger too?”
- From Nas’ “Be A Nigger Too” (Listen here)

Before this latest shocker, a lot had been written about who is in support of Nas’ album title (Jay-Z, Common, Alicia Keys, Don Imus) and who isn’t (NAACP, Jesse Jackson, 50 Cent). 50 Cent, among others, say Nas is going for “shock value.” The fact that rappers have embraced the word and rendered it less hurtful and more banal through overuse for at least two decades may lend some credence to his claim. Maybe this is why Nas’ earlier statement seemed kind of weak:

“I wanna make the word easy on muthaf***ers’ ears. You see how white boys ain’t mad at ‘cracker’ ’cause it don’t have the same [sting] as ‘nigger’? I want ‘nigger’ to have less meaning [than] ‘cracker.’”

Nas’ new song could pull more people into his corner. Jay-Z’s earlier remark and Nas’ employment of the word now seem to be on point: “I know he’s very intelligent and there’s a reason behind what he’s doing.” Sure, Nas is “lessening the sting.” But he also seems to be up to something else. Pairing a once-omnipresent commercial song that is childlike in its simplicity with one of the most incendiary words in the English language raises so many questions that it could make heads explode. Could Nas be commenting on how big business packages and sells just about anything to kids — from soft drinks to gangsta rap? Could Nas be attempting to hit back at the very commercialization that has damaged hip-hop as an art form? Could he be doing all of the above and stirring up controversy to sell albums, too? Nas’ intentions may not yet be totally clear, but we’re all waiting to hear more. [Source: MTV News; Image of Nas and Kelis: Getty]

Nas’ track has leaked. Listen after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s no secret what we think of this year’s Hip Hop Honors recipients. If we were host Tracy Morgan, we might say we want to take them out back behind the middle school and get them pregnant. So since you already know what we think, we thought we’d ask some of hip hop’s deftest minds and smoothest voices what they think of the honorees. Here’s Common, who you can watch perform at the ceremony on October 8th at 10 p.m., on A Tribe Called Quest:

That’s my favorite group. That is where hip hop lives. Low End Theory changed the way I thought about music — it made me go out and listen to jazz music. I often refer to them as the Earth, Wind and Fire of hip hop, because Earth, Wind and Fire to me is one of the greatest groups and they’ve made music that was universal. All people could appreciate it, and Tribe has that. They’ve been a huge influence on me; I listen to their music all the time — it’s timeless.

Related Content
2007 VH1 Hip Hop Honors Site
Honoree Videos
Performer Videos

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