Subscribe
HipHopWired Featured Video
CLOSE

Big Daddy Kane vehemently dared anyone to say something disrespectful about Macklemore after the paid homage to the Golden Age pioneers, and apparently Melle Mel feels the same way.

The genius behind Grandmaster Flash’s “The Message” spoke to XXL about his MTV VMA collaboration with the Seattle all-star alongside Kool Moe Dee and Grandmaster Caz and he had some choice words for a handful of the rap’s current elite.

I know for a fact that J. Cole or Kendrick Lamar or Rick Ross or Jay Z or any of these cats, they would not have done it, ever,” Melle Mel says in reference to Macklemore’s “Downtown” video. “They would not have done it. It took him to do it. And all those other so-called ‘real cats,’ they should hang their heads because somebody should have done it by now. They could have reached back to any of us. If you’re making records and you say you’re Hip-Hop, you’re supposed to have a connection to what Hip-Hop really is. And nobody made that connection until Macklemore made the connection. And I’ve had this conversation quite a few times since everything happened and had that little controversy of, yeah, the white boy, using the OGs, or blah blah blah. And like I said, none of those other guys would have ever done it. And it’s a shame that that’s the reality of what the game is right now.”

Embed from Getty Images

While there exactly hasn’t been an overbearing resurgence of the “old school” this year, Kendrick Lamar did pull MC Eiht from out of nowhere to appear on his debut album and Jay Z did give Kane a prominent shoutout during the height of his own popularity, among throwback samples being used by the other two. And the conversation from Macklemore’s fans about the inclusion of the Hip-Hop godfathers hasn’t necessarily been there, so Melle Mel’s points may be a tad bit defensive.

Peep the video for Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ “Downtown” off their upcoming album down below.

Photo: WENN