Source: Variety / Getty
Questlove has expressed that he felt “hurt” by MC Hammer’s unwillingness to take part in the Grammy Awards’ recent tribute to Hip-Hop.
As A GRAMMY Salute to 50 Years of Hip-Hop aired Sunday (Dec. 10), Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson of The Roots fielded questions about the star-studded event on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. One fan asked the drummer if there were any artists that he wanted in the show that couldn’t make it. Questlove promptly responded: “Of all the ‘No’s’….Hammer hurt the most. We really wanted him to have his flowers.”
At the moment, MC Hammer hasn’t publicly responded to Questlove’s comment. The iconic artist has not been a fixture at any of the events celebrating Hip-Hop’s 50th anniversary this year. But he did speak on his absence in early November as he addressed the crowd at the street naming ceremony for the late Tupac Shakur in his hometown of Oakland, California.
“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 began. “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.”
Hammer even cracked a joke posing a scenario where he’d encounter one of these veterans: “What you want me to call you? Six Shooter? Come on, man. Ain’t none of your bodies turned up yet! I just can’t do it…but Pac got me out here today. My first Hip-Hop 50 event that I said yeah to, and the only one is to come and say how much I love Pac.”
It’s not the first time the “Can’t Touch This” rapper’s absence from many of the celebrations of Hip-Hop’s 50th anniversary has been publicly noted. Mistah F.A.B., another veteran rapper from Oakland, publicly said that he would’ve loved to see MC Hammer alongside so many of the culture’s greats at the HipHop50 Live concert event held at Yankee Stadium. Hammer would later issue a statement saying that he had been asked, but he refused.
