As far as things go, Hip-Hop had a pretty incredible time at the GRAMMYS last night. There was a massive performance to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the genre, Quavo’s touching tribute to Takeoff, and of course, the big ‘GOD DID’ record being performed for 8 minutes to close out the show was a moment.
A few days ago before the show, JAY-Z hit up Elliott Wilson to sit down and talk to him for TIDAL Magazine about the award show, his own history with it and Hip-Hop’s history with it.
Hov talked about his “tell the GRAMMYs f*ck that 0 for 8 sh*t” line from ‘APESH*T’, times when he felt the show has gotten things right, why he thought Bey deserved the Album of the Year nod (spoiler: it went to Harry Styles) and a whole lot more. Khaled also dropped in for some words at the end, talking about being grateful for the opportunity to do the record on stage.
Check out an excerpt below and the full thing here.
When did you actually decide you were going to perform your full “GOD DID” verse at the Grammys?
Lenny S. [Roc Nation Senior Vice President Lenny Santiago] got to tell you that one. I thought about it, I was in my head and I just broke down and said, “You know, it’s a four-minute verse.” Again, for the culture, for hip-hop, we got to do that.
This ain’t your traditional song. … It’s not your traditional structure of what you think a song that would be nominated for Song of the Year would sound like.
It’s not what you expect. And for the culture and for hip-hop, we got to do that. We owe that. This thing that changed our lives. We got to do that. A four-minute verse performed at the Grammys. We owe it to the culture, and it ain’t even a burden. It’s a blessing. It’s easy and fun.