Though last week’s show proved to be one of the most entertaining and anticipated music industry events of the year, it was not devoid of some controversy. Several artists, journalists and bloggers were in frenzy at last year’s show where Lupe Fiasco notoriously stumbled over “Electric Relaxation” and “Scenario” during his tribute performance for A Tribe Called Quest. It was known as “Fiascogate;” several critics explained that Lupe’s blunder was a reflection of his generation’s lack of music history.
Well, fast forward to this year’s show and it was Juelz Santana playing the new school fool, guilty of disrespecting his elders who happened to be NBN. After seemingly drawing a blank and stuttering through his rendition of “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright,” (only to be rescued by Big Boi’s improvisational freestyle to “O.P.P.”) it seems everyone in hip-hop was out for Juelz’s head except for Naughty themselves.
While many expected the same of war of words made famous by Lupe and Q-Tip after the latter’s botched performance, all three members of NBN affirmed that Juelz was not at fault. “He was happy to be there; he’s a fan. He’s been giving love for a long time, not just that night,” Treach told rolling out in an exclusive interview.
“I’ll say that we reached out to a lot of different people in the industry – a whole bunch of people – and a lot of people didn’t show up,” Kay Gee said over the phone. “We reached out to a lot of people [that didn’t show up] and those are the ones at the end of the day that don’t have respect – at least in our eyes – for the honorees. We don’t lose respect for Juelz for making a mistake.” –gavin philip godfrey
