First of all, it’s understood that many of the noticeable absences
at the VH1 Hip Hop Honors tribute to Def Jam were out of the show’s
control. LL Cool J was filming his new show, “NCIS: Los Angeles,”
in L.A. and was unable to attend the taping, Jay-Z was on tour in
Europe and the Beastie Boys aren’t making public appearances until
MCA (Adam Yauch) is feeling better (Yauch was diagnosed with cancer
of the parotid gland a few months ago). Those things were completely
unavoidable, and no fault of VH1 or the show’s producers.
But…
There were several things that could’ve been handled differently
for the show. During his “Throwback at Noon” segment, DJ
Mister Cee, of HOT 97 in New York, also shared a few grievances with
the way that the show was handled. Mister Cee, who deejayed for Big
Daddy Kane and discovered the Notorious B.I.G., voiced his
displeasure with two aspects of the show in particular.
Why the live band?
While the interviews with Russell Simmons, Rick Rubin and Lyor
Cohen featured the Def Jam heads of state patting themselves on the
back for not giving a damn how “mainstream” pop and R&B
audiences viewed their music, the performances featured rappers with
a full backing band — a blatant crossover move.
“I’m getting sick of seeing these artists performing these
tributes and they got a band behind ‘em,” ranted Mister Cee on
his show. “I didn’t want to hear DMX do ‘Party Up’ with a band —
[and] I didn’t want to hear Onyx do ‘Slam’ with a band.”
Where was the Shakir Stewart tribute?
As Def Jam execs past and present talked about the impact of the
label and the personalities that shaped it, it became painfully
obvious that one young man who had been a major voice at the label in
recent years wasn’t acknowledged at all.
“They didn’t really show no love to … Shakir Stewart,” a
noticeably angry Mister Cee pointed out.
Stewart was Def Jam’s vice president of A&R and signed
artists such as Young Jeezy and Rick Ross to the label. He was found
dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 2008.
Def Jam is hip-hop’s biggest label, and the VH1 Hip Hop Honors has become the music and culture’s most celebrated awards show, but here’s
hoping both brands remember to hold true to what a show like this is
supposed to represent — a music and culture that refused to conform
and the people that helped shape it.
–todd williams
