Ice Cube said he never expected to take the stage accepting a gold-plated gramophone with his NWA bandmates, but that's what happened Saturday when he, MC-Ren, DJ Yella and the mother and son of the late rapper Eazy- They received a Lifetime Achievement Grammy at the Recording Academy's Special Merit Awards.
“My man, Dr. Dre, is not here. He wanted to make sure I let you know he doesn't hate. He's a billionaire. She gave him shit,” Cube said, laughing and clapping. He thanked Dre for his “brilliantness, talent and leadership” and said the group also owes a big debt to Eazy-E. “This is actually Eazy-E's vision. He's the one who allowed us to make this kind of music,” Cube said. Eazy-E, considered by many to be the godfather of gangsta rap, releases legendary NWA album Straight Outta Compton on his label Ruthless Records. (He died in 1995 at the age of 30.)
“We knew when we started making music in 1985, '86, '87 that a Grammy wasn't in the cards for us, with the kind of music we were making. We actually didn't think we'd ever get on the radio. We were good with it,” Cube told the crowd at the Wilshire Ebell Theater after a long standing ovation. Honoree Gladys Knight looked on from the front row, smiling.
“We can't sing like Gladys. None of us can hold a note like the Clark sisters,” Cube said, nodding to the members of the gospel group sitting right behind Knight. “But we wanted to express ourselves and try to understand the world around us, in LA, in Compton, in South Central, in Long Beach, in Watts. It was a different world out there, and we were trying to understand it. And what we did is, we made music. We made music from our hearts.” Ice Cube said nearly four decades after NWA's music was deemed too controversial for the airwaves, “the whole world is singing our songs. We could never have predicted this in the world. We just wanted to do our thing. The thing about a show is that when you do your thing, people will come to you.”
As the group prepared to leave the stage, Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. said he had just received a message from Dr. Dre. “It's very short, as expected,” Mason said with a laugh. “It's an honor to receive this award with my brothers in the NWA,” Mason said, reading Dre's words from his phone. “We've been together for a long time, so I regret not being there and being able to celebrate with you. The ceremony falls on my daughter's birthday and as I wanted to be with you and all the children, I couldn't break her heart.”
The two-hour awards ceremony held the day before Sunday's televised Grammy Awards presented Lifetime Achievement honors to NWA, Knight, Laurie Anderson, the Clark Sisters, Donna Summer and Tammy Wynette. He also presented Trustees Awards to legendary producer Peter Asher, hip-hop pioneer DJ Kool Herc and industry attorney Joel Katz. The Technical Grammy Award went to Tom Kobayashi and Tom Scott, creators of a digital pipeline that allowed editors and mixers in remote locations to work on high-quality audio in real time. The Best Song for Social Change award went to “Refugee”, written by K'naan, Steve McEwan and Gerald Eaton.
“I love you,” Knight said sweetly as she began her acceptance speech after her own standing ovation. “We love you too!” someone in the audience shouted back.
“I'm telling you, it's been a great, awesome trip,” Knight said. “And I'm grateful to be here with all of you. I love you. I couldn't be in this position without all of us coming together.
The seven-time Grammy winner who scored Number One hits in pop, gospel, R&B and modern contemporary stopped her speech repeatedly to thank and congratulate the crowd. “You look so good right now. You all look good,” he told the excited audience. “Thank you for allowing me to give you a little of what has happened in my life. …I am so grateful. Oh, you have to see you from up here. Thank you very much for allowing me to be here tonight.”
Anderson received her award after traveling from the East Coast on Saturday morning. “I make a kind of music that doesn't have an apt name. It's called 'multimedia' or 'art music,' or what I like least, 'experimental,' which sounds like you're making things in a lab that might explode,” he said with a laugh. “So it's really an honor to be here with my honorees who really know how to groove and make beautiful, soulful music.”
The six Grammy-nominated, one-winning songwriter, singer, and visual artist has gained fame as the first NASA artist and for her collaborations with William S. Burroughs, Peter Gabriel, Philip Glass, and her late husband, Lou Reed. .
“Lifetime is a great word to put on an award. It makes you wonder what you've been doing for so long,” he said from the stage. “I was married to a musician. We spent our lives together listening to all kinds of music. So a special thank you to my dear husband, Lou Reed, who passed away 10 years ago.”
Anderson shared with the audience “three rules” that she and Reed lived by. “Don't be afraid of anyone. Imagine what your life would be like if you didn't fear anyone at all,” he said. “Get a really good bullshit detector. And be really tender. With these three, you can really overcome almost anything.”
Family members accepted posthumous trophies for Summer and Wynette. One of the highlights saw Summer's husband encouraging her daughter Mimi to sing the undisputed opening of her mum's 1977 mega-hit 'I Feel Love'. She laughed, leaned into the microphone and channeled her mom's angelic voice perfectly.
As they left the theater Saturday, two members of the hip-hop group Bone Thugs-n-Harmony marveled at being invited to introduce NWA for their award. “As kids, we aspired to be them. So we had to be a part of that,” said Layzie Bone Rolling rock. Fellow artist Flesh-n-Bone said that without Eazy-E, “none of us would be up there.”
“We were really honored to be asked to do this,” he told NWA “And we love DJ Kool Herc. He is a legend in his own right. We were trying to breakdance like kids. We were inspired by what he did. Hip-hop wouldn't be what it is today without DJ Kool Herc.
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