Hip Hop Honors

The **Hip Hop Honors** is an annual event that airs on VH1. The fourth show aired on October 8, 2007, hosted by Tracy Morgan. Lupe Fiasco, Busta Rhymes, Common, and Pharrell performed a medley of "Bonita Applebum," "Electric Relaxation," and "Scenario" in tribute for the hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest. Fiasco's incident of forgetting the lyrics mid-song caused several outlets to report his mistake. After Fiasco posted a statement about the situation, this led to displeased Tribe fans, which became the moment known as Fiascogate.

## Background

Fiasco arrived at Hammersteing Ballroom in New York City on October 4, 2007. During the performance, he stumbled over Phife Dawg's verse in "Electric Relaxation" which garnered criticism from online. At the time, his statement on one of the *OkayPlayer* threads read:

> "I DID NOT GROW UP ON ATCQ!!! \*\*THE LITTLE GHETTO KID FROM THE MEAN STREETS OF THE WESTSIDE OF CHICAGO GREW UP ON SPICE 1, 8-BALL & MJG, NWA AND SNOOP DOGG...\*\*I WASNT A BACKPACKER RAP ENTHUSIAST!!!...I NEVER CLAIMED TO BE...I GREW UP ON GANGSTA RAP!!!\*\*HAVE I LISTENED TO MM IN ITS ENTIRETY?...NO!!!...(Sorry Quest)...\*\*GET OFF YOUR HIGH HORSES AND YOUR SACRED COWS...SOME OF YA'LL MAKE ME SICK..."
>
>

This met with further negativity from online, due to ATCQ being highly regarded as a pioneer of socially conscious rap.

In a *HipHopDX* article, Fiasco stated that he was originally against performing at the event since he did not grow up listening to ATCQ. He elaborated that the label brought up the idea even though he hadn't listened to *Midnight Maurauders* and did not want to put on a façade for his fans. However, since Q-Tip reached out to him, Fiasco felt he needed to honor and do his best. He continued that he had to learn the lyrics at last minute, and concluded, "I went in there and did the best that I could do. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I perform in front of 30,000 fans and have forgotten my own lyrics! I'm not embarrassed and I'm not apologizing. Because that's what it is. You go out there and do the best you can do (with all performances) and if you stumble you pick up the ball and keep it moving. Because I turned right around and did Busta's verse from 'Scenario' and killed it. Don't nobody want to say that! They want to focus on me messing up the last two bars of Phife's verse from 'Electric Relaxation'. I'm a disgrace now?"

Q-Tip shared in a radio interview, "I'm not trying to make this any bigger than it is, but I just want to clear up one thing. We never hunted him down and begged him to be a part of the show or anything like that. His name was pitched to us by VH1, and we said 'OK cool.' The only time I spoke to Lupe about the Hip Hop Honors performance was on a conference call, which we did with the other artists too, like Busta and Common, to plan the performance. When VH1 brought his name up, based on what he had said about us before, I thought it was ironic and it kind of humored me. All that stuff he said about never listening to a Tribe album before and having no interest in doing so, it doesn't make sense to me."

Fiasco said in another interview that he would sue *Vibe* for defamation of character, as their article was misleading and took one of his interviews a month prior to the event. The article in question did update to place the disclaimer that Fiasco's interview had indeed been conducted before the Hip Hop Honors event.

Despite the mixed-up stories and controversy, Fiasco has maintained that he holds respect for ATCQ. In a 2010 interview, Ali Shaheed even gave a mention, commenting about the hip hop scene, "It only feels like just a handful on the mainstream level that's impacting, like Drake, Lupe, Kid Cudi. They each have their own fanbase, which says a lot, that people are opening their minds to follow artists like that. But I would like to see a whole lot more. There was dozens of dozens of groups making an impact when we were out there. It'd be nice to see that again on a mainstream level."

## References

1. ↑ Swash, Rosie (October 12, 2007). "Should Lupe Fiasco apologise for murdering Midnight Marauders?". *The Guardian*.
2. ↑ Hale, Andreas (October 6, 2007). "\*Update\* Lupe Fiasco Clears the air on Hip Hop Honors". *HipHopDX*.
3. ↑ Rodriguez, Jayson (October 11, 2007). "Lupe Fiasco Vs. A Tribe Called Quest: A 'Fiascogate' Timeline". *MTV*.
4. ↑ Rodriguez, Jayson (August 25, 2010). "A Tribe Called Quest Applaud Success Of Drake, Lupe, Kid Cudi". *MTV*.