All the songs from the Grammy’s 50th Hip Hop Performance

With hip-hop’s official 50th birthday just months away, the 2023 Grammy Awards helped kick off the year-long celebrations with the maximalist tribute performance that encompasses (most of) the past 50 years of rap music .

Introduced by LL Cool J, curated by Questlove and narrated by Black Thought, the performance began with staple favorites like Grandmaster Flash and The Message by the Furious Five and raced through the ’80s, ’90s and (some of the) 2000s. A host of hip-hop titans performed along the way, including De La Soul, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Ice-T, Method Man, Missy Elliott, Nelly, Run-DMC, Salt-N-Pepa, Too $hort, and more.

The performance was one of three hip-hop-centric performances for the night. The others were DJ Khaled and Jay-Z with “God Did” and Quavo with “Without You” in homage to Takeoff during the In Memoriam segment.

Below is the full list of 50 Years Of Hip-Hop songs.

Grandmaster Flash with Barshon, [Rahiem]], Melle Mel and Scorpio/Ethiopian King – “Flash to the Beat” & “The Message”
Run DMC – “King of Rock”
LL Cool J – “I Can’t Live Without My Radio” & “Rock the Bells”
Rakim – “My mic sounds good” & “Eric B. is President”
Chuck D and Flavor Flav – “Rebel Without a Break”
De La Soul – “Buddy”

List of performers at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards
Artist Song(s)
Evil Rabbit “El Apagón”
“Despues de la Playa”[14]
Brandi Carlile “Broken Horses”[14]
Stevie Wonder
WanMor
Smoky Robinson
Chris Stapleton tribute to Berry Gordy and Smokey Robinson
“The way you do the things you do”
“The Tears of a Clown”
“A Higher Level”[14]
Lizzo “About Damn Time”
“Special”[14]
Harry Styles “As It Was”[14]
Kacey Musgraves
Quavo
Maverick City Music
Sheryl Crow
Mick Fleetwood
Bonnie Raitt In Memoriam
“Coal Miner’s Daughter”
(Homage to Loretta Lynn)
“Without you”
“We’ll meet Again”
(Homage to Takeoff)
“songbird”
(Homage to Christine McVie)[14]
Sam Smith and Kim Petra’s “Unholy”[14]
Mary J. Blige “Good Morning Lovely”[14]
The roots
black thought
Grandmaster Flash with Barshon, [Rahiem]], Melle Mel and Scorpio/Ethiopian King
RunDMC
LL Cool J
DJ Jazzy Jeff
Salt-N-Pepa
rakim
Chuck D and Flavor Flav
De La Soul
Scarface – “Ghost playing tricks on me”
Ice-T – “New Jack Hustler (Nino’s Theme)”
Queen Latifah – “UNITY”
method person – “method person”
Big Boi – “ATLiens”
Busta Rhymes and Spliff Star – “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See” & “Look At Me Now”
Missy Elliott – “Losing Control”
Nelly and City Spud – “Hot in Herre”
Too $short – “Blow the Whistle”
Swizz Beatz and The Lox – “We’ll Make It”
Lil Baby – “Freestyle”
GloRilla – “FNF (Let’s Go)”
Lil Uzi Vert – “I Just Wanna Rock”

Some of the artists featured here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.