Woop-woop, that’s the sound of a lifetime achievement honor! Make that two.
Late final week, President Joe Biden honored hip-hop pioneers KRS-One and Kurtis Blow with the President’s Lifetime Achievement Award on the Nationwide Hip-Hop Museum in Washington, D.C.
In keeping with AllHipHop, 300 visitors attended a ceremony on the RIAA headquarters, the place the Rev. Dr. George Holmes delivered a rousing speech in celebration of the 2 icons. “There are two methods for a pacesetter to undergo life: as a thermometer or as a thermostat,” Holmes declared. “The thermometer merely measures the local weather, however the thermostat units the tone and creates it. That’s who you’re, KRS-One and Kurtis Blow.”
Within the absence of a bodily look from President Biden, a letter from the White Home addressed to the 2 hip-hop pillars was learn.
“As it’s with Kurtis Blow, as it’s with you, America’s story relies upon not on any considered one of us, not on a few of us, however on all of us,” learn the word. “On behalf of the American folks, President Biden extends his heartfelt appreciation to you on your volunteer management, and he encourages you to proceed to reply the decision to serve. The nation remains to be relying on you.”
As well as the groundbreaking careers and contributions to American music and tradition, KRS-One and Kurtis Blow had been additionally honored for his or her dedication to group service and management.
The honors come lower than a yr after hip-hop celebrated its fiftieth anniversary, with 2023 boasting a bevy of specials celebrating hip-hop’s historical past, together with A GRAMMY Salute To 50 Years Of Hip-Hop, to which KRS-One turned down a private invite from LL Cool J.
“I used to be requested about two months in the past; they requested me to do it and I turned them down,” he instructed Harold St. Louis. “And purpose being is as a result of I do know folks don’t perceive this — and I say this respectfully. KRS-One is a Hip Hop extremist. I’m not violent, a violent extremist. I’m insane with this tradition. I do know I will need to have misplaced my thoughts on this.”
Kurtis Blow additionally didn’t attend the telecast, however he, like KRS-One, celebrated Hip-Hop 50 with different establishments.
KRS-One has earned three profession entries on the Billboard Sizzling 100: 1994’s “Sound of da Police” (No. 89), 1995’s “MC’s Act Like They Don’t Know” (No. 57) and 1997’s “Step Right into a World (Rapper’s Delight)” (No. 70). On the Billboard 200, he’s notched eight entries, together with his sole prime 10 title, 1997’s I Obtained Subsequent (No. 3).
Kurtis Blow landed a pair of Sizzling 100 hits over the course of his profession: 1980’s “The Breaks (Half I)” (No. 87) and 1985’s “Basketball” (No. 71). He has additionally despatched six titles onto the Billboard 200, reaching as excessive as No. 71 together with his eponymous 1980 LP.
Click on right here to observe a clip of the ceremony.
