Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF) Chairman John Sykes revealed that JAY-Z previously suggested renaming the annual ceremony to the Hip-Hop Hall of Fame.
Speaking to Vulture, the exec shared that Hov once expressed his skepticism about the RRHOF’s connection to hip-hop, stating, “Rock is dead. It should be called the Hip-Hop Hall of Fame.” Sykes responded that “hip-hop is rock and roll,” and while the rapper disagreed, the exec explained that they needed “to do a better job explaining it,” continuing, “Little Richard, Otis Redding, Chuck Berry — these artists were the cornerstones of rock and roll. If you look at the sounds over the years, those artists ended up influencing hip-hop.”
JAY-Z eventually did attend the Hall of Fame ceremony for his induction in 2021, and Sykes took that as confirmation that the term “rock and roll” is inclusive. “That made me feel like we had done our job to communicate that rock and roll is open to all,” he stated.
Sykes also opened up about other people’s suggestion of renaming it to the Music Hall of Fame, and while he knows the reasoning behind that suggestion, he states that it could be because “some people don’t understand the meaning of rock and roll.” He shared that the genre’s original sound in the ’50s, as per Missy Elliot, was a “gumbo” that had everything, but just ended up being labelled as rock and roll. “So when I hear people say, ‘You should just change it to the Music Hall of Fame,’ rock and roll has pretty much covered all of that territory,” he said. “Rather than throwing the name out, it’s doing a better job of communicating to people where rock and roll came from and what it’s truly about. Once they hear it that way, they understand.”
