Cee Lo, Chuck D of Public, Enemy, Scarface and others paid homage to the late Isaac Hayes last night during VH1’s Fifth Annual Hip-Hop Honors last night (October 2) at The Hammerstein Ballroom in New York.
A number of rappers and R&B singers paid homage to the Hayes, who influenced several generations of artists with his musical genius.
Public Enemy performed songs like “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos,” which incorporated a portion of Hayes’ classic track “Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic.”
Scarface rapped his verse on “My Mind’s Playing Tricks on Me,” which utilized a sample from Hayes’ track “Hung Up On My Baby,” from the album Tough Guys.
Scarface was influenced by all of Hayes’ album, including Hayes’ groundbreaking release Black Moses, which earned acclaimed for its fold-out album artwork, in addition to its extended grooves, which was unheard of from a black artist.
“Black Moses, s**t, that’s my n**a, he’s a bad mother f***er,” Scarface told AllHipHop.com. “My most memorable moment [was] with Isaac Hayes in Virgin Studios for four or five hours. I was showing him my reels and we just kicked it talking about everything. After that, he had an interview in The Source, and spoke real highly of me.”
Estelle, Mos Def and Cee-Lo also played songs that Hayes composed or sang.
The awards, which airs Monday (Oct 6), was hosted by comedian Tracy Morgan.
The evening included performances by Cypress Hill and De La Soul, who performed their hits like “Me, Myself and I,” Buddy” and others.
Kid Rock performed a rendition of Too $hort’s classic “Life Is Too Short,” while Too $hort himself performed “Gettin’ It” and “Money In The Ghetto.”
Wyclef Jean, Juelz Santana, Big Boi and Naughty By Nature closed the show with Naughty’s classics “O.P.P,” “Uptown Anthem” and “Hip Hop Hooray.”
MC Lyte, Busta Rhymes and Spliff Star, Eve, Biz Markie, Slick Rick, Ghostface, Flavor Flav, EPMD, Fat Joe, Jim Jones, Mos Def, Gym Class Heroes and many others will be showcased on VH1’s Fifth Annual Hip-Hop Honors, which airs October 6 at 10:00 PM.