Roc-A-Fella icon Shawn Carter aka Jay-Z is finally getting the recognition he deserves. The rapper and media mogul is the latest inductee into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.  Dave Chapelle expressed his love for Jay-Z as he bought him onto the stage and stressed his significance on hip-hop and Black culture.

” Being Black in America is not as easy as it looks. It’s always ‘don’t do this or else, don’t say this or else. We do it anyway, The Closer star said during the ceremony on Oct. 30.   “Whenever we have to. We don’t have a complicated emotional vocabulary. We have to make everything look easy. And this man is a diamond that was born of pressure.”

Chapelle added, “To coin a phrase that fellow Hall of Famer made- Tupac Shakur called it a rose that rose from concrete.”

A Hip-Hop Pioneer

https://www.instagram.com/p/CV0msbgrP23/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Jay-Z’s been in the game since the late ’90s. His debut album Reasonable Doubt, released in 1996, was certified gold by the RIAA and went on to go platform. His 1998 album Hard Knock Life earned him his first Grammy and his 2003 The Black Album became 3x platinum. In 2017, Jay-Z became the first rapper inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. 

During his acceptance speech, Jay-Z talked about his love for music and acknowledged the rappers who paved the way for him.

“And you know, growing up, we didn’t think we could be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame,” the 51-year-old shared. He went on to mention fellow icons whom he called heroes such as Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, KRS One, Chuck D, LL Cool J.

The Harder We Fall executive producer went on, “We were told that hip-hop was a fad. Much like punk rock, it gave us this anti-culture, this subgenre, and there were heroes in it.”

Other stars inducted included Tina Turner,  LL Cool J, Randy Rhoads, Billy Preston, Clarence Avant, Gill Scott-Heron, Foo Fighters, and more.

The 2021 Rock & Roll of Fame ceremony will air on HBO on Nov. 20.