Grammy Nominations Concert Will Get ‘The Message’

LOS ANGELES — The fourth annual Grammy nominations unison Wednesday night (November 30) will embody a special opening scarcely 3 decades in a making. Rappers LL Cool J, Common and Lupe Fiasco will join Grandmaster Flash and a Furious Five members Melle Mel and Scorpio for a group’s classical “The Message” during “The Grammy Nominations Concert Live!! Countdown to Music’s Biggest Night.”

The generations-spanning garb strike rehearsals tough Tuesday afternoon during a Nokia Theatre, regulating each notation accessible to practice. That meant squeezing in additional operation time in a lower-level run before they even jumped onstage.
While Rick Ross had formerly been announced as a performer, he was not benefaction during Tuesday’s rehearsals. Ross’ deficiency was frequency felt however, as a expel of all-stars had copiousness of appetite to fill a large theatre.

“Rehearsals [are] a lot fun,” pronounced LL Cool J, who’s pulling double duty, also behaving as a show’s host.

“Been rehearsing with Grandmaster Flash, Melle Mel, Scorpio, Common and Lupe Fiasco operative on this ‘Message’ thing, and it’s an honor.”

Lupe Fiasco seemed to have no qualms with doing another reverence opening (you know, after that VH1 Hip Hop Honors conditions a few years ago), that can many expected be attributed to a confidence-boosting of a group’s maestro, Grandmaster Flash.

“You’ll see, my position is to make certain that everything’s moving, everything’s flowing,” Flash said. “Make certain rappers are interesting all sides of a room — center, left, right. Everybody got their lines: We have new rappers that are doing a lyrics to a song, to make certain that they’re utterly gentle with it. we had a low review with Common, and we had a low review with Lupe, like, ‘Are we guys comfortable? Do we really, unequivocally feel comfortable?’ It’s a approach that we used to do it when it was Grandmaster Flash and a Furious Five as a group.”

Lupe Fiasco joked, “Grandmaster Flash is like a cavalcade sergeant. He’s like, ‘Let’s do it again, do it again, let’s do it again, do it again.’ He’s like, ‘You got it? No? Let’s do it again. Hold adult — let’s do it again, let’s do it again.’ So, that was cool.”
For LL, who remembers initial conference “The Message” on a boombox in his area as a youngster, holding partial in a opening is like reliving his childhood. “I collate it to a child who’s in a stone rope in a garage and now he’s onstage with [Mick] Jagger,” he said. “That’s what this is like for hip-hop.”

While LL and his counterparts were overjoyed to be partial of this special performance, Melle Mel and Scorpio, first members of a Furious Five, were equally vehement to be pity a theatre with their successors.

“They took a strain that even eventually wasn’t their song, though they’re so ardent about it,” Scorpio said. “They wanted to keep practicing and practicing, and only to see that blew my mind since that’s a healthy format — Grandmaster Flash and a Furious Five — practice, practice, practice. But for them to keep doing it to wanna get it right, it’s an honor.”

Catch a special opening — along with Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Usher, Ludacris, Sugarland and some-more — during 10 p.m. ET/PT Wednesday night (November 30) on CBS.