1. Will LL Cool J, The Meters or NWA get into the Rock Hall Of Fame this year?

2. Are the Clinton Hill community board members right about not naming a street after Biggie Smalls?

3. Will A Tribe Called Quest really perform their last shows on the New York leg of the Kanye West Yeezus tour?

CLEVELAND (September 6, 2012) – The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum and Case Western Reserve University are pleased to announce the initial lineup of artists that will honor Chuck Berry at the 17th annual American Music Masters® tribute concert on Saturday, October 27, 2012. at 7:30 p.m. at PlayhouseSquare’s State Theatre. Chuck Berry will appear to accept the American Music Masters honor and is scheduled to perform.

Tribute concert performers scheduled to appear include Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Ernie Isley and Darryl McDaniels, Joe Bonamassa, Rosie Flores, John Fullbright, David Johansen, JD McPherson, Lemmy Kilmister , Bucky Pizzarelli, Chuck Prophet, Duke Robillard, Earl Slick and M. Ward. Additional guests will be announced soon.

Tickets to the October 27th tribute concert range from $30 – $80. Tickets go on sale to Rock Hall members on Monday, September 17 at 10 a.m. via online sale only at www.playhousesquare.org. Tickets to the public go on sale Wednesday, September 19 at 11 a.m. Public tickets are available at www.playhousesquare.org, by calling (216) 241-6000 and at the PlayhouseSquare ticket office. A limited number of Friends of American Music Masters VIP packages are available beginning at $250 by contacting the Rock Hall’s development office at (216) 515-1201 or development@rockhall.org.

Roll Over Beethoven: The Life and Music of Chuck Berry, a weeklong celebration, will tell the story of the first artist to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Berry has had a lifetime of brilliant musicianship and has inspired nearly every rock artist to date. John Lennon once said “If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it ‘Chuck Berry’.”

The full schedule of the 17th annual American Music Masters series events will feature additional performances, interview programs and films the week of October 22 – 27. A full schedule will be announced in the coming weeks.

The series is sponsored by Republic Steel and Panasonic Automotive.

[youtube]qXzWlPL_TKw[/youtube]

Twenty-six years ago Run DMC stormed into the museum of rock and put their trademark Stetson fedoras on top of mannequin heads designed to look like The Beatles. The late actor Calvin DeForest tried to shoo them out by yelling, “You don’t belong here” but Darryl and Run refused to leave while white rockers played in the background. “King Of Rock” is a landmark song because it announced to the world that white guys with guitars were no longer the main arbiters of volume and style.

Rap music became the new rock and Black kids mostly from the ghettos were the artists. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation was created in 1983, had its first ceremony in 1993 and by 2007 it had inducted its first rap act with Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five. This year The Beastie Boys will be the third hip-hop band inducted gaining favor over Eric B. & Rakim who were also nominated. The hall uses musical excellence and influence as the primary factors in determining who is eligible for the honor at least 25 years before the date of induction. Rakim’s microphone cool and Eric B.’s mathematically correct production set forth one of pop culture’s most recognized quote books and sonic beacons in their 1987 magnum opus Paid In Full. Their music caused innovation in the genre by offering some of the most influential James Brown samplings and Rakim’s unflappable delivery of clever internal rhymes.

The Beastie Boys made rap appetizing to suburban white youth who would have never been receptive to the music in another context. White skin, frat boy energy and the incorporation of rock guitar made their image translate to kids who could only relate to urban life as a safari. The Rock Hall’s choice of the Beastie Boys before Eric B. & Rakim is a critical weakness in the assessment of the culture. Guitar rock has been a dying art since the commercial inception of rap music. The racist exclusion of Black rock and rollers from the mastheads of the mainstream doomed the direction of the music. Kurt Cobain’s passing some 18 years ago left an artistic dearth in rock that no one has been able to eliminate. Rock artists like The Black Keys have publicly commented on the death of rock and blamed it on the cynical ways of record executives that gave rise to the success of bands like Nickelback.

By ignoring the obvious heft of Eric B. & Rakim’s contributions, the hall loses credibility and gives credence to the idea that the museum’s hip-hop blind spot is born of racism. Hurricane, the Black DJ for the Beastie Boys will not be acknowledged either.

If the hall is to have true relevance it will have to make the inductions of rap music reflect the global dominance the art has held for 30 years. The Beasties inspired many kids to create bands modeled in the old style of rock while Eric B. & Rakim influenced the entire culture of new street music practitioners. There have been more young people in the past three decades to embrace a turntable and microphone than guitars and amplifiers. The guitar star is not the pop culture hero anymore because kids want to be Jay-Z instead of John Mayer. At the end of the “King Of Rock” video DeForest’s character has been forced to accept Run DMC as the kings from queens and ultimately the paradigm shift in the culture. Unfortunately the rock hall has not made that acceptance yet. And if rap artists and fans are uncomfortable with the hall’s process and selection they should contact KRS-One and Afrika Bambaataa to get a hip-hop museum off the ground. Because at the rate the museum is going LL Cool J, Slick Rick, MC Lyte, The Cold Crush Brothers and so many more important figures will never make it into the hall and receive the recognition that the most influential genre of music of to span the last five US presidents deserves.