Vice President Kamala Harris, Lil Wayne, Common and more Honor Hip-Hop’s 50th Anniversary at Washington D.C. Celebration: Concert Review

variety.com:

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Lil Wayne spoke for a lot of people attending Saturday’s “50 Years of Hip-Hop” celebration at the official residence of the vice president of the United States in Washington, D.C.: At the conclusion of his set, he thanked the audience and said, “I cannot believe I am here.” Vice President Kamala Harris also spoke for many of the approximately 400 assembled artists, executives, politicians, journalists and others when she said as part of her opening remarks, “Hip-hop now shapes nearly every aspect of American popular culture, and it reflects the incredible diversity and ingenuity of the American people.

I truly believe hip-hop is one of America’s greatest exports.” Although hip-hop has certainly received at least some of the respect it is due in recent years — nowhere near enough, considering it is indisputably the most important and influential cultural movement of the last half century — it was still surreal to be watching artists like Wayne, Common, Jeezy, Fat Joe, Remy Ma, Doug E.

Fresh, Slick Rick, MC Lyte and Madame Vice President’s fellow Oakland native Too Short performing on the front lawn of the residence, while the VP and her husband Doug Emhoff boogied from their VP-VIP area toward the back.

The two stayed for the entire event, which was staged in collaboration with the Recording Academy’s Black Music Coalition and Live Nation Urban, and took place under a brutal sun and stultifying humidity — until the clouds moved in during the last hour and a thunderstorm hit just after the event ended, sending any idlers scattering to their rideshares.A post shared by Jem Aswad (@jemaswad) Partygoers began gathering outside the residence’s gates around an hour before the official 11 a.m..