This Rapper ‘Hurt’ Questlove by Turning Down ‘Grammys Salute to 50 Years of Hip-Hop’ Event

While many viewers enjoyed the highly-anticipated “Grammys Salute to 50 Years of Hip-Hop” that aired on CBS Sunday, the program’s executive producer Questlove shared his slight disappointment over the non-involvement of one influential figure: MC Hammer.

Responding to tweets during the show — specifically the question of which artists turned down performing at the special event — Questlove revealed that Hammer’s absence was one that “hurt” the most.

“Of all the ‘No’s’….Hammer hurt the most. We really wanted him to have his flowers,” he said in one response, before clarifying in a later tweet that MC Hammer was invited and even asked to open the show but ultimately declined.

For those curious about Hammer’s “no,” we might have something of an explanation as to why he turned down that event — and every Hip-Hop 50th anniversary event to which he was invited.

“I really don’t have the patience for the fakeness,” he said in a resurfaced clip during a November street renaming ceremony for Tupac Shakur in Oakland, Calif. “I’m really 60 years old. I can’t get with the fakeness of it all. I can do it with a young cat, but I can’t come around old cats and still be pretending. What you want me to call you? ‘Six Shooter, aye Six Shooter!’ Man come on man, ain’t none of your bodies turned up yet? I just can’t do it.”

Though the lack of inclusion of MC Hammer and other legendary acts including Wu-Tang Clan and Ice Cube may have made some folks upset, the event itself thankfully went off without a hitch.