“Frankly, I was very surprised that we’d been nominated since we’ve been eligible for so long”, says Chicago co-founder/keyboardist Robert Lamm.
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“It’s hard to sum up exactly what it means”, Ice Cube says. Don’t tell anybody.’ I don’t think I’ve gotten any official thing.
The 2016 induction ceremony will be held in NY on April 8, and broadcast later in the year in the USA on cable channel HBO.
The five acts were chosen by fans and more than 800 voters of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation.
The sole act in the list of inductees that has a real, palatable relevance to the musical, social and political climate of today is N.W.A. With their 1988 debut album “Straight Outta Compton”, they epitomized the sound of gangsta-rap and encapsulated the pressure-cooker atmosphere of a south central Los Angeles plagued by drugs, poverty and heavy-handed policing.
The inductees join 312 other Hall of Fame legends.
Ice Cube, one of the group’s key members and a proficient lyricist reflected on what the inductions means for him personally and the group as a whole, “It means that the group’s mark is kind of solidified”.
“Thanks to all the fans who have supported us for all these years and to the Hall of Fame members who cast their votes”, said bass player Tom Petersson. We’re extremely excited and happy for that. “As a kid, I met Les Paul and Charles Mingus and a bunch of people like that, and they were musicians and that’s really what I wanted to be, so that’s where I set my goals”. After finding out about the news, which was announced early Thursday morning, the veteran singer, guitarist and songwriter issued a statement in which he made reference to some of the nicknames he gave himself in his classic chart-topping 1972 hit “The Joker”.
They are the fifth rap group to make it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, preceded chronologically by Grandmaster Flash, Run DMC, the Beastie Boys, and finally Public Enemy.
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This year marked Cheap Trick’s first nomination for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, despite being eligible since 2002.
