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Q-Tip became emotional during his acceptance speech during A Tribe Called Quest's long-overdue induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
On Saturday night, October 19, the prolific rap group attended the 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction ceremony at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Ohio. Dave Chappelle introduced the group before they took the stage to thank as many people as possible. After shouting out the other inductees and the group's respective families, Q-Tip saluted ATCQ's fallen member Phife Dawg, who passed away in 2016.
"Rest in peace to our brother Phife Dawg. I wish you were here," he said before he choked up on stage.
Later on, Q-Tip explained how he and his best friend Phife were inspired to pursue their legendary careers in the music business after they heard "Rapper's Delight" in 1979. From there, they assembled their crew including Jarobi White and Ali Shaheed Muhammad, who could not make it to the ceremony. The group went on to release six studio albums including their final 2016 LP We Got It from Here... Thank You 4 Your Service, which was a tribute to the late Five Foot Assassin.
Prior to the group's speech, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame played a video that described the impact A Tribe Called Quest had on Hip-Hop. The video included testimony from Questlove, Common, Lauryn Hill, Andre 3000, Pharrell Williams and Busta Rhymes, who was a member of the New York-based rap group Leaders of the New School and the Native Tongues collective with ATCQ and De La Soul.
As soon as the group wrapped up their speech, DJ Maseo of De La Soul and The Roots kicked off the all-star performance that paid homage to A Tribe Called Quest. The set began with Native Tongues alum Queen Latifah who came out to perform "Can I Kick It?" De La Soul's Posdnuos and The Root's Black Thought teamed up to deliver "Check The Rhime." Common hit the stage to bring "Bonita Applebaum" to life followed by Busta Rhymes, who performed his verse on "Scenario."
In case you missed it live, you can watch A Tribe Called Quest's induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame below.