Cher, A Tribe Called Quest, and Dave Matthews Band Inducted Into Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s Class of 2024
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Cher, Q-Tip, Dave Matthews (Getty Images)
Cher, A Tribe Called Quest, Dave Matthews Band, and Mary J. Blige are all getting inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as part of the class of 2024. The other performer inductees are Ozzy Osbourne, Kool & the Gang, Peter Frampton, and Foreigner.
This year’s Musical Influence Award goes to Alexis Korner, John Mayall, and Big Mama Thornton, while Jimmy Buffett, MC5, Dionne Warwick, and Norman Whitfield will receive the Musical Excellence Award. (Interestingly, Buffett was not on the ballot this year, nor has the late singer-songwriter ever been nominated in previous editions.) Additionally, Suzanne de Passe, one of the first leading female executives in the music business and a figure in the Motown scene, will get the Ahmet Ertegun Award. The 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony will air as a special on ABC at a later date and stream on Hulu the day afterward.
Cher, Kool & the Gang, Peter Frampton, and Foreigner are making the Rock Hall after their first nominations. A Tribe Called Quest were nominated twice before this year in 2022 and 2023, Mary J. Blige got a previous nod in 2021, and Dave Matthews Band was in the running in 2020. Ozzy Osbourne is technically in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame already, but as a member of Black Sabbath—not as a solo act.
The artists who were nominated for 2024 induction but did not make the final cut are Oasis, Sinéad O’Connor, Sade, Mariah Carey, and Eric B. & Rakim. Last summer, O’Connor died after a lifetime of serving as inspiration for outspoken artists and finding inner strength.
Kate Bush, Missy Elliott, Sheryl Crow, Rage Against the Machine, Willie Nelson, George Michael, and the Spinners were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with the class of 2023. That’s one fewer performer inductee than this upcoming class.
In a statement, Margaret Saadi Kramer, wife of the late MC5 musician Wayne Kramer, said:
If you knew Wayne over the last half of his life, then you knew he was not one for personal accolades and that it was the intimate conversations with his fellow players about his influence as a musician and activist that had the most profound impact on him.
In his heart of hearts, he was kindred to those who had lost everything then discovered that change was possible in spite of — or perhaps because of — such a struggle. It was a struggle that never stopped informing his work as a bandleader, an activist, a father, and especially in the way he made himself available to his fans around the world. Ultimately, this joy belongs to them — for screaming from the rooftops from Bilbao to Tokyo, from the basements of London to his beloved Detroit — that MC5 were indeed deserving and that they should be lauded, not blacklisted, for fighting the power.
Yes, it’s bittersweet. Perhaps even the exact right thing at precisely the wrong time, yet, I’m certain he would have landed in gratitude for this recognition and received it like the beautiful free radical he was, an underdog victorious.
In anticipation of Tribe’s upcoming Pitchfork Music Festival appearance, check out some of their performance clips from the past and present.
Originally Appeared on Pitchfork
