Paid In Full Foundation’s Inaugural Hip-Hop Grandmaster Awards: Rakim, Scarface, Doug E. Fresh, Nas And More

Marc Griffin and Datwon Thomas
·5 min read
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Rakim and Scarface were honored on Friday (Nov. 17) for their many contributions to Hip-Hop. The Paid In Full Foundation’s inaugural Hip-Hop Grandmaster Awards showed love to the legends at Las Vegas’  Keep Memory Alive Event Center, designed by world-renowned architect Frank Gehry. The atmosphere was grand on the walk-in, even with the entrance being dedicated to Hip-Hop’s birthplace of New York with a bodega style store, the Bronx’s 1520 Sedgwick Avenue building facade and photo installations of Ra’ and ‘Face. The dining area was luxe with a faint purple tint throughout the venue. Celebs in attendance included TV journalist Gayle King, actor Terry Crews, Rap-A-Lot Records founder J. Prince and more.

In the spirit of the culture, media/art legend Fab 5 Freddy MC’d the ceremony along with New York Times best-selling author and activist Shaka Senghor. Rap icons Nas and Ice Cube, gave heartfelt and at times humorous speeches honoring both Rakim and Scarface with dual Hip-Hop Grandmaster Awards. The awards also came with rings to symbolize their elevated statuses. Scarface immediately put the shiny jewel piece on his left pinky when he opened the box on stage. “I’m at a loss for words…I’m really grateful that people would even consider me to receive something so prestigious as a Grandmaster…thank you so much, I really appreciate it,” Scarface said with grace.

The Hip-Hop Grandmaster Award includes a financial stipend for the recipients. As per the official press release, “the award is intended to empower the artists to further their creative and artistic endeavors.”

Speaking to Paid In Full’s mission statement, Ben Horowitz, co-founder of the organization, highlighted the urgency in lifting up Hip-Hop’s greats: “The story of Hip-Hop is a story of young people who saw something that they could do that would change the world, something they could create that would make everyone’s life different. It was a crazy idea, but they decided to do it at tremendous risk to themselves,” Horowitz said in his opening remarks. “The people in the music industry didn’t want to play it on the radio, or sign anyone, it was an ‘against all odds’ kind of idea, but the most amazing thing is that they did it anyway. They created the most important musical artform in the last 50 years with a whole culture behind it– dance, fashion, everything.”

Horowitz curated the event with the Paid In Full board of directors, which include Ben’s wife Felicia Horowitz (her opening speech set the festive tone for the night), business executive Steve Stoute, media mogul Michelle Ebanks and film producer Quincy Jones III. The selection committee who helps in choosing the recipients is comprised of an advisory board that includes Nas, Fab 5 Freddy, Video Music Box’s Ralph McDaniels and celebrity manager, Anthony Saleh.

In giving VIBE an exclusive statement, Horowitz continued on detailing the importance of the foundation and clarification on what the chosen received: “We were honored to have Jacob the Jeweler provide amazing rings. The mission of Paid in Full is to financially enable great artists to continue to bless us with their art. As part of that each recipient of the Grandmaster Award receives net $100,000/year after taxes for the next 5 years. In the future, the Foundation also aims to provide help to artists who have acute medical conditions or other hardships, but we have not yet developed that program. We will be working with our Grandmaster winners Rakim and Scarface to figure out the right size and format for those awards.”

The night was pure bliss for any true Hip-Hop fanatic. The run of show consisted of multiple performances by talented groups and soloists like, the booming sounds of The Pack Drum Line squad, powerful tap dance crew Syncopated Ladies, the electrifying moves of the BBoyz Dancers as well as the opening set super mix skills of DJ PZB. Senghor conducted an intimate fire side chat with Steve Stoute, Scarface and Rakim, where they detailed their love of Hip-Hop, their inspirations and what the night meant to them. Earlier in the evening, Rakim said this to VIBE about the honor: “[I’m] really at a loss for words. A lot of things go through your head, you know? Sacrifices and decisions that that I made. I always considered myself an underground artist, because I never really had big radio records. So, you get to the point where you realize, you doing it for a cause…you’re not doing it for the money. It’s a blessing man, that things like this come along,”

Having great artists like D Smoke on the piano, rapper IDK (who performed while the In Memoriam pictures flowed on screen behind him) and the strong vocalist Frenchie Davis bringing the audience to near tears with her singing, all added glory to the night. Extra special moments were also included in the show. Senghor having QD3 and Ralph McDaniels show archive video clips of Hip-Hop luminaries like LL Cool J, Queen Latifah, Rakim and Ye at such young ages wow’d the crowd. That moment gave justice to those artists seeing themselves and their purpose early in life and why Hip-Hop played such a pivotal role in their success.

After all of the love and admiration was shown, the one and only Doug E. Fresh rose from his front table seat, headed to the stage and commenced to break it in half with his high energy set and slew of classics like “The Show,” that had everyone from Nas to Flavor Flav dancing wildly. While at the table before his performance, Fresh summed up the evening and purpose of the awards ceremony perfectly to VIBE with these words:

“It’s very special for us to come together for something so important. Talking to Stoute, talking to Nas, Cube is here…You got to as they say, pay it forward and you got to also pay it backwards. That’s what it’s all about. It’s really that simple and if you can, you should. Rakim? That’s my brother. We been tight since day one. Same with Scarface, that’s my brother. I came out, nothing attached. Just to support what this is about.”

Check out photos from Paid In Full’s inaugural Hip-Hop Grandmaster Awards below.

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