Ice Cube’s N.W.A won’t perform when they are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame tonight (08.04.16).
The ‘You Can Do it’ rapper and the hip hop crew, which also includes surviving members MC Ren, Yella and Dr. Dre, will be joined by Cheap Trick, Chicago, Deep Purple and Steve Miller, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, where they’ll all be added to the Hall of Fame, but fans hoping for them to play a live set will be disappointed.
Asked if they will perform together, Cube, 46, revealed: "Nah, we’re not performing. I guess we really didn’t feel like we were supported enough to do the best show we could put on."
The superstar MC – whose real name is O’Shea Jackson – claims it was the organisers who disallowed them to perform, but says he’s "honoured" and "humbled" just to be "inducted".
Asked if it was down to the organisers, he told The New York Times newspaper: "Pretty much, yeah. We wanted to do it on a whole other level, and that just couldn’t happen. But we’re totally honoured, humbled and appreciative to the Hall for even just considering us, inducting us and inviting us."
Meanwhile, the ‘Straight Outta Compton’ star also commented on KISS frontman Gene Simmons’ recent comments about rappers being inducted at the prestigious rock ‘n’ roll event.
He said: "I respect Gene Simmons, but I think he’s wrong on this, because rock ‘n’ roll is not an instrument and it’s not singing.
"Rock ‘n’ roll is a spirit. N.W.A is probably more rock ‘n’ roll than a lot of the people that he thinks belong there over hip hop. We had the same spirit as punk rock, the same as the blues."