NEW YORK: Folk legend Joan Baez called for a new era of activism and slain rapper Tupac Shakur was hailed as a nuanced hero Friday as they entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Grunge icons Pearl Jam, progressive rock leaders Yes, the experimental Electric Light Orchestra and arena packers Journey also were inducted into the rock shrine at the gala in New York.
Tupac, who was killed in 1996 at age 25 in a still murky Las Vegas shooting, was introduced by his contemporary Snoop Dogg, a fellow force in creating gangsta rap in California.
“You’re gonna live forever. They can’t take this away from you, homey,” Snoop Dogg said as he hoisted the Hall of Fame trophy toward the sky.
Alicia Keys on piano led a medley of songs by Tupac — who was born in New York but strongly associated with the West Coast — before the packed Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Snoop Dogg called Tupac “the greatest rapper of all time” and described themselves as “two black boys struggling to become men.”
Portraying Tupac as more complicated than caricatures, Snoop Dogg said: “To be human is to be many things at once — strong and vulnerable, hard-headed and intellectual, courageous and afraid, loving and vengeful, revolutionary and, oh yeah... gangsta!“
One of the leading protest singers in the 1960s, the 76-year-old Baez said: “Now in the new political cultural reality in which we find ourselves, there is much work to be done, where empathy is failing and sharing has been usurped by greed and lust for power.”
She urged the crowd to “double, triple and quadruple” attempts at empathy.
Tupac mourned, Baez urges activism at Hall of Fame
Tupac mourned, Baez urges activism at Hall of Fame
Egypt’s grand museum begins live restoration of King Khufu’s ancient boat
- The 4,600-year-old boat was built during the reign of King Khufu, the pharaoh who also commissioned the Great Pyramid of Giza
CAIRO: Egypt began a public live restoration of King Khufu’s ancient solar boat at the newly opened Grand Egyptian Museum on Tuesday, more than 4,000 years after the vessel was first built.
Egyptian conservators used a small crane to carefully lift a fragile, decayed plank into the Solar Boats Museum hall — the first of 1,650 wooden pieces that make up the ceremonial boat of the Old Kingdom pharaoh.
The 4,600-year-old boat was built during the reign of King Khufu, the pharaoh who also commissioned the Great Pyramid of Giza. The vessel was discovered in 1954 in a sealed pit near the pyramids, but its excavation did not begin until 2011 due to the fragile condition of the wood.
“You are witnessing today one of the most important restoration projects in the 21st century,” Egyptian Tourism Minister Sherif Fathy said.
“It is important for the museum, and it is important for humanity and the history and the heritage.”
The restoration will take place in full view of visitors to the Grand Egyptian Museum over the coming four years.
