New York, October 2, 2008 – VH1’s fifth annual Hip Hop Honors pays homage to the hip hop luminaries who pioneered the genre.  We talked with some of them at the taping on Thursday.  The song “Rapper’s Delight” will be thirty years old next year, and to celebrate the Sugarhill Gang have a new album in the works, and are planning a world tour, and even a documentary film. “We’re working on a tell-all documentary which nobody’s seen before.  You know, the beginning of Sugarhill, the beginning of hip hop,” the guys told us at the VH1 show.   Wonder Mike said he expected their sound to be merely a local phenomenon at the time. 

Cypress Hill will be honored, and perform as well.  B-Real explained how the group gets psyched before every performance.  “We smoke a big fat doobie,” he told us.  Scarface thinks Sarah Palin is hot after he saw her in a bathing suit!  “On the Internet,” he explained when we looked startled 

Funny man Tracy Morgan hosts the show.  Presenters include Joy Bryant and Freddy Rodriguez, who came in from L.A. for the show because he’s a huge hip hop fan.  “It’s part of my upbringing; I’m a child of the late ‘80s, early ‘90s,” Rodriguez said.  “When I was in high school that’s all we would do; everyone would try to make up their own raps.”

Watch the VH1 Hip Hop Honors on Monday, October 6 at 10PM ET/PT

Photos: Caroline Torem Craig