What a way to kick off Super Bowl weekend!
The Roots, Run DMC and Busta Rhymes were all on hand at the Bud Light Hotel to pay tribute to hip hop in New York City at the "Roots Present Hip Hop NYC" concert Thursday night.
And they rocked the house.
The three-hour performance took fans on a ride through the history of hip-hop with The Roots kicking off the show with covers of several classic hip hop songs like Nas' "The World is Yours" and Big Daddy Kane's "Ain't No Half-Steppin'."
Before Jimmy Fallon's hip hop band hit the stage, drummer Questlove gave us his thoughts about the event.
"The Roots have always been sort of the conduit or the epicenter of these sort of communal shows," he told E! News. "We try to have a collaborative effort going on with some of our peers. Really, it's just about us having the best seat in the house and we'll dress it up and say it's a tribute to hip hop, but really it's just an excuse to watch the acts that both Black Thought and I grew up on."
Meanwhile, Busta Rhymes strayed from performing his latest hits and instead rapped his classic, "Woo-Hah!! Got You All in Check," among others.
Speaking of famed hip-hoppers, Run DMC—Rev. Run and Darryl "DMC" McDaniels—performed their old-school hip-hop hits like "Run's House" and "King of Rock."
And there were special guests to boot, with De La Soul, Naughty By Nature, Doug E. Fresh, Slick Rick and more all hitting the stage to spit their lyrics.
Prior to those performances, sports stars like Cam Newton, Drew Brees and many more headed to the EA Sports' Madden Bowl, where they went head to head to take home the coveted Madden Bowl XX championship trophy.
Before taking his seat at a gaming station, Brees got nostalgic about his Super Bowl win with the New Orleans Saints in 2010, telling E! News, "It's good when you have the opportunity to play in this game and win it and you're a world champion for life."
"The memories you carry from that game, teammates, the journey is just special. It's nothing like it."
After a heated match-up between Philadelphia Eagles player LeSean "Shady" McCoy and Carolina Panthers star Newton, it was McCoy who left the event with some serious bragging rights after he edged out Newton for the Madden Bowl victory.