Before Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince became television fixtures on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, the potential for them to dominate multiple mediums was evident.

Their first singles, "Girls Aint Nothin' But Trouble" and "One Of Those Days," were humorous, storytelling rhymes that could be easily visualized by the listener. The only element that was missing was a music video, which was still a rarity for rap in the mid-1980s. When the group merged visuals with the storytelling of The Fresh Prince, it gave them their biggest hit and led to their television sitcom debut.

"Parents Just Don't Understand" from their sophomore album, He's The DJ, I'm The Rapper, dominated MTV, made Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince household names, and earned them a Grammy.

The Grammys ignored the first decade of recorded rap, despite the multiple gold and platinum singles and albums that the genre produced. On February 22, 1989, the Grammys finally recognized rap as a genre when Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince won the first-ever Grammy. Because the category (Best Rap Performance) would not be televised, Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince led a boycott of the ceremony which included Salt-N-Pepa and LL COOL J who were also nominated in the category.

DJ Jazzy Jeff said at the time, “They televised 16 categories, and from record sales, from the Billboard charts, from the overall public’s view, there’s no way that out of 16 categories, that rap isn’t in the top 16.”

“It was a slap in the face, so we chose to boycott," The Fresh Prince aka Will Smith said. "You go to school for 12 years and they give you your diploma, then they deny you that walk down the aisle.”

The Grammys responded: "When you have 76 Grammy categories and you only have time to put 12 on the air, you've got 64 unhappy groups of people."

Although the initial relationship between Hip-Hop and the Grammy's has been a rocky one, with Public Enemy, Chubb Rock and other rap artists blasting the awards ceremony in their music over the years, things seem to be getting better. At the 65th annual Grammy Awards earlier this month, Questlove curated a Hip-Hop 50th Anniversary tribute performance that featured Public Enemy, Queen Latifah, Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5, Run-DMC, LL COOL J, Rakim, Ice Cube, and many more. A bigger Grammy-produced tribute is planned for later this year.