This year’s VH1 Hip Hop Honors went down a hit in New York yesterday. Performers included Public Enemy, EPMD, Biz Markie, Jim Jones, Juelz Santana, MC Lyte and many others.

The event also paid homage to the late R&B legend Isaac Hayes.

The 2008 Honorees were Cypress Hill, De La Soul, Naughty By Nature, Slick Rick and Too $hort. 

The show kicked off with the Cypress Hill tribute with an introduction by Freddy Rodriguez.

Fat Joe, Jim Jones and Gym Class Heroes drove the crowd insane with the group’s hit songs “The Phuncky Feel One,” “I Ain’t Goin’ Out Like That,” and “Insane In the Membrane.” Cypress Hill lit up the stage with performances of “DJ Scratch Intro,” “How I Could Just Kill A Man,” and “(Rock) Superstar.”

De La Soul were next to be honoured being introduced by Joy Bryant. Estelle, Mos Def, Chuck D, Flavor Flav, Cee-Lo and EPMD performed hits like “A Roller Skating Jam Named ‘Saturdays,’” “Stakes Is High,” “Potholes In My Lawn,” and “Ego Trippin.’” 

De La Soul then came out and did a medley of rhymes from ”Me, Myself and I” to a remix of “Buddy!”

The show then got ’slick’ with the legendary Slick Rick.

MC Lyte first performed “The Ruler’s Back.” and then Busta & Spliff Star performed “The Show”, which apparently ROCKED the show.

Then Biz Markie and Ghostface Killah came out to perform “La Di Da Di.” 

And finally Eve took the stage with her rendition of the eclectic hip hop chart topper “Mona Lisa.” Slick Rick then took to the stage performing “Hey Young World” and “Children’s Story.”

This was followed by a medley of artists took the stage to R&B legend Isaac Hayes.

Mos Def took the stage first, outfitted in dark shades, setting it off with the hit theme song from “Shaft.” Next British sweetheart Estelle performed a remix of “I Love You,” and Cee-Lo kept the crowd grooving with “The Look of Love.” Next on stage, Scarface dazzled the crowd with “My Mind Is Playing Tricks On Me.” Closing out this special tribute was Chuck D with “Black Steel In The Hour of Chaos.”

Next to be honoured was Too $hort.

Firstly Kid Rock took to the stage performing ”Life Is Too Short”, followed by Lil John with ”Shake That Monkey”  and a duet with Bun B of the electric “Blow the Whistle.”

After an intro performance of “The Ghetto” by Scarface, Too $hort got the crowd on their feet with “Gettin’ It” and “Money In The Ghetto.”

Bringing the show to a end, Wyclef Jean, Juelz Santana and Big Boi ripped the stage with the all-time favorites, “No Woman No Cry,” “Everything’s Gonna Be All Right,” and the monster hit “O.P.P.”

Naughty By Nature closed the show performing “Uptown Anthem” and “Hip Hop Hooray.”

Props to VH1 for the pics

The Vh1 Hip Hop Honors 2008 will be aired on October 6th in the States at 10/9c