NEW YORK — The late rapper Tupac Shakur and Seattle-based rockers Pearl Jam lead a class of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees including folkie Joan Baez and 1970s favorites Journey, Yes and Electric Light Orchestra.

The rock hall, in Cleveland, also said Tuesday it would give a special award to Nile Rodgers, whose disco-era band Chic failed again to make the cut after its 11th time nominated.

Although hardly a rock 'n roller, Joan Baez will be feted as one next April in Cleveland. Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

Baez will be inducted only months after her 1960s paramour, Bob Dylan, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

The hall’s 32nd annual induction ceremony will take place on April 7 at the Barclays Center. HBO will show highlights later, with SiriusXM doing a radio broadcast.

Shakur was shot and killed after attending a boxing match in Las Vegas in 1996. His death remains unsolved. “Changes,” “Keep Ya Head Up,” “Ambitionz Az a Ridah” and “Life Goes On” are among his best-known songs. He was 25 when he died.

Pearl Jam exploded in popularity from the start in the early 1990s behind songs including “Alive,” “Jeremy” and “Even Flow.”

Baez was a political activist and mainstay of the folk movement, performing at the first Newport Folk Festival at age 19 in 1959.

“I never considered myself to be a rock and roll artist,” Baez said Tuesday. “But as part of the folk music boom which contributed to and influenced the rock revolution of the ’60s, I am proud that some of the songs I sang made their way into the rock lexicon. I very much appreciate this honor and acknowledgement by the Hall of Fame.”

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