Monday, June 28, 2010

BET Awards Recap: Chris Brown's Emotional MJ Tribute, Kanye's Return, Prince Gets Honored, Nicki Minaj's Win + More

The 2010 BET Awards aired live last night Sunday, June 27 and it was definitely a show to remember.

When the BET nominees were announced a few months back, I was nothing short of disappointed. I felt there were a bunch of people that deserved nominations that didn't get them and I was still feeling a bit sour courtesy of last years uncooked buffet of no thanks.

This year was much different.

 



Kanye West opened the show performing his song "Power", over-sized chain and all...

A lot of people were really excited for his performance mainly because it was his first televised performance since VMA-gate. It was dramatic and theatrical just the way Kanye likes it. I could have done without all the censoring...


There was the mountain touch that surely signified that he was above the nonsense. I was hoping to get a close up of his facial expressions as he rapped the lyrics to his song, but all I got was a view from afar; that was the one negative of the performance.


Host Queen Latifah took on like 15 characters (<---over exaggerated) throughout the show which looked exhausting. She entertained nonetheless.


Nicki Minaj took home her first BET Award for Best Female Hip-Hop Artist. She thanked her mentor Lil Wayne and her Young Money crew, and thankfully she left out the haters from her "thank you speech"; celebrities addressing faceless "haters" is so lame at this point, why even bother to acknowledge them if you're above it?

Speaking of Diddy...



Diddy gave an entertaining performance as per usual. It would have been even better if the smoke machine wasn't on steroids. Hopefully other performers in the future will realize that smoke and flashing lights combined may not be appealing to those who are sober. I also could have done without the lip-syncing which was very prevalent for most acts at the BET Awards.


It's funny how Eminem, T.I. and Drake's performances were not the talk of the net. I thought that they were the most popular at the moment. Also, Keyshia Cole performed with B.O.B. in her first televised performance since giving birth to her baby boy. Though her performance seemed like she was trying ultra hard, it was great to see her getting back in the swing of things.

I loved, loved, loved the Love Jones reenactment between Nia Long and Larenz Tate. I adore that movie and BET including that just did it for me.

This year's BET Awards ceremony represented a night of comebacks. Nothing made that more clear than Chris Brown's tribute to Michael Jackson.



Chris's performance was flawless. I haven't seen any other male R&B artist mirror Michael Jackson's dance moves the way Chris Brown did last night. Everything from the dancing silhouette to the moonwalk was done with accurate precision.


Though his performance was A-mazing, people were more connected with Chris when he broke down into tears while trying to sing Michael's "Man in the Mirror."



Perhaps it was the combination of the meaning to the lyrics of the song, Chris becoming overwhelmed by his tribute to his idol, along with the career rollercoaster he's been on following the altercation with ex-girlfriend Rihanna that made him show his inner feelings. Whatever it was, it was absolutely breathtaking.

Some people are not buying the performance and still feel Chris is evil. Others have even suggested that he was faking it. If he were, that was some impeccable acting and he should consider going after an Academy Award. I highly doubt it was an act though, that was just raw emotion and people aren't used to celebrities crying or showing any real human emotions, I gather.

You can't please everyone no matter how many times you apologize...

By the way, let's not forget that the most important people in this situation is Chris Brown and Rihanna, and Rihanna (the one that was actually harmed) has moved on to better things and appears to be quite content with her life; maybe those, who were not directly affected by the altercation, should consider doing the same...


The tribute to Prince was beautiful.


 Though I am not so familiar with his work with the exception of "When Doves Cry", "Little Red Corvette", and "Purple Rain", the performers that paid tribute to Prince such as Janelle Monae (who did an amazing job), Alicia Keys (who left me nervous when she climbed on top of that piano 5 months pregnant) Esperanza Spalding (representing for all natural women around the world) and Patti LaBelle (who caught the spirit and kicked off her shoes to emphasize her being taken by the music), did him justice.

I wanted to take a picture of the screen when Patti LaBelle and Chaka Khan stood next to each other as they presented Prince with the Lifetime Achievement Award, beautiful...

All in all, the BET Awards was entertaining and worth the 3 hours. Great recovery from last year.

Images: AP/Matt Sayles

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