BET Awards Rap Up:
Usher started it out with a solid set of Love In This Club (check out this cover) that was disappointing only because of no cameo appearances.
Kanye wins Best Hip Hop artist over Lil Wayne, and then brings Wayne up on stage with him, praises Wayne, and leaves without saying Thank You to anybody.
T-Pain has a carnival circus performance that is all that is both good and bad about rap. Seriously I thought it was hilarious. Rick Ross is a joke. T-Pain is a joke. DJ Khaled is a joke. But damn it I love the I'm So Hood Remix.
Alicia Keys performs without a piano and then does a best of girl groups and brings out En Vogue... that took me back.
Somewhere in there there was this ridiculous spoof on Angelina Jolie and Madonna for adopting black children from Third World Countries where a black female adopted three white kids and challenged all the rappers in the audience to adopt white kids because it will help improve their credit rating.
It was ignorant as hell, but it was also pretty funny.
Then T-Pain and Kanye won an award and that was just coonage. Tpain approaches the stage in slow motion, while Kanye rants about how great T-Pain is and then adds insult to injury by reminding us that he is the King of this game and so we have to listen to him because his opinion counts. Once slow walking T-Pain (who is seriously going to be the next Flavor Flav) approached the stage he talked about how he couldn't get into this show two years ago.
I don't know it was a lowlight for me, very two years ago in fact.
But the Al Green tribute section was a real treat. Jill Scott, Anthony Hamilton, and Maxwell all sang covers and then the man himself took the stage and just really put on a show. It might have been a lifetime achievement award but Al Green put most of the young current performers to shame!
In a weird twist Weezy F Baby accepted the viewer's choice award with a passionate tribute to God. And he brought up his entire family. Did I mention the passionate tribute to God. Bizarre.
The only thing good about Lil Wayne's performance was the last verse of Milli. Seriously T-Pain ruined it. I think I would have rather have seen Kanye - say what you want but Kanye is going to give his 110% every time he steps on the stage - tonight Wayne seemed like he was still warming up.
Overall the BET Awards was really good this year. I never thought I would say this but BET is redeeming my faith in black people.
Oh, and I want to marry Alicia Keys.
Hahah...wats really good Art Star pham!?
It's about to get real later on in this post.
However first if you have a chance check out the 1987 movie Wall Street.
For now listen to this speech about greed being good
Another character in the movie says, "I don't go to sleep with no whore and I don't wake up with no whore. That's how I live with myself. I don't know how you do it."
I know many people are, in the words of Black Thought, "paper chase motivated". But when do we draw the line between making money and sleeping with whores.
It seems like Nas has drawn the line by NOT naming his new album Nigger
I was ready to kick down something when I heard Be A Nigger Too. Had cats from high school calling me wanting to know how I felt. Thought Nas was about to do something, start some riots, confuse the hell out of white people.
Even Alicia Keys had his back.
But alas Walmart and the forces that be caused Nas to change his opinion. Or maybe he just felt like he might become an irresponsible black person.
Still, when there is ignorant shit like this in the world, I can't help but wish that Nas was still dropping an album called Nigger.
Or maybe I'm just ignorant and what he is really trying to say is Negus
Or maybe we just all eventually find that whore.
