Male R&B: Usher
Female R&B: Beyonce
Best Collaboration: Beyonce and Jay Z - "Crazy In Love"
Best New Artist: Kanye West
Best Group: Outkast
Best Gospel Artist: Yolanda Adams
Best Male Hip Hop Artist: Jay Z
Best Female Hip Hop Artist: Missy Elliot
Best Actor: Denzel Washington
Best Actress: Halle Berry
Best Male Athlete: LeBron James
Best Female Athlete: Serena Williams
Video Of The Year: Outkast -"The Way You Move"
Viewer's Choice: Usher - "Yeah"
Lifetime Achievement: The Isley Brothers
Humanitarian Award: Danny Glover
Personally, I was happy with every winner. I wish Anthony Hamilton could have won one, but all those who have heard his album know that his time to bring home trophies is inevitable. If you want an 'official' breakdown of the awards, check out http://www.bet.com/articles/0,,c3gb9985-11010,00.html. Of course, since you're at servinemup, the breakdown here is going to be a bit...different.
First of all, I didn't see all of the show when it first aired Tuesday night. As a matter of fact, I didn't even know it was on until my wife called me...
Baby..your girlfriend is on BET.
My girlfriend?? Beyonce??
No..your FIRST girlfriend…
Oh…uhhh..(all kinda wild sh’t started running through my mind)..uhhh..
Janet Jackson!!?!! Remember?? YOUR ‘gal’?
Oh! Her. Yeah..Janet is cool.
Don’t get me wrong, Janet is still fine, but I thought she was the finest back in those black jeans and Pleasure Principle days..she’s more slimmed down now (But we’ll talk more on ‘thick’ girls later, i.e. Monique). When I finally made it to a TV and turned it to the BET Awards show, Janet was already gone, but I was delighted to see the Sugar Hill Gang rocking the house. I was in Calion, Arkansas for the summer when Rappers Delight hit the streets in 1979. Even the country folks were jamming that..
‘I said a hip hop, hibby to the hibby de hip hip hop you don’t stop rocking to the bang bang boogie say up jump the boogie to the rhythm of the boogie-de-bee’
Ya feel me? So even though hip hop music got it’s origin on the streets of THE City, New York, it’s echoes reverberated all the way to the small country towns across rural America, Latin America, Africa, Europe, Asia. Danny Glover spoke on this power that today’s hip hop artist and generation have on the global scheme of society. Glover was the recipient of this year’s BET Humanitarian Award, which I think is the coldest honor to have on the public stage. When a person is able to make moves and mix it up with the heavy hitters of the world and then ‘flip’ that power toward a higher purpose such as humanitarian aid, that’s what I call winning.3Glover took a lot of flak earlier in his career for the controversial role he played in The Color Purple. He received a lot of hate mail and derogatory remarks based off his character Albert..the infamous rapist and wife beater in Alice Walker’s classic. If you’ve followed the career and social changes that Glover has championed throughout his career, especially his activism toward 3rd World Aid, then you’d realize that the hater he played as Mister is no way indicative of his huge and charitable heart. From sub-Saharan Africa to the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere, Glover has been on his hustle raising money and awareness to the plight of the world’s poor and oppressed. When giving his acceptance speech, Glover implored all of today’s young hip hop artist, actors and comedians to use their power of influence in a positive manner:
‘From New Guinea to South Africa, to Asia, France, Cuba, Haiti, Brazil all over the world people are closely observing and mimicking the culture which you expound’.
Of course, right after Glover gave his inspiring words of encouragement and socially conscious prodding to the crowd G-Unit came out on stage and performed Stunt 101 with a bevy off hoochie short clad female dancers shaking that az in the background. For those who don’t understand the words to that song, read ‘Hittin Licks’, you’ll learn a bit more about stunts.
As I was watching 50 Cent flow, I could only think about the young kids across the globe who were going to mimick his moves and words and aspire to be like him. Glover commended Haiti for celebrating it’s 200th Anniversary this year. That puts it right behind the United States as the 2nd officially recognized country in the Western hemisphere. The history of Haiti is very rich and real, and it’s a marvelous discussion model for the plight of the African slave descendents.
Introducing the award for Glover was Mel Gibson (via sattellite) and everyone already knows what Mel’s passion is. Watching all the award recipients accept their award is always an interesting topic of Christian discussion. Some Christians are Christians ‘On the DL’ and they don’t disclose their faith for public view. This is fine of course, because in the most political arenas of the media and big business, there is a pressure to not exclude any potential customers. Stay general as possible, so as not to offend or alienate. On the other hand, those who believe, know that if we’re going to be ashamed of believing in Jesus amongst others, then He’s going to be ashamed of us before God. So it’s always nice for me (as an out of the closet Christian), to see those artist who open their mouths and give all their praise and honor to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Of course, it’s quite often that the most vocal Christians, are the ones who have been through the most trying and troubling times and they know that Jesus saved them. That Isley brother who hadn’t been on stage performing in over 20 years, made sure he let everybody know. You can tell that he’s been through some thangs, and he willfully acknowledged his Savior. When you sit back and start adding up all the ways God has been good to you, it’s kinda hard to remain silent and not acknowledge Him.
Aiight…that’s Glover, 200 year anniversary of Haiti..G-Unit..social responsibility in our work, out of the closet Christians...let’s see, there was one other point I wanted to make sure to make..oh yeah. Monique.
I'm a Monique fan ya'll. Even more so after I saw her do Beyonce's 'Uh-ohhh!' dance while doing the 'thick girls' rendition of Crazy in Love. But Monique made me mad, because she gave away Denzel's part of the movie Man on Fire that I wasn't ready to hear. Of course, she's probably thinking that everybody that's going to PAY to see Man on Fire have seen it by now, but I haven't, and I didn't like her divulging that part of the movie. But she's still my girl though. I think Bob Johnson made her mad with that 'her dresses take up most of the budget' remark, but that's just how it goes with artists and the people who pay the bills. The most 'player' moment of the evening was when Bob Johnson issued a challenge of a wager to Jay-Z for their respective basketball teams this upcoming NBA season. Of course, Bob was on the microphone and Jay-Z was in the audience, but when the prospect of the amount to bet came up, Bob Johnson just looked at Jay-Z and smiled softly as he remarked.
Make it light on your self.
Mmmhmm...Jay Z has big pockets, but they're still not as deep as big daddy Bob's. So that's what you get when you watch the BLACK Entertainment Award show..black folks being entertaining. Usher's dance performance was awesome, the old school hip-hop medley had the whole house standing up and rapping along, Southside of Houston's own Yolanda Adams arrived onstage during Kanye West's Jesus Walks and brought the crowd to its feet, but the most entertaining performance (to me) was the Fire and Desire duo performance. Both singers looked like they've been through the fire and back, but no matter where they've been Tina Marie can still blow (no pun intended) and for those of you who didn't quite recognize the guy singing along with her? That's Rick James B&%$@!!!
