2008 BET Hip Hop Awards: The Good, The Bad & The Gossip

The Performances were decent this year. TI opened the show with a few songs and brought Luda out on the stage to perform “On Top Of The World.  He made sure to claim his territory by yelling out “We run this city. BANKHEEEEEEAAAADDD!.   Shawty Lo won an award later in the show and ran off a list of people to thank before he responded to T.I with “oh yea, and T.I.  BANKHEEEEAAADD!”.  Hopefully that situation won’t spark another beef between the two…

Young Jeezy performed “My President is Black” from behind a podium, complete with an American Flag backdrop and black panthers. (or maybe the song was  “crazy world” what do i know) Nas performed “Hero” without Keri Hilson and had images of Barack Obama flashing across the screens.  Ice Cube performed with Musiq Soulchild. Common and N.E.R.D performed together and was joined later by Lil Wayne, T-Pain, Busta and more. All I know is that there were 6 rappers on stage swinging their hair, stomping their feet like they were killing roaches and screaming like Rockstars.

Lil Wayne and T-Pain performed “Can’t believe it”. I was a little annoyed that I could hear Lil Wayne’s real voice over the vocoder. Ludacris joined them on stage for “Chopped and Screwed”.  The highs of this performance was the chick on the stilts twerking it. Just stop and Imagine a stripper on stilts…

BET also Premiered the full length trailer of the new NOTORIOUS B.I.G movie. I used to think it was gonna be a straight to DVD type of movie but I’m now thinking it has potential to be a blockbuster hit. From the preview, it’s definitely a must see

Russell Simmons accepted the “I Am Hip Hop” Icon award and his speech was moving. LL Cool J presented the award and said “Remember back in the day, you were introducing me to everyone you knew and telling them I would be a big star and you would have this huge label. Well we did it!”.

Throughout the show, BET played footage from some sort of rap cipher that featured the likes of Bun B, Fabolous, Willy Northpole, Jada Kiss, some chinese rapper and more. It left me wondering three things: This is HOT!!!!, Is this chick really rapping in chinese and am I really supposed to be reading these sub titles !!! Who the hell is Corey Gunz and is he signed??<---i know i wasn't the only one thinking that...

SUPER HIGHLIGHTS

Veterans MC Lyte, Yo Yo, Lady of Rage and Salt -n- Pepa killed it! *stomps feet* killed it I tell ya!!! I had just asked last week “Where are the Women In Hip Hop” and BET responds back with this!! Insane. MC Lyte came out to “Rough Neck” and I somehow managed to remember every single word! Yo Yo was definitely trying to bring sexy back when she came on stage. I think her performance single handedly killed Lil Kim’s swag. Salt n Pepa performed Shoop, Pu and “What a Man” while images of Barack and Michelle Obama flashed across the screen.  The reoccuring theme of the night seemed to be “VOTE BLACK” with most of the performances dedicated to Barack Obama…

DJ Khaled won an award and somehow managed to thank every single person in the building. If they could have cued the music they would have….. He kept yelling in his best “We The Best” voice “I WORKED HARD FOR THIS!!!” Just as he was about to leave the stage, he comes back and names like 30 more people. By this time, I raised my hand wondering if I could get a mention… sheesh… It was one of the best moments of the night because you could tell he wanted it badly, so congrats to Khaled!

The Bad

Katt Williams abruptly pulled out of the show and was replaced with T-Pain.  T-Pain did far better than I expected..

The Game didn’t perform because his sister was shot earlier that day Pray for his family…

I enjoyed the Women of Hip Hop performance but where was Queen Latifah????? and where did they find Lady of Rage???

Speaking of women in hip hop, where the hell was EVE, Lil Kim and Foxy Brown on the red carpet??? I know they have something to promote other than their n*pples at random club parties. Are they boycotting??? Hell, even Lil Mama was missing…

Lil Wayne sipping his syrup on stage…

Jay-z and Kanye West were no-shows…

Plies performance.  Boring…Until Ne-Yo slid out on stage for “Bust It Baby”

Bow Wow and Soulja Boy closing out the show. WHAT THE HELL WAS BET THINKING?? Whatever happened to the saying “Go out with a Bang”.  MARCO POLO?????  Everyone was looking around like “what’s next?  …oh it’s over??

..and I’m guessing it didn’t help Bow Wow’s confidence that T-Pain introduced him as “one of the midgets in my circus” …

LIL WAYNE DOESN”T DO METAL DETECTORS
Lil Wayne was almost a “no show” for the awards show because he refused to get checked by security. Here’s the scoop from my homie Lowkey from over at Bet.com:

I saw the Martian trotting the OPPOSITE direction of the venue and thought to myself, “Nahhh, this can’t be happening”. Yup, you guessed it; Wayne wouldn’t come inside because he couldn’t skip the metal detector. I thought, “WHAT PERFECT TIMING”. I asked the brawny security guard about what just took place. Says Brawny Security Guard, “He approached the machine and said ‘They know I don’t do this’. He gave me a funny look and walked the other way” PRICELESS!!!!

If I’m not mistaken this is the same exact reason he didn’t perform at Fashion Rocks on CBS. I’m not sure what strings that were pulled but he eventually came in.

Fabolous almost didn’t get past security either

LIL WAYNE IS EXPECTING ANOTHER CHILD ANY DAY NOW…

Lil Wayne made a big announcement TWICE during the show that he was expecting a son any day now.  My first reaction was “WTF???” but everyone else’s first reaction was “BY WHO?” Now a few months ago I posted an email and photos from a fan that spotted Nivea at a Lil Wayne’s show rockin’ a huge rock and what looked like a baby bump.  It doesn’t help that Nivea has Lil Wayne plastered all over her myspace page with little smilies (signs of a girl that’s either in love or some fatal attraction).  Yesterday, Someone sent me a photo of Wayne’s first ex-wife Toya looking every bit of 9 months pregnant but I’m putting my bets in that the photo was taken when she was preggers with her first kid. Another email states that the person knows the girl who is pregnant by Wayne and she’s just a random jump off.   One thing is for sure, Wayne’s random baby is a hot topic…

THE REASON KATT WILLIAMS PULLED OUT…
Whatever happened to Katt Williams is still a mystery. I’ve heard everything from he was arrested early Saturday morning to he lost a bet to T-Pain.  Says Stephen Hill, “So we were all hanging out last night and Katt bets T-Pain couldn’t beat him in a break dance battle. Not knowing T-Pain was an extremely DOPE break dancer, Katt thought it was an easy win. T-Pain said if I win, I get to host the Hip Hop Awards.” - BET Blog

I’m hearing the real reason he pulled out was because of a disagreement he had with the production director of the show.  The weirdness of it all was hearing him on the radio later that night thanking BET for such a great weekend but I later found out that the show was pre-recorded two days beforehand..

Edited to say: What are the odds of me running into Katt Williams last night at the Bowling Alley!!!  Here is how the conversation went:

Necole: Hey Katt! What happened to you at the awards? They are saying you lost a bet to T-Pain

Katt: (gives me the “b*tch please” look) If anyone believes I’d bet my child support money on a break dancing contest with T-Pain, they must be stupid enough to think that I hangout with T-Pain

Necole: hmmm Ok, well here’s another one. I’m hearing you got arrested Saturday morning

Katt: (gives me the “do you really believe that?” look before he rolls his eyes then sips his drink)

I ended the conversation there…

COUPLED UP ….OR NOT

In case you are wondering, Ciara did not sit with 50 Cent (unless they did some seat rearranging that I don’t know about)…

Melyssa Ford has been playing arm candy to Music Executive/choreographer Devyne Stevens all weekend. She arrived to a party at the W Hotel with him Saturday night and again at the award show holding hands. Actually the two sat a row up from me during the show and she had that I’m leaning in on my boo, claiming my territory thing going so congrats on the come up. Womp Womp!!!! By the way, Melyssa is absolutely stunning in person… She’s my height though..

Diamond arrived with Lil Scrappy but they walked the red carpet separately. tsk tsk..they are still my favorite hood couple now that Fantasia and Young Dro are out of the picture…

A reader hit me up yesterday asking if Nelly was still with Ashanti since he was no where to be found at her birthday party last week.  In case you are wondering, Ashanti was not with Nelly at the awards either. I’m sure they both have busy schedules..

Jermaine Dupri was there but no Janet. He actually came in holding hands with someone else… His daughter..

OTHER TIDBITS

Juelz Santana was spassing a little after the show because he lost his scarf. Must mean alot..

Angel Lola Luv and 50 Cent?

maybe they just happened to arrive at the same time…

Lil Bow Wow cursed out Gyant (of SOHH.com). Apparently Gyant asked him what happened to the 100k that he was supposed to donate to charity after losing the Madden challenge against the Game. Hell, I wanna know too…

Monica tries out a new do

1 Major Security Breach

I find it funny that with rappers having a hard time getting in, a friend of mine was allowed all access to the venue. He somehow was mistaken for Head of Security because he was wearing a dark suit and shades. When he realized everyone thought he was a part of the security team, he started escorted celebrities to their seats and then he spent the rest of the show wandering backstage. Two hours earlier he was calling me to figure out how he was gonna get in the show.. Go figure!  (sorry BET, he won that one…)

The Photos

More from the red carpet *I’m told alot of artist missed the red carpet because they arrived too late*

View more photos from the carpet over at R Hagans

Additional Image credit: Wire Image

The BET Hip Hop Awards will air this Thursday, October 23rd at 8pm!

This post was sponsored by PZI Jeans.  Designed to fit the women with more in the hips and rear.  Finally jeans that fit!!!

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