RECAP!!! : BET Awards 2014

 The real place where black people meet.
 

 Every summer #blacktwitter gathers together over a Pizza Hut dinner box armed with their phones to participate in a nationwide roast session of our favorite celebrities. From the demolishment of Bow Wow’s (excuse me, Shad Moss -__-) name change during the pre-show to the nationwide curve by the Carter’s with a prerecorded performance to end the show. In between the luke warm performances, the show hosted by the semi-funny Chris Rock, managed to  fit in a moving tribute to the late Maya Angelou and Ruby Dee as well as a few other good surprises. Check out a few of my favs:

 

Chris Brown is BACK!!

 In exchange for a temporary hosting job for his ride or die Karrueche (well played Che’) ,BET dusted the jailhouse rust off of Chris Brown with a performance of his sleeper hit Loyal.  A tad bit winded, Breezy gave his diehard fans some reassurance that his highly anticipated return was soon among us.  Despite his dizzying plaid dress/shirt and a little body fluffiness, Chris managed to pump out a couple of dance moves while sounding pretty decent. Armed with a dance break and a Travis Barker drum solo, Breezy gave a pretty decent performance. The fact that Chris can break the law numerous of times and still manage to dance his way back into our hearts every year says a lot about his talent and how desperate we are to make him the Michael Jackson of our generation.  Depending  on Chris staying out of jail , his  highly anticipated album, X  is expected to his stores in August.

Light Skinned Overload

Yas!!

The only one left off this roster was Drake.  After a year of drama, the industry’s new asshole; August Alsina and Trey Songz appeared to have kissed and made up enough for Trey to come out and save August’s declining performance.  And just to moisten panties even more, Chris Brown came out to join the performance of I Love This Remix.  While August’s hit is annoyingly catchy at best, just seeing all three of this generation’s R&B saviors on one stage was great to look at. No, but really. My hormones couldn't take it.

Throwback!!!!

 

It's like watching your drunk uncle and his friends singing Freak Me Baby..kinda awkward.

 

Speaking of feeling some kind of way: The BET awards are known for being completely random with the performances, but when 90’s throwback groups , Troop, Color Me Bad and Silk took the stage,  a generation of people who were not old enough to know what the lyrics to  Freak Me Baby  really meant, let out a nationwide scream. While we were all excited to hear the music and probably too busy singing along to hear them, Silk sounded like they missed a few rehearsals. Not to mention, watching the age- stricken members of our  favorite groups from the baby making era bump and grind like it was 1998, made the audience feel some kind of way. And not a good kind of way. On top of that, the tribute was way too short and unfinished. Where was Boys II Men? Jodcei?, Tyreese?  The possibilities for that segment were endless. Great concept BET, but could have been executed a little better.

The "Curve" of the Year

Its much better in person.. trust me

No awards ceremony is complete without the Carter’s right? Considering that Beyonce and Jay Z only make an appearance at the BET Awards every 4 years or so, nobody should have been surprised that the two were not in attendance. Even though people knew that Queen Bey and King Jay were on tour. Even though people knew they were on the other side of the country. Even though people knew that that even with the fastest of jets planes, it would have been physically impossible for Bey and Jay to make it to LA from the east coast in time for the show.  BET still got people to watch the entire 3 hour show, with the possibility that the Carter’s would be there. And just as expected, BET aired the prerecorded performance of Partition from the Cincinnati, Ohio show the night before.  Despite the disappointment, even people who were in attendance at the concert the night prior sat and watched Bey shake her ass.  Bey and Jay  curved the world last night

 

 

BET rounded up the usual suspects ( John Legend, Ledisi, Yolanda Adams) to pay tribute to Lionel Richie for the Lifetime Achievement Award

 

Just when people thought BET had forgotten about the passing of our icons this year, the beautiful Phylicia Rashad gave a chillingly, inspiring tribute to the late Ruby Dee and Maya Angelou. The beautiful monologue was followed by a Bobby Womack tribute performance by Tyrese that BET didn’t feel was important enough to air more than 45 seconds of. -_-

 

Allegedly Tyrese bodied "If You're Lonely Now" by Bobby Womack but we will never find out because BET cut it off in mid high note -_-

 

Tay’s Best Dressed:

Paris Hilton- Michael Costello

 Let's ignore the "B" in BET  and appreciate the white hotness of this dress

Tay's Worst Dressed

Zendaya

 Even after dropping form the Aaliyah bio pic, young Zendaya still found the need to adorn herself in this “urban” inspired number especially for the BET awards. -__- . I don’t know, but I don’t even think Aaliyah could have pulled this off.

 

 

 

 

Why Y'ALL Mad? : Aaliyah-One In a Million:The Movie

Lets be real, nobody is going to capture this beauty 100%. We better be happy with what we cant get.

Producers can sometimes get away with a good biopic without ensuing a social media riot like the new James Brown film. But other “more sensitive” fan bases won’t accept any sort of posthumous project to be created in the honor of their favorite dead celebrity. Fans of the late Aaliyah, top the list of people who need a life.

The Disney kids win again -__-

Nearly 13 years after the untimely death of the great songstress, news was released that Disney star Zendaya will receive the daunting pressure of playing Aaliyah in the upcoming Lifetime movie. (What? VH1 lost out this time?) And just like anything that anyone tries to put Aaliyah’s name on, fans took to their keyboards and IPhones to protest the project. And those who weren’t busy signing a petition to stop the movie production all together, were up in arms about why the biracial Shake it Up star wasn’t an exact, identical match to Baby Girl. (God help the poor soul that has to cast the Beyonce movie in the future)

While likeness to a star does make biopics more believable, the ability of the actor to imitate the intended star is more important. While people are mad that Zendaya’s side part isn’t on the right side, people should be more startled that they got a Disney star to shoot a Lifetime movie. The terms “Disney” and “Lifetime movie” should never be used in the same sentence unless proceeded by the phrase “…..make the corniest movies ever” .

And here's an unpopular opinion: physically, Aaliyah isn’t that hard to imitate. One of the reasons we loved Aaliyah is because she looked like a way prettier version of that pretty girl you hated in high school. She was relatable. She was every man's dream because she was “obtainabley unobtainable” with an angelic voice. (Pretty much the girl version of Drake) With the right crop top and the perfect side part bang, Zendaya should nail the part physically.

However, like the rest of the world I will have my tissues gathered when the movie airs in late December. The story of Aaliyah is movie worthy let’s just hope Ms. Zendaya can do Baby Girl some justice.

What do you think?

The power lies in the side bang..could make or break the whole movie.



Eh....this could work, I guess.





 

Now my vote has always been with Kesha Chante'



Physically? Kesha would have tapped it. Oh well. We'll just have to see what young Zendaya can do.



XSCAPE- Michael Jackson ( yes, its worth listening to)

  

Not a fan of the album art tho..kinda creepy

Five long years without the King of Pop, the money hungry Jackson empire has yet again released a project in honor of Michael Jackson, and they might have gotten it right this time. After hearing the last 10 albums from the late Tupac and Biggie, one cant blame the public from not fully accepting posthumous albums. Add in the musical hot mess someone created back in 2010 (Michael,2010), the news of a new Michael Jackson album wasn’t something people’s panties were getting knotted for.

A combination of 1983-1999 recording sessions, producers, Timberland, J-Roc and LA Reid were able to breathe some life back to King of Pop, even if it was for 35 minutes. Recognizable Timberland rhythms are used as the backdrop while the grittiness of Michael’s voice is brought to the forefront to create a few timeless hits.  The magic of the project lies in the ability each of the  8 tracks has in  mirroring each era of Michael perfectly. Songs like Slave to the Rhythm can be easily recognized from the Dangerous era while the smooth love ballad Loving You sounds like the 12^th song of the Bad album.

While the album isn’t perfect, its as good as we are going to get without MJ himself hovering over Timberland’s shoulder. In some songs like Blue Gangsta, its obvious Timberland was attempting to play catch up with the already mixed and mastered vocals of Jackson. The deluxe version of the album provides the original recorded tracks which are just as moving as the Timberland touched versions.

This album is almost a double edged sward. XSCAPE was such a success that it is almost a predictor of the tragic, epic fail of the next Michael Jackson album. I think one of the magical things in music is that it is insight into the mind of the artist (or song writer) and it’s the artist job to bring that vision to life though songs, videos and performances. Unfortunately, because of the King of Pop’s untimely death, that magic went in the tomb with him. Although Timberland was about to resurrect it temporarily, I don’t think lightning would strike twice. Overall, I’d rule the posthumous project a success, but I’d like to use this as my formal request to the estate to quit while they are ahead.