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.

3 Reasons Why Outcast Got No Love at Coachella

 

 When the news dropped that Andre 3000 and Big Boi would be reuniting for the first time in nearly 10 years on the Coachella stage this summer, hip hop heads rallied together in excitement to scream, HEEEYYYY YAAAAA!!  It seemed like the hip hop gods had answered our prayers, or at least gave us something to hold us over until Dr.Dre finally releases the Detox album. But to the surprise of the duo and us broke people who had to watch the music festival on the Coachella website, the thousands of people who were honored to be in attendance weren’t as hype as blog sites had projected.

While the crowd appeared relatively receiving of the 20 year anniversary reunion, the attendees were not hype enough for hip hop wild boy Andre 3000. Three Stacks swag bounced in a hoodie and denim overalls with his quick lipped partner continuously asking the crowd

“Are yall alive?”

 “Are yall tired?”

“ Yall still with us?”

“ Are yall not entertained?!” throughout the set, to generic applause from the crowd. Andre’s frustrations with the lukewarm crowd led him to perform the award winning hit Hey Ya! (2004) with his back to the crowd.

Why was the crowd so lackadaisical as if they weren’t watching legends perform? Was the crowd really that dead or was Andre’s expectations of the crowd a little too high? Here may be some reasons behind the borderline disrespectful response.

1)    The Coachella Crowd

In hindsight, maybe the Coachella Valley Music Festival wasn’t the best place for such an anticipated reunion. Coachella is known for bringing hipsters out of the H&M’s in suburbia to partake in a 2 weekend vacation at their parent’s expense. With the festival's roots in rock and roll, the Coachella audience has been slow to fully accept hip hop acts despite Coachella’s past legendary hip hop performances. (Jay Z, Kanye, Wu Tang Clan ,oh and can’t forget Tupac) More than likely, the fedora wearing, Orange County, rich kids couldn’t do much but bounce off beat to Outcast’s non main stream hits. Hell even something as epic as a live Tupac hologram got a mild roar from the audience back in 2012. Maybe Andre 3000 would have gotten the hype that he was wanting from the OVO Festival or Essence Music Festival crowds.

2)    Energy Attracts Energy

Any artist interview will tell you that artist tend to feed off the energy of the crowd. If the crowd is hype, artists feed of that and turn up with them. I could feel Andre 3000’s disappointment from my lap top computer screen. I can only imagine the amount of doo doo that he made the crowd feel like. The high power, energetic Three Stacks that hip hop heads had grown to know and love had been reduced to careless, rehearsal mode by the end of the set. Not saying it wasn’t rude as hell to perform with your back to the audience, but the crowd got out of it what they put into it

3)  It has been 20 DAMN YEARS

Good music is timeless; especially good hip hop. (Don’t believe me? Play Party Up (1999) by DMX. If you’re not sweaty by the time the song is over; you’re not listening right) Outcast had me bouncing up and down on my couch but let’s be honest, Outcast didn’t do the dreaded “crossover” into main stream until 2004.  Even a young music enthusiast like myself had to  Shazam some songs. It’s been 20 years since their first album release. Add 7 years of silence from the group and you got a pretty mixed up audience. Do you know how many babies have been made in the past 20 years?! That’s two whole generations that have gone through totally different eras of music. The poor little ratchets that grew up thinking think that  Crank That Soulja Boy (2007) was a hip hop classic doesn’t know much more of Outcast than a few verses from Andre 3000 over the years. Its not necessarily Outcast’s fault that their old but maybe a compilation album of hits before Coachella would have introduced the new generation to the magic that is Outcast.

 

 

 

Good news: Outcast will have a chance of a real reunion at OVO this summer. Drake won’t accept anything less than mosh pit status from his Toronto audience.

 

 

Check out the mildly historic performance  HERE

 

 

 

 

 

 

Y U Mad Tay?: Why I Hate Kim Kardashian

Lawd, Geezus, it’s a fire! Kim Kardashian is on the cover of Vogue! Light the pitch forks!!

All the controversy and its not even one of Kim K's best pictures

I think seeing Kim K’s airbrushed faced on the cover of what is considered the “Holy Book of Fashion” was the final nail in the popular culture coffin for a lot of people. Looking deeper into it, the fact that people place a bounded publication on such a pedestal that they are ready to riot in the street over a face that popular culture has seared with a scarlet letter being placed on the cover is part of the reason why the Kardashian’s are able to add on to their multimillion dollar empire in the first place.

As much as people would like to claim that the Kardashian clan are a group of talentless attention slores, the disappointing truth is that they have the same talent that  millionaires on wall street have. They have the same talentless talent that the CEO’s of billion dollar corporations have. It’s the talent of making money. Any intro course in marketing will teach you the sure way to be successful in selling is find a niche in the market and attack it.

The Kardashian niche just so happens to be the stupidity, the insecurities and the material values of the American culture. The Kardashian clan does nothing but eat from the same plate the billion dollar beauty industry eats from. The Kardashian Empire is nothing but a mirror of the values of the greatest country on earth.

And nobody saw anything wrong with this. smh

                 Now as much as I would like to type this from my intellectual, moral high horse, I too shuttered at the sight of seeing a Kardashian face on the cover of such a “prestigious” magazine.  A page that was exclusively reserved for the air brushed faces of the talented, the beautiful, the fashionable and the influential now being clouded by a reality star and main stream America’s most hated black man? GASP! But once again the Kardashian’s have forced my morals into contradiction. My feminist mind rejoiced at the fact that a beautifully curvy women, who did not fit America’s blonde haired, blue eyed standard of beauty was on the cover of fashion magazine with such prestige. My fist welding, black power mind applauded seeing an interracial couple on a magazine reserved for the “traditional”. Considering the last time a black man was featured on the cover was in reference to King Kong; seeing a black man, in a fine tailored suit made me smile.

                 I have made conscious attempts to reprogram my mind to not judge a woman by what she does with her own vagina. Deeming Kim K a whore for liking successful black men has always seemed annoyingly misogynistic and just a popular form of slut shaming. Hell, I love successful black men too. Get ya swerve on girl!  But I think it’s what Kim K represents that is so unsettling. My discomfort stems from the fact that she has done all she has accomplished and achieve a status of celebrity that a slutty black girl could never achieve. My irritation stems from the fact that not only one person; but a FAMILY of people with no royal bloodline can become this rich and famous without having one talent in their gene pool other than proper posing ability. My anger brews from how one woman, can single handedly reconfigure the American dream for young women. Little girls don’t want to own a home with a white picket fence and dog. No. Little girls want to be in music videos, and be on a realty show, and do playboy covers.  Instead of possibly owning these huge companies passing out multimillion dollar endorsements, we want to put our faces on the bottles of tanning oils, and other beauty products that help young women maintain the infamous unobtainable standard of beauty.

                 My frustration is not with Kim K and her family. Hell, if someone offered me a million dollars and some change to take my picture, I’d give em poses from all angles all day long.  My anger is with the culture that we have adapted to that allows a rich girl with a sex tape to be famous and idolized. This culture has made way for many to exploit themselves and their families for our entertainment and amusement. Exploitation = millions. Why should we be mad at Anna Wintour for adapting to our new moral standards. She has to pay for her NYC townhouse somehow. (Want to know how much the Editor-in-Chief at Vogue makes?) Just because a person is late to the party doesn’t mean the party hasn’t already started.

Side Note: All controversy aside, baby Nori West is the cutest!!!

Nori: "Yall know ya'll only got this cover because of me right?"

 

Look for the cover on the April 2014 issue of Vogue. Unless that online petition passes..smh

Tay's Unpopular Opinion: 5 Artist We Have No Use For

Lets be honest, now a days the music worlds is full of BS.  Some of the BS we tolerate for the purpose of keeping the party going, or the tears flowing. While they are certain songs that are useless to us now, there are certain artists who haven’t been able to live up to the hype that they have generated with their first hit. Here are just a few artists that nobody would really miss if they fell off.

5.Tyga

Better seen, not heard.. you know if tatted up, Chris Brown look-a-likes are your thing

 

His hit  Rack City (2013) drew just enough hype for him to be taken seriously. Everything he has put out as of recently has been enough to draw a casual head nod. But just like everybody else on Young Money, (excluding Drake and Nicki Minaj), when Lil Wayne’s flame went out, he took the rest of his signed rappers into the freezer with him. Tyga made a feature on a few major songs, but his verse always seems to pop up when you think the song is over. And after hearing Tyga just ramble about hoes and money for a few seconds, you kinda wished the song would have ended a minute ago.   All of his verses sound like the vulgar thoughts of the typical male ego and lord knows nobody needs to hear that.

4.Ciara

Style, Beauty, Moves....musical talent? not so much

 

-Huuuh CiCi.  Every other year Ciara comes up scrapes up all the talent she has in her, to entertain us with another song. We watch the video to see what contorted dance moves she has made up, the song gets some airtime for about a month….and then we’re done. Ciara has been trying to convince us that she can sing for years, she even made a cable movie called Mama I Want to Sing (2011), to even try to convince herself to no avail.  Ciara is more entertaining to look at than she is to hear. She would be more respected as a choreographer, or a model. She could even dip her hand in song writing, assuming she writes any of her songs, but as a singer? After 6 years and 2 hits, it’s kinda time to hang it up.

3. Future

Better seen,not heard....hmm I'm sensing a pattern here

 

Hey, at least they look good.

-  When your engagement to another D-list celebrity draws more hype than your album, it’s time for a change. Yes, we jigged to Tony Montana (2012) for a while, and Same Damn Time (2012) got the club going, no doubt about that, but really if we never heard Future’s voice again, would the party stop? No. Similar to his 4^th baby momma, Ciara, Future is a lot better to look at than he is to be heard. Future sounds like he’s drowning and Ciara sings like she dying a horrible, painful death half the time. I don’t know if making subpar music is what brought them together, but if these two got married and locked themselves in  a mansion and were never heard from again, they wouldn’t be missed. Fortunately for them (and Future’s 3 other baby mommas) having a mediocre music career plays well.

 

2. Big Sean

And again... I can look at him all day

        -It kinda hurt to add this one to the list but once again, if your engagement to another D-list celebrity draws more attention than your album, someone isn’t doing their job. Now Big Sean is probably the only one on this list who actually has the talent to be removed. Not sure if it is shotty management or Kanye's GOOD Music label has inherited Diddy's Bad Boy label curse. What ever it is Big Sean isn't quite as big as he should be.  He has all the makings to be a hip hop legend.  Good word play, endorsement by a hip hop legend, and moderately good looks, but for some reason, something isn't catching on. On paper, Big Sean has a verse on pretty much all the major hits of this generation, but his generally good verses are easily overlooked. Hopefully that flop of an album he released recently won’t be the end of him.

1. Keyshia Cole

Better seen....nah, nevermind

 

        - Keyshia managed to resurrect R&B with her first couple albums. Even if you didn’t like her music, her reality show made you feel bad enough for her to buy it. But once the sympathy wore off, people realized she sounded like a dying cat. Keyshia was supposed to be the next Mary J Blige but once all of her songs started sounding the same, we gave up on that dream, leaving Keyshia’s next 2 albums in the clearance bin at Walmart. People blame her marriage to Daniel Gibson for her musical down fall, because of course no one wants to hear happy R&B music.  But since a typical Hollywood divorce is anticipated for the two of them soon, maybe people will feel bad enough for her to buy her albums again.

Man Crush Monday!!!: Idris Elba

In preparation for the release of the bio-pic of the century Mandela:  Long Walk to Freedom due in theaters Christmas Day, this week’s Man Crush goes to the long time sexiness of Idris Elba.

 

I may be a little out of my age bracket with this one...but credit must be given when credit is due.

 

About every 5 movies that have been released in the past 10 years have featured a performance by the amazingly talented Idrissa Akuna Elba. The sexy Elba is of African descent (Ghanaian and Sierra Leonean) , but gets his sexy on-again, off-again accent from Hackney, London, England. Idris first caught women’s eye for his role in the HBO series, The Wire.  Yet another diamond in the rough in Hollywood, Elba manages to capture audiences whenever he is on screen. He made us hate him in American Gangster (2007) opposite Denzel Washington, had us on the edge of our seats in Takers (2010), and made us all cry in Tyler Perry’s: Daddy’s Little Girls (2007). His most memorable role will be his most recent film, portraying the South African president and anti- apartheid leader, Nelson Mandela in the long awaited Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. His performance will carry a little more weight than before since the recent passing of the heroic politician. Given Elba’s track record for capturing audiences, he should definitely do the icon, Mandela some justice.

 

YAS!
 

 



This is how I now I'm out of my age range with this one because I still had parental controls on my tv when HBO'S  The Wire had the most hype.

 

Idris has already been nominated for Best Actor in a Motion Picture in the Golden Globes. The movie itself is nominated for 3 awards.

Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom is due in American theaters on Dec.25. It is also anticipated to be the longest movie ever made since the VH1 Michael Jackson movie. (That is not an official fact, just Tay's expectation)

Sorry ladies this MCM is married, with a baby on the way...And she's cute. Triple blow to the heart, I know  -_-



We cant look tho...  ;-)

Stalker Notes :   
                               Twitter: idriselba