Hillary for President!
8 years ago
Monday, June 29, 2009
Happy Monday!
So...where to begin...?
First of all, I want to start off by saying something positive about the awards. I think it must have been hard for them to switch gears after the untimely death of a musical icon. No one saw it coming, so I applaud BET for trying to pay tribute to Michael Jackson.
We'll get back to that...but now...the buffoonery.
Was it me, or was anyone else disturbed at the fact that young girls came onstage with Drake while he and Weezy were singing a song about f*ckin every girl in the world? The song itself is suspect to me...but the underage girls on stage...well...I don't even know what to say about that. Really?
And why even bother performing if you have to bleep every word in the song? No other song to sing? And only BET could manage to miss the 8 second delay EVERY time. Nice.
...and they came on after Maxwell's performance.
IG-NO-RANT.
Ms. Keri Baby....ummmm???
I was excited with the old school appearances by Keith Sweat, Guy and BBD - but they should have practiced more. I spit out my juice when I read Pretty Ricky's status update on FB - when he wrote that Aaron Hall sounded like dude from The Five Heartbeats... talking about "nights like this I wish...that raindrops would faaallll" LMAO!!!
Was ole girl really in the bathroom...did Zoe really tell us that?
We could have done without Soulja Boy.
And who's idea was it to let Don Cornelius present? They had to know...he was just going and going and going....
Eddie Levert talking about dancing "and shit"....wow.
Joe Jackson looked like he was having a lil bit too much fun if you ask me.
T-Pain and his "Big Ass Chain"...(sigh)
What was up with the "Baby Boy" skit? They should have stopped after "I hate'choo Jody!" - but no...they had to bring out Ving Rhames. Buffoonery.
I'm STILL mad at Weezy and Drake...and Birdman. Huh?
And the promos for BET's upcoming shows? Tiny & Toya? Frankie & Neffie? Baby Mamas and Crack Heads...real nice.
I agree Ricky...I think I am officially "too grown" for BET.
**************************************************************
Let me stop being a Negative Nellie - let me give a few props:
Beyonce sang "Ave Maria" - interesting...and sounded great (but maybe I'm still on my Beyonce high from Friday)
Monica sounded great!
NeYo sang beautifully. If it wasn't for Michael Jackson there would be no NeYo.
(Pretty Ricky - leave his head alone) :-)
Jigga - DOA - ripped it!
Maxwell - can't help but be a lil bit sticky after he finishes singing...might have to go see him again :-)
Alicia Keys is gorgeous...and so sweet! Wyclef - did he take a dig at her? I think he did...hater.
OJays tribute by Tyrese, Trey Songz and Johnny Gill (always growling at somebody) was good - and the OJays did their thing - even though for some reason I couldn't stop laughing.
Jamie Foxx and NeYo closed it out well.
And finally - Janet Jackson. So brave. My heart broke when she came out...and it breaks FOR her and her family still. The tears fell as she spoke - her pain visible, palpable. She was the realest, most heart-felt part of the ENTIRE evening. God bless her and her family.
I guess I say I felt hoodwinked, duped, led astray by the awards because I just KNEW BET would bring it for MJ. This was their moment to shine and do him justice, and I can't help but feel that it fell totally short. They had to pull it off in 72 hours, so I'm trying to be understanding. But all the foolishness aside, Michael deserved so much more in the way of tributes. I mean yes, the open of the show was good, I liked that Jamie moonwalked across the stage and rocked MJ gear - but I thought I'd be emotional and teary-eyed the entire night remembering the King of Pop.
Not so much.
I just felt...blah. I felt mad at some points.
Simply, I was disappointed.
I wanted US to do this better. I wanted us to show the world what MJ meant to us. I don't want anyone else - the Grammys, MTV, ANYbody - to do it better. I wanted BET to kill it. I wanted BET to set the standard for all other awards shows and tributes to our legend. If it wasn't for New Edition, NeYo and Jamie Foxx, there wouldn't have been much of a tribute at all...and that's sad. But hey, they tried...right?
I'm tryin' y'all, I'm tryin. Let's hope they decide to produce another tribute completely in his honor and memory. You can't share MJ's memory with the nonsense we saw tonight - he needs an entire program dedicated ONLY to him. BET, are you listening? Think about it...
...and do it right next time.
-b
p.s. Don't forget to pick up your copy of Time Magazine's Special Commemorative Edition tribute to Michael Jackson. 
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32 comments:
FIRST! Tase me, tase me! :-)
I live blogged the whole 3+ hour fiasco and I'll never get those hours back. They gave it a lame try but perhaps the show should have started with a solid 10 minute tribute and then proceeded with the show as normal.
I have it from a good source at BET that the network doesn't even maintain an obit file on people as standard "news" networks do because they think it's a bad omen or something. How nutty is that? If they had one, then they could have at least shown a re-cap of MJ's life package and then followed that up with maybe 3 or 4 good performances of his songs. Not full on THIS IS THRILLER songs with zombie dancers and all, but something nice and simple like what Ne-Yo did.
And, what is up with Beyonce singing Ave Maria in panties? I know the panty thing is her tour wardrobe but that didn't sit well with me. What happened to pants? Pants are good.
First! Hee hee heee Owwww!
I thought it was a valiant effort incorporating all of the MJ stuff. There were about 6 added performances for MJ which is hard to do considering you have 72 hours. I've heard people expected Usher and Chris Brown to come out and do an MJ dance number...in 3 days? really? You think they're that good they can do that in 3 days?
I do know Chris Brown wanted to be on the show...politics. You can't beat a Black woman and then get on BET the next week what with all the issues of people calling them the worse thing since the Klan and all.
Weezy & Drake with Weezy's daughter and the teenyboppers? whoa! I thought R Kelly was gonna come out and start handing out candy.
Maxwell killed. Neyo killed. Beyonce killed...wrong crowd for her performance though. Jay-Z killed. Monica killed. OJays and the tribute..killed.
That's a lot of great performances for one show no?
Ciara...smh. Aaron Hall's voice? DOA. Ralph Tresvant..yikes! Michael Bell...Johnny Gill..I thought they were the ones that COULD sing.
Janet...my heart stopped. JD let is slip she was supposed to sing (probably the last song with Jamie and Neyo) obviously she couldn't muster the energy.
So much to say...but I'll stop there. Twitter was on fire with hate for BET and the awards, but I think it was a good show with a decent 3 day turnaround on MJ tributes. MTV has 2 months to outshine them.
damn foiled by Yolanda!
Second..at least I don't get tased...
I admit I expected a lot from BET (and I really don't know why) and that was wrong on my end. They didn't have 3 full days to put this together and a REAL MJ tribute would have required some serious choreography. Even if they did things acoustically, without dancers and pyrotechnics, you know 1/2 of these folks with record deals up there can't really SANNNNG anyway, so we couldn't expect them to get up like Ne-Yo did with just a piano and croon.
I was really looking forward to Chris Brown but I've read many accounts that he was kept from performing by certain folks. Although I heard from someone in LA that he was on the list of performers as of Saturday. Disappointing.
Don Cornelius has a domestic violence charge (or two, perhaps). Lil Wayne chugs sizzurp, knocks up 2 chicks within weeks of eachother and wants to boink every girl in the world with Miley Cyrus fans standing behind him. I would have accepted a little Chris Brown in the midst of all that. But I'm not throwing stones.
And for the 100th time...Jamie Foxx has an album and is going on tour! Dayum, was that point driven home ENOUGH?
I must say....I enjoyed the show.
I was extremely impressed--I usually stay far away from BET Award shows. Matter of fact, I went out and made groceries, came back in, and started making my food for the week at 7:50pm, with no intentions of watching them.
I especially loved Monica and Keyshia, and the O'Jays tribute. Lil Tevin Campbell still has it!!!
Yes, very disappointing. I was certain BET would brng it.
Some things were just very distasteful for such an occasion. Brooke, you forgot the "Bit$* a!* " statement that was made. Cute, right?
I waited and waited, so sure that they just fell off for a moment and would then resume with a REAL tribute. It never happened. Sure, we had a few goodies, but all in all it felt disjointed.
Joe- oh Joe. Would it be judgemental to say he sure didnt look like he was in pain? It was "too painful" for the rest of the family, but he seemed to be enjoying the moment. I know everyone grieves differently. However, his demeanor was so far off from the hurt you could clearly see in Janet. And, promoting his new project at a time like that. Are you serious?
It was great that so many people came out to honor The king of Pop. However, I think we can walk away with a valuable lesson- love me in life not just in death, as the love shown during a person's life is what they'll take with them.
Yolanda is first!
And I kept up with you on Witches Brew last night - great job!
Dre, I expected this response from you :-) And I agree, they didn't have a full 3 days to pull this off, but even if the evening WASN'T about MJ - if he was alive and well RIGHT NOW - I'd STILL think that awards show was "eh."
There were a few good performances, I'll give it that.
I guess I feel like the awards show wasn't as good as those in the past. Usually I think they do a pretty good job with awards shows - like when Monique opened to Crazy in Love, or when Alicia Keys did the reggae joint (that was BET right?) or the tribute to hip hop - moments like that BET shines. Last night, not so much.
Let's see what MTV does.
And I agree about Chris Brown - if you can have Weezy up there talking about having sex with every girl in the world after "The Carter" - then watching Chris Brown sing and dance wouldn't have been "worse." Ah well...
We'll see many more MJ Tributes, so I'll just look forward to them. I can't keep my eyes off all things MJ so whatever it is, I'll watch.
Truthfully i wasnt expecting too much because someone as HUGE as MJ deserves his OWN special where all of the artiist can dedicate their performances to his incredible impact to the world. I'm looking forwrd to the MJ tribute..with everybody in the game representing in full force...
I can feel ya. I did care much for the opening act. But I did love Jamie Fox's opening. But I thought they could have had the more heavy hitter singers do the tribute to MJ. Were was Usher. I could see maybe why Chris Brown was not there but they needed better star power than what they had...I don't even remember their names....
Thanks for following us, Brooke. It was a definite experiment to see if all 5 of us could blog simultaneously.
FB is on fire again today with BET bashing. Even the Twitter folks were on the fence about last night.
I didn't hate the show, but what really turned me off was that BET hyped this as if they tossed out their whole show and came up with an MJ tribute. So of course, everyone tuned in (including my 57 year old mother who called me during Wayne's performance and was FURIOUS)!
CNN and a host of other media outlets were covering this and I feel like *this* was the best we had to put forward while the world was watching? Now, that's what makes me shake my head.
Malek, Usher was in Paris for Fashion Week and couldn't make it to LA in time.
I feel they should've stuck to whatever the original format was for the show. If folks wanted to shout out MJ, that would've been fine. Then the finale of the show, let's say the last 20 minutes, shoud've been a show stopping, everyone pull out their best rendition of their favorite Michael song, tribute from all of the performers. If it was supposed to be a celebration of his life, hell, I wanted to hear "Shake Your Body Down to the Ground!!!" Some more of the uptempos mixed in with the ballads. Neyo was great, but I wish he took the song all the way to the end. Maybe he felt that he would get too emotional. Otherwise there were some great performances. Monica was awesome. I grew up with the Ojays blasting in my home so I enjoyed them, one of the low points were those underaged girls on stage with Drake. That was so ridiculous and tactless on BET's part to even allow such a visual. I thought Beyonce sounded great, but her "angelic" wardrobe looked tacky and bordeline Vanity 6. I guess that's why we shouldn't place expectations, so we won't be disappointed, but damn, I wanted BET to show and prove.
Usher will do something, trust. And it'll be great. I remember seeing Usher in concert once and he did a 20 minute set of MJ songs and dance, and this was YEARS ago...which is how it should be done. Celebrate him in life AND in death.
I can only imagine what your mother thought after seeing Wayne's performance Yolanda. I can only imagine.
and now his ex-wife is gonna be on tv cryin over his simple ass with Tiny holding her hand while she holds it down for T.I.
Unbelievable.
Tanisha, I agree...they should have set aside 10-20 minutes for MJ and left the rest alone. Do we really expect more from them still? Is it our own fault for thinking they could pull this off? We didn't manage our expectations correctly.
BET is not and has not been owned and controlled buy one of us in a very long time.
Second why do we subject ourselves to the buffoonery and then complain? BET has been a disappointment way before Rob Johnson sold it so I don’t expect much from them.
Also I don’t even know what channel BET is. LMAO!!!!! I would not watch that crap even if they pay me.
I agree, BET is the step child of that whole media family, and I never think to watch BET either. But for some reason I managed to get my hopes up and expectations wrong with this one cuz I was all caught up in Michael Jackson. And I just knew that with the access to certain stars they have - especially since they were already doing a show - they would have done SOMETHING better than what they did. I just had to see what they'd do.
Folks at BET were hyping it up saying the world was watching and they were gonna bring it and set the tone for all other shows that follow, so I guess I got caught up in that too. The best part was at the end when Janet came out...otherwise, the rest was just so-so to me.
LMAO at expecting that comment from me. Hey, what can I say I've worked on the BET Awards a few times. I've seen firsthand an artist change something as they get on stage and everyone is yelling in the headsets "WTF is he doing??" It's worked and it's crashed horribly live on air.
It was a lose lose situation. I told my people over there "you know you can only live up to the anticipation by having Michael himself perform, right?" That's the ONLY way it would've worked for EVERYONE. If it were 15-20 minutes in the beginning, middle or end folks (myself included) would be saying "All MJ gets is 20 minutes??"
I agree on keeping Chris out of this show. Way too soon for that guy to be shuffling on TV. If he were there, "Man in the Mirror" should've been his song, period. ...but he vocally can't pull that off so we'll see him dancing on the big MJ show.
I think a full show is definitely needed and bring out ALL of the heavy hitters for it.
I haven't read all the comments here Brooke, but I just had to jump in here to say that I was VERY VERY disappointed with BET last night. I know they ONLY had 72 hours to pull something together, but I agree with someone (Yolanda maybe) who said put together a nice 10 min tribute at the top and keep it movin.
I really thought that most of the rest was a big H.A.M. (HOT ASS MESS). :( I was truly disappointed for my people and thought that overall the pacing was so uneven and production values were so damn bad that it was almost not even worth doing this event overall. :( So sad I'm sure they got good ratings b/c most of my friends were commenting about it every few minutes on FB, but I was still VERY VERY saddened by how they chose to give tribute to MJ - one of OUR legends last night. I think they played way too much to the lowest common denominator and failed (in a BIG way).
that's my 2 cents.
You know what? I'm not even going to put anything new. I'm just gonna cut and paste my Facebook comments (excuse my writing - I use text talk on FB):
1. That show is the reason many of us won't watch BET again. Other than Maxwell, Ne-Yo, Jamie Foxx, Jay-Z and The O'Jays tribute - which were all fantastic - they came up more like exploiting MJ's death than truly celebrating it at times, and the coonery was embarrassing. ESPECIALLY putting Lil' Wayne's pedophile-influenced, obscene performance on near the end.
If u r going 2 tribute MJ, u shouldn't put on performers and/or performances that completely go against anything he was about. TONS OF US were outraged at some of the crap, and most were extremely disappointed, other than the aforementioned moments - and a Wanda & Shenaynay skit that was hilarious.
2. There's no excuse 4 what BET did last night. It was despicable. I agree - it's not hard 2 plan a quick tribute. They could've edited 2gether a a 5 minute montage with a voice-over from someone like Morgan Freeman, James Earl Jones or Samuel L. Jackson 2 play somewhere in the show - hell, I KNOW I could've edited that 2gether within one day, so they could too. Keep the NE beginning (it wasn't great, but they were formed 2 be an updated Jackson 5, so it made sense). Then allow Jamie Foxx 2 adlib about MJ throughout the show, and allow like 3 special performances from various artists - Ne-Yo, Beyonce (it would've been better 4 her 2 do a MJ song than what she did) and Chris Brown would've been great. Really wasn't THAT hard, in my opinion.
And, most importantly, cut all coonery out of the show - Souljah Boy, Lil' Wayne and his coons, etc. Move them 2 the pre-game show, and explain circumstances have changed. Period.
3. But what can u expect from a channel that promos Frankie & Neffe, Tiny & Toya, The Wendy Williams Show and Monique getting a nightly talk show (!)?? Each and every one of those shows has "set us back 20 years" written all over them.
I'm sure Barack Obama was sooooo proud.
***in Borat voice***
"NOOOOOOOOOOTTTTT!!!!"
What more is there to say - other than STOP making excuses. I feel like Black people have a tendency of making excuses when something is bad/awful within our community. That ish was CRAP. It's common damned sense to not put Lil' Wayne on when you did. To think about what you've come across as and limit/cut any coonery or questionable artists and acts.
I produce my own TV show. I came up with a Biggie tribute show - complete with montages, exclusive interviews, rare videos and never before-seen-footage - in THREE DAYS last year to commemorate his birthday (we forgot it was approaching). And guess what? Though I have multiple editors that work on my show, I did it ALL MYSELF - securing the videos and exclusive content, editing it, and transferring it to tape - WITH intros, outros and insets by my talent.
If I can do that dolo, BET has NO EXCUSE. They should KILL THEMSELVES.
And by the way - not to toot my own horn, but my show (which is always a high-quality product) looked so good, that most people who didn't know it was me who did the whole thing thought I stole an hour tribute show from Bad Boy and just inserted my talent. They just couldn't - or wouldn't - believe that a show that looked that good and polished was done locally, let alone by ONE DUDE.
Like I said - BET has NO EXCUSE.
Couldn't have said it better Rameer. TV is what they do, I've seen crashes done before and they could have done it. Someone just lacked the common sense to put it together the way they did.
I was thinking "they're following Maxwell with this crap?" Weezy and Drake? Really??
I will admit that I laughed at the Wanda/Shenenay skit - but it was the wrong time and place for it. I would have thought "Skank Robbers" would be better for MTV Video Awards or something. Not a supposedly historic awards show.
Who thought giving Frankie and Neffie a show was a good idea? And Tiny and Toya for that matter? Straight country foolishness.
Skank Robbers was hilarious - I must admit...
Misplaced, but HILARIOUS...
Thanks, Meryl!
DAMMIT... I was sooooo disappointed in BET...again!!!! But you know the saying Fool me once..shame on you...fool me twice.... (And not the G.W. Bush version) But I keep getting my hopes up when it comes to BET. Maybe if they would remove the Black out of the name and made it Buffoon entertainment TV or Bad Entertainment TV... maybe that would make it better!!!
I agree with mostly what everyone said. Props for the try..but fell way short. one last final tribute at the end of the show..made more sense to me!
Pretty Ricky, your FB updates last night were HILARIOUS!!!
especially when you said you were about to get all emotional...until NeYo took his hat off :-) LOL!!
I was dying!
I think i am the smart one here. I dvr'ed the show because I wanted to torure myself by watching the subway series(watever). So, I end up watching the show in about an hour. Thank god for fast forwarding.
I liked the the old heads coming out, but bobby brown had too many drink last night. Aaron Hall was just bad...
I am not a Jay-Z fan(I notice I say that alot), but DOA was hot. I hate autotune. That was the highlight of the show for me. The rest was just so ghetto, but really what do you expect from BET?
Honestly, an MJ tribute is a show, just dedicated to that. I did fell so bad for Janet.I am still having trouble believing he is gone.
The problem with BET is that they try to hard to make similar shows that are on other networks. This new cooking show Pressure Cooker is the same as Top Chef, Baldwin Hills is playing off The Hills, 106 and Park is the off shoot of TRL. Come on black people be original!!!! We as a people have so many achievements. What happen to us??? How did we fall the bottom of the todem poll? We have the talent we just need to find those people with it!!!!
I don't know if I am becoming one of those old farts, but when I heard Jay Z's song I felt like Yeah Jigga show 'em how its done!!!! Half of the performers I was like who is that? Drake? where did he come from? How is so popular? it must be the teeny boppers?!?!?!?
Rappers now a days what are you talking about.....Music in general told a story, now its all about clothes, drinking, hos, and like Jamie Fox said about stuff you did during the day....
On another note, I don't know what happen to this award show, but in the past it has been better, maybe it was too much to turn around. Yea I agree they should have done a tribute and left the it. Then plan a big bash later. I think the problem here too is that you was tryin to hard to be first!!!
Before the show was bad if they had a weak host now it was the performers.
I didn't see the awards :( my Mom taped it for me though (yes I did say taped it) old school.
Speaking of old school can we get a Motown 25 like show for MJ. I heard all the comments and when I heard about Lil Wayne and those jokers I was done! Just tasteless! Horrible!
I will check out the Neyo performance, Maxwell, etc.
But such a shame and watch the Grammy's blow it out the water! BET better step up and do something on MJ otherwise someone else will come out the woodwork.
What ever happened to Teen Summit, Video Soul, the News with Jackie, etc. When they were about something! Makes me want to go out and start my own network sometimes.
Serena.... just say the word!!! I got my on TVone like "Come On y'all..this is a perfect opportunity for y'all to do something!"
I will Pretty Ricky lol! I do like TV One...when I buy a tv and get cable I have to have that station.
Good afternoon,
In the aftermath, its always enlightening to see how some were entertained in "spots." I guess that just comes with the territory.
First of all, I'll openly confess to being an african-american male employed in the media industry. With that said, my view of BET and last night's awards show is an especially jaded one. I've had the good fortune of working for some kick-azz entities across the ladnscape of my career, and i've always scoffed at a few general principles that seem to be absent from BET's efforts. I'm gonna keep the points brief for this post, but i'd LOVE to jump into the whole "BET" thing at a later date.
- BET should "own" the "Black Entertainment" genre on television. You can depend on them for cheap decisions, but a good start would be syndication rights to Martin, Good times, or the Cosby show reruns. Just start with that.
- Aside from just an awards show, BET is just not good at broadcasting a quality product. Period.
I think of it this way: Target is good at making "cheap" look cool...Kmart? Not so much. Last night's program was KMart. Looked cheap, felt cheap, and really just wasn't a good broadcast to begin with. Besides MJ's untimely passing, If you leave all of that out, it STILL would have been exactly as Brookey described.
Therein lies the problem. My thoughts? Sing along with me children..."Hookboogie foolishness"
DMoe aka Catcher Freeman
New to the board....I agree with most of the posts. The show was utter foolishness. I wear glasses so I thought that I had something in my eye when I saw lil' wayne and that other chile with those pre-teens on stage. PLEASE!!
Maxwell was awesome. Beyonce' should have sung Halo (without the shiny leotard).New edition should've had a V8 and a Red Bull; they looked old and tired. Neyo should have saved some of his hair. His head looked like a big ole' Milk Dud, but he was one of the best of the night! Jaime was out of pocket at times. I will not see him in concert. He mentioned it so much that while I love the CD, he's annoyed me beyond reason.
Overall, the show was a big disappointment, but the pockets of light that shone through made up for it a tiny bit!
Excellent blog Brooke!!
Thanks BNMe! Welcome!
I don't know why I laugh everytime DMoe writes "hookboogie foolishness" - but it gets me every time...and so appropriate for this post.
I like that you were fair with this Brooke. Haven't read everyone's comments, but yours was on point and you covered everything for the most part. Good job.
KP
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