BET Awards 2008

It’s time for another installment of the BET Awards. I invited my friend C-Ra over and thought it would be a great idea to do a running diary of this year’s show. Here we go………

The always entertaining Usher opens the show with his hit Love in This Club. I’m not a gambling man but I bet he’s lip-synching. If not he’s the only guy I know who can do consecutive back flips without losing his breath. Decent performance. What you would expect from Usher

DL Hughely is hosting this year’s show. His monologue is not that funny. I have no idea why his jokes didn’t hit…..oh wait they weren’t funny.

Wow a new season of Hell Date. Didn’t know the first one ended.

Young Jeezy performs. I like this track. Looks like Kanye forgot his words. I’m sure he’ll blame BET for it after the show is over. BET is real heavy on the censors this year. Way too many bleeps for this performance. I feel like I’m listening to an Emergency Broadcast.

It’s the best athlete performance. Surprisingly there are no white athletes on the list. Kobe Bryant wins the award this year. C-Ra comments that “he basically won best black athlete.”

How did Keisha Cole’s family get on TV? After they went of screen our exchange went something like this:
C-Ra: HA! Have you seen this show?
Me: Nope
C-Ra: Her mom is a TRAIN WRECK!

Keisha Cole and her new teeth perform. Nice voice! She can really sing. WOW! You gotta love the tear-away dress that turns into an all white cat suit. The crowd seems to really love Lil Kim. Looks like prison has done her some good. I assume there was nothing to do but sit-ups. What happened to her face? I think I’m officially scared of her.

Is it me or is Cuba Gooding Jr. higher than these gas prices. I think he has morphed into Rod Tidwell. I’m waiting for him to say, “Show me the money.”

Ne-Yo is suited up for his performance. It reminds of an old MJ routine. Nice set from Ne-Yo. He’s one of the R&B cats that I really enjoy. He always puts on a show.

LL hasn’t aged a bit. The guy is in ridiculous shape to be 65. I keep waiting to look up and he’s going to be old and flabby. Not sure that’s going to happen. Would anyone be surprised if his name popped up in the BALCO investigation?

Alicia Keys performs with a live band. Good set so far. Kicks it up a notch with an SWV cameo. Whoa! Here comes En Vogue! I know my dad is at home saying, “They still got it!!” If she brings out Xscape, I’m going home. I spoke too soon; TLC comes out and performs Waterfalls. Looks like Chili is drinking from the same fountain of youth that LL is. Nice set from Alicia Keys. The best performance of the night by far.

Best Male Hip Hop goes to Kanye West. He had to win something or he was going to spaz out at the after party. Nice gesture for him to bring Wayne on stage. I loved Kanye’s speech. He’s such an underdog and everybody wants to hold him down. Maybe that’s why he wins all those Grammy’s. (I think they’ve showed Lil Wayne about 50 times tonight. I feel like I’m watching a Lil Wayne reality show)

The Hilarious outfit of the night award goes to T-Pain. His “iced out top hat” his taller than me. Why does he look like the black Mad Hatter? I’m not sure I want to take my kids to his circus. Here comes Flo-Rida in a black tank top and jeans. C-Ra says he thinks that’s the only outfit Flo-Rida owns. Maybe he got a bad record deal, who knows. Here comes Rick Ross with no shirt on! He’s the anti LL Cool J. Let me get this right: BET will censor whatever Kanye was saying but they won’t censor Rick Ross and his man boobs? They should have had one of those parental advisory warnings, “What you are about to see is graphic and may disturb viewers under the age of 14.” I starting to think I should have waited to eat. They perform I’m So Hood Remix. Nice appearance from Ludacris. I’m not a huge fan, but not a bad set from T-Pain. They all put on a nice show.

Video of the Year goes to UGK and Outkast for Playas Anthem. It’s actually a very good video. I’m surprised it won. Real emotional speech from Bun B……….. RIP Pimp C

Here comes the Gospel portion of the show. One performance is not even 10%. This Marvin Sapp performance is not going to save you from the lake of fire BET.

Chris Brown puts on a show. I feel like I’m too old to like him. Nice cameo from Ciara gets C-Ra to sit up in his seat. Am I too old to like her too? It’s been a good show. So far the performances have been on point.

I think everyone and there mom has given Lil Wayne a shout out. Are they filming a DVD about his life?

T-Pain’s slow motion walking is comedy. Me and C-Ra joke that he wouldn’t pass a drug test right now. I’d bet my life on it.

Very nice tribute to Al Green. Jill Scott comes on stage and rips it, followed by Anthony Hamilton. That guy sounds just like Al Green. It must be the Apocalypse because Maxwell just hit the stage. I’m going to church immediately after the show is over. I hope he’s somewhere secretly working on an album. Everyone seems to love Al Green’s set. He is still a showman.

Lil Wayne wins his first award of the night. Somehow he managed to bring his whole family on stage.

Another performance at an award show from Rhianna. She looks like she dressed for the future. No dancers and no frills. Nice set from Rhianna as well.

Where has Nelly been? My first guess would be the gym. Cornelius is actually a good performer. I had no idea there was a, “Stepped on my J’s” dance. Ciara shows up again. I think C-ra’s head is going to explode. Yet another good performance. I must be dreaming.

My mom may read this, so no comment on Lauren London. I just think she should have her own TV channel.

Good to see Alicia Keys win. She has a really good album. Nice acceptance speech for her. She dedicated the award to everyone except me.

There have been a ton of shout outs for Obama. I think everyone in attendance is voting for him in November. I wonder if McCain gets that kind of love at the CMA’s.

T-Pain in another hat. Now he’s a mad scientist. Wayne hits the stage to lackluster applause. Maybe people are tired of Lollipop. I’m shocked they let Wayne say “lick me like a lollipop” on TV. I think the censors missed that one. Once A-Milli hit the crowd seems into his performance or it could be the fact that T-Pain tossed his hat. Nice performance from Wayne to end the show.

Good show from the folks over at BET. The award show has come a long way. I enjoyed it way more than I thought I would. Some really good performances on this year show. I almost wish I was there. Looks like a lot people stepped their game up. Hopefully they can come with the same energy next year.