Last night’s BET Awards were chock full of memorable moments and unintentional hilarity, these two things not being mutually exclusive. What better place to break down the highs, lows and head-scratching moments than The Hot 16?
1) Baaaaaad Boooooooy!!!- If you’re between the ages of 25 and 45 — which was a large portion of Sunday night’s audience — you LOVED the Bad Boy reunion. Twenty years deep in the game, Diddy and Bad Boy Records celebrated everything they’ve contributed to hip-hop and R&B. A cavalcade of artists, including The Lox (sans Styles P), Lil Kim and Mason Betha blessed the stage with hits, mostly from the ’90s.
Call it selfishness, but as dope as this performance was, there was still some unanswered questions and a longing for more. The only certified Bad Boy artist who hit the stage from the last 15 or so years was French Montana. Though unintentional, this elephant in the room sort of underscored the significant drought Bad Boy has had in recent years. Machine Gun Kelly was there (we know this because he performed at the pre-show) and even he couldn’t get a look during the celebration. Also, there were some hits that fans missed out on, such as “Let’s Get It“, “Flava In Ya Ear” and “Whoa!“. But that would’ve meant Diddy & BET would’ve had to get a hold of G. Dep, Craig Mack and Black Rob, although G. Dep is currently serving a murder charge and Black Rob is recovering from a stroke. So, yeah.
The most glaring absence was of course that of The Notorious B.I.G. Moments like this make you miss Big Poppa even more.
2) Every Step You Take….- This was flat out hilarious, and amazing that Diddy didn’t crush Lil Kim when he fell into that manhole on stage.
3) The Revolution Will Not Be Television- BET gives out a ton of awards that aren’t televised. One of particular note was rapper LeCrae winning for Best Gospel Artist. The success of his major album Anomaly is opening up lanes in both hip-hop and gospel, which shouldn’t go unnoticed.
4) Fact Checking– Writing for an award show can’t be easy. Award presentations suck roughly 98.9% of the time and that suck factor is generally accepted at this point. What can’t be accepted is MC Lyte introducing Kenny Smith as an “NBA legend” and host Anthony Anderson bestowing the moniker of “King of the Trap” upon New Jersey newcomer Fetty Wap. That’s just a bad look.
5) King Kendrick- Batting leadoff, Kendrick killed kilt it. He even dropped a new verse for “Alright” in the process. Kendrick also took home Best Male Hip-Hop Artist, which was alright by me. And how’s this for imagery in 2015? ↓
Kendrick rhyming on top of a cop car covered in graffiti with a tattered flag in the background. Powerful.
6) Serena Wins Again- Serena Williams took him Sportswoman Of The Year, as she should have. Click here for HHSR’s thoughts on Ms. Serena.
7) Stephervescent– Speaking of winning again, Stephen Curry again beat out LeBron James, this time for Sportsman Of The Year. Well deserved, but he also beat out Floyd Mayweather, Marshawn Lynch and Chris Paul. No biggie, right? More on these nominations later.
8) REALLY BIG Sean– If there was ever a question about Sean Don’s status in the game, he made it abundantly clear he’s a certified rap star. His performance was dope, mainly because the crowd was completely engaged from start to finish. This, along with Kendrick & Bad Boy, was the highlights of the night, in a hip-hop context at least.
It’s easy to root for Sean because he’s so damn humble. Peep this tweet he sent out after the show. Meanwhile…
9) Nicki’s Speech- Nicki Minaj didn’t mean anything by her “What was this award for?” acceptance speech, but it came off somewhat entitled, or at least, less than appreciative. It didn’t help that she went out of her way to then specifically emphasize all the records she received platinum and gold plaques for, then taking a shot at us innocent lazy Americans.
Okay, we’re kidding…a little bit. Nicki truly does love her fans, but this speech wasn’t her finest moment. And speaking of Nicki and awards…
10) Nicki V. Iggy- I really really wanted Iggy Azalea to beat out Nicki Minaj for Best Female Hip-Hop Artist, just for the hilariously incredulous reactions we would’ve seen. And it’s not like Iggy didn’t have a case!
Her hit “Fancy” has over 577 MILLION views on YouTube in 15 months, while Nicki’s “Anaconda” has roughly 100 million fewer views in 10 months. Nicki, already a certified superstar, saw her third album The Pinkprint debut at #2 on the Billboard charts. Iggy’s debut album The New Classic opened at #3 on the charts, and although it sold significantly less in terms of raw numbers, it reached female rap benchmarks only hit by Nicki within the last five years, while becoming the first rap album by a non-American female to reach the top of the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and Top Rap Album charts.
And say what you will about Iggy’s lyrical skill, or lack thereof, Nicki didn’t exactly rip the mic on every record she put out this past year.
Iggy Azelea had a strong case for winning that award, but Nicki deserved it. She’s still the queen until further notice.
11) The Sam Smith Issue- Best New Artist was between Fetty Wap, Bobby Shmurda, Dej Loaf, Tinashe, Rae Sremmurd and Sam Smith. The first four each had one hit apiece (they did Tinashe a favor, real talk), but MikeWiLL’s protégés had two legitimate hits, with a third bubbling right now. Sure, Sam Smith took home four Grammy’s this year, but was it appropriate to give him a BET Award?
Smith being white is actually irrelevant, but this award was given out by Black Entertainment Television; it’s fair to wonder whether or not Sam Smith’s brand of music actually entertains Blacks on an award-winning level.
On the few occasions I’ve seen a music video on BET in the last 12 months, I’ve never seen one by Sam Smith. None of my family members or Black friends have his album, and if they do, we’ve never discussed it. Websites, radio stations and TV shows that are predominately geared towards Black culture do not prioritize Sam Smith over the other candidates for this award either.
Sidebar: That last sentence includes this website, but I’ve never received a request to write about, review or comment on anything related to Sam Smith.
The critical and commercial success Smith has enjoyed this past year suggests he’s an exceptional artist and has a more promising career ahead of him than any of the other nominees, which is the assumed definition of “Best New Artist”. But his selection of Best New Artist at the BET Awards suggests that this was either a misguided attempt at showing off BET’s artistic appreciation for music, or a misguided attempt by the network to flex their equality muscles at a time when it seemed really appropriate (especially with Smith being a gay man).
If it’s about art, why not have Joey Bada$$ (who dropped a dope full album this year) receive a nom over Bobby Shmurda (who had one hit record and can’t rhyme his way out of a paper bag)? And if it’s about inclusion, how come Chris Paul and Marshawn Lynch received Sportsman Of The Year noms over Aaron Rodgers or Madison Bumgarner? Speaking as a Black person, I was far more “entertained” by Aaron Rodgers this past year than I was Sam Smith.
Having said all that…
13) Rae Sremmurd Got Robbed By Sam Smith- That is, Rae Sremmurd who actually makes music more culturally relevant to Black people than Sam Smith. This complaint has nothing to do with Sam Smith as an artist or white people winning BET Awards. It has to do with the arbitrary nature in which BET decided to hand out this particular award.
For what it’s worth, the British vocalist did make two appearances on BET’s Notarized Top 100 Videos countdown last New Year’s Eve (once as a featured artist), but so did Rae Sremmurd and their positions outperformed Smith’s. BET also gives out an untelevised award for Best International Act UK, yet somehow, Sam Smith didn’t even win it! This proves above anything else that Smith’s award for Best New Artist was less about performance and more about politics.
14) The Awards Overall- Maybe I’m making too much of all this. Award shows, particularly the generally unheralded BET Awards, are supposed to be fun and perhaps not so nuanced. For the most part, the people who deserved to win (Kendrick, Nicki, Steph, Serena, Lecrae, Beyoncé for her “7/11” video, Common and John Legend’s “Glory”, Rae Sremmurd for Best Group, Chris Brown etc.) all won. And who could argue with Tom Joyner, Smokey Robinson and Janet Jackson?
It would’ve been nice to see the Black-ish actors beat out the Empire actors, simply because it’s a better TV show. But you can’t win em all.
15) Fall Of An Empire- While we’re on the subject, can we move to not have the Empire guys performing on any more award shows? It’s an extremely popular TV show, I get it. But we watched a fake rapper and a fake R&B singer hit the stage (again) and perform their fake songs. That slot could’ve gone to an actual artist who would’ve killed for that look, but it didn’t. Although, we should all take solace in the fact that Hakeem Lyon wasn’t nominated for Best New Artist.
16) BET Put On A Great Show- My personal expectations were low for this show— thankfully they were exceeded. Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross were cool, most of the performances varied from good to great (aside from the train wreck that was Tamar Braxton— by the way, what qualifies her and K. Michelle to share a stage with Patti LaBelle anyway?) and they got most of the significant awards right.
BET Awards have been very hit and miss over the years, but this one ranks fairly high on the list. And they did it all without performances from Kanye, Beyoncé, Jay Z, Stevie Wonder, Usher, Wayne, Drake…
or Sam Smith.
Shouts to BET.