T-Mad's Music: Blog Area - My Take On This Year’s BET Awards Performances

My Take On This Year’s BET Awards Performances [Post a Comment]
Okay, I got to watch the BET Awards earlier tonight in full so now here is my take on it. As with the Grammys®, my take is skewed towards the music that I typically feature here at T-Mad’s Music.

As is usually the case, MC Lyte was the announcer for the affair and does a great job. She has the perfect DJ’s voice for the show so it was great to hear her still at it.

Rapper, singer, actress, model, and producer Queen Latifah was the host and I thought she did a good job. Her outfit changes throughout the show, where she channeled various past characters of hers from various movies or music videos, was a nice touch. She represented both her singing persona and her rapping persona in the opener and I thought that was cool.

Now if you are a young person, you’re going to have to forgive me but my musical tastes just don’t jive with a lot of today’s R&B and rap so I will not be going into much detail on those performances except to say that it’s good to see Eminem back on the scene again and Keyshia Cole sounded good. I will say it was cool to see Kanye West back again as well after his faux pas with Taylor Swift.

The Alicia Keys segment was very nice. I enjoy watching and listening to Alicia Keys live because of her piano playing skills, the live instrumentation and vocals with the backup singers, and the fact that she feels her music and really brings it live. Even though she is quite pregnant, she is carrying it very well and, like Halle Berry did when she was pregnant, Alicia still looks hot.

Singer Monica performed her current hit single which samples the Deniece Williams classic Silly. As a nice treat, she actually had the lady herself, Deniece Williams, join her on stage to sing her classic. The lady still sounds nice and the audience stood up at attention at the unexpected treat. I have to give props to Monica for remembering her roots and having Ms. Williams come out and perform.

Jermaine Jackson introduced the Michael Jackson tribute and did not announce the performer’s name, prefering to let everyone be surprised. Behind a large veil, the shadowed image looked like Michael Jackson with the classic fedora hat. When the veil was removed, the performer was revealed to be the embattled Chris Brown.

Prior to the incident with Rhianna, Chris Brown had been a media darling who was highly and favorably compared to classic Michael Jackson. It was nice to see him back again and I have to say, his performance was impeccable. He danced in true Michael Jackson style to various hits such as Billie Jean (complete with the Moonwalk), The Way You Make Me Feel, and Smooth Operator (which featured a very cool sci-fi style number with dancers wearing black outfits where you could only see lit outlined figured — very nice).

I had read about how he broke down when it came time for him to sing Man In The Mirror and heard that some media circles (E!) questioned whether the emotional breakdown, which prevented him from being able to sing the song, was genuine or just a ploy for sympathy to get him back in the spotlight again. I watched it and, personally, I think that it was genuine.

I think that Chris Brown really was moved that much on a number of levels during that particular song. He could have been moved by doing the tribute to his idol, Michael Jackson. He could have been moved by the sentiments in the song itself. He could have been moved by how the lyrics may have made him reflect on his own foibles and what he did to Rhianna. In any case, I thought that it was genuine so take that, E! Entertainment Television!

Now here was the surprise moment for me: the return of El DeBarge. The last I had seen El DeBarge, he was looking kind of rough. Well, he cleaned himself up very well and sounded GREAT! He still has it with the falsetto and can still bring it. He went through a medley of classic DeBarge hits and sounded and looked great. Later on, he came back and did a new number apparently called Second Chance, which sounded very good. I believe he has new music coming out so it will be interesting to see if he can come back or not.

There was a very moving gospel segment done for the people in Haiti and featured a powerhouse combination of contemporary gospel talent: Kirk Franklin, Fred Hammond, Marvin Sapp, Karen Clark Sheard, Kim Burrell, and Yolanda Adams. Now I have to say that Kirk Franklin almost broke the somber mood with his opening: he was on piano and — GASP — was actually trying to sing.

Now anyone who knows Kirk Franklin’s music throughout the years knows doggone well that the man cannot sing a lick! That all of the actual singing is done by his various choir members while he does his rapping interjections. What was he doing trying to sing? Talk about an unintentional comedic moment in an otherwise serious and soulfully uplifting performance.

In a surprise unannounced moment, former actor Todd Bridges took the stage to pay honor to his Diff’rent Strokes co-star Gary Coleman, who recently passed away suddenly at age 42 of a brain hemorrhage. He said he couldn’t believe that Gary was suddenly gone like that. I thought it was cute that he got the entire audience to say, on the count of three, the classic line that Gary Coleman will always be remembered for: “What’chu talkin’ ’bout, Willis”.

After that, Lena Horne’s passing was acknowledged, followed by Teddy Pendergrass. The acknowledging of Pendergrass’ passing gave way to a full tribute by singer/actor Tyrese. He made the ladies in the audience swoon with his very convincing take on the original Teddy Bear’s classics Close The Door and Turn Off The Lights while pictures of Pendergrass, both alone and with Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, were displayed. Seeing women in the audience holding up panties to Tyrese, in a nod to the (in)famous Ladies Only concerts that Teddy Pendergrass was known for, was a nice touch.

BET head Debra Lee presented the Humanitarian Award to singer John Legend for his work with poverty stricken people in Africa. That segment was very nicely and tastefully done and Legend himself was very humble in his acceptance of the award.

Now for the last part of the awards show that I was interested in — the tribute to Prince Rogers Nelson and his Lifetime Achievement Award presentation. I should point out that this was preceded by an unofficial mini-tribute of sorts by singer Trey Songz, who did a number and incorporated at the end of it Prince and The Revolution’s classic Purple Rain.

Stevie Wonder gave the introduction to the tribute, reflecting on the genius of Prince and even doing a riff of Purple Rain himself. The collection of pictures and performance clips of Prince was enjoyable. Then came the performances.

First up: Janelle Mon�e, doing Let’s Go Crazy. Hmmmm � how do I say this tactfully � she was not terrible but her performance of the song was just a little too frenetic, a little too herky-jerky. Almost as if she interpreted the phrase “let’s go crazy” too literally. Prince looked bemused as he watched and listened to her performance. Somehow, I don’t think he was totally feeling it. A word to the wise, Janelle: learn when to tone it down a notch. You don’t have to “go there” on every performance.

Afterwards came 25 y.o. bassist Esperanza Spalding with a very unique looking upright bass. She has a funky, soulful style and with that funky afro of hers, you could tell she was going to give you some soul. She did If I Was Your Girlfriend and she was perfect for that song. Her singing, her self-accompaniment on the upright bass — beautiful. Prince was digging her performance.

Next came Alicia Keys. I would have thought she would do the Prince song that she recorded, How Come You Don’t Call Me Anymore? Instead, she did the song Adore and, ohhhh, she was great on that song. She sounde dperfect singing that soulful ballad with her self-accompaniment on the piano. She even wowed Prince by getting up on top of her piano and getting sexy with it, with her pregnant self. Even Prince was like, whoa! He was definitely feeling her performance.

Then came the closer: Patti LaBelle doing Purple Rain. Now we all know how classic Prince took it home on that song, rocking out on the guitar and singing his heart out. I still remember his 1985 performance of the song with The Revolution on the American Music Awards. He kicked the microphone stand down and rocked out on the guitar until he was completely spent, earning himself a thunderous standing ovation from the audience.

Well, Patti LaBelle took everyone to church with her rendition of it, backed by a choir of singers. She kicked her shoes off (as fans of her know, she tends to do that at her concerts when she feels the performance) and Prince happily caught one of her flying shoes. Patti, ever the big-voiced singer, brought it. Prince was having a religious experience with her performance of that song. The whole audience was swaying and bobing their heads and feeling it. Everybody went to church on that performance.

Chaka Khan and Patti LaBelle then presented the award to Prince and he came up and accepted. Now, I find it very interesting that the man who was known for wearing ass-less pants on stage in the nineties, who wore a bikini-style outfit in the early eighties, who could get very freaky on stage (before becoming a Jehovah’s Witness, that is), can still be so painfully shy when it comes to talking.

Prince was very gracious in his comments to the young artists, basically saying that they are the future and that he is glad to have been a part of shaping the music that they now hold in their hands. In Janelle’s case, I would say that he was being very gracious, but I digress. He did acknowledge that he used to be a wild one in his day (really, Prince — you?) and cautioned the young artists that they don’t have to be as wild as he was. They don’t have to follow in those footsteps — just follow their own steps and make their own path.

All in all, there was much about this year’s BET Awards performances that I actually did enjoy.