Comments On The 2004 BET Awards

Here are my thoughts on the 4th Annual BET Awards:

-Mo’Nique was great as host. Her opening number (which featured her and several other big women doing Beyonce’s dance from the “Crazy in Love” video) was great. She also proved to be a quick thinker. The show had various problems pop up while she was on camera. She read the teleprompter that said that Jay-Z was to perform, only to find out that it was wrong. Her dual reaction to both the incident and stalling the audience was hilarious. Also, she managed to take a jab at a member of the Ying Yang Twinz. The duo is known for the strange sounds they make during their songs, and one member kept making the noise as she had to stall for time. Her comments about him (“This is why you need birth control pills.”) were also very funny.

-The performances ranged from very good to kinda bad. I really enjoyed Kanye West’s performance of “Jesus Walks” (with surprise guest performer Yolanda Adams). In a lot of ways, it reminded me of P. Diddy’s performance of “I’ll Be Missing You” from the MTV Video Music Awards.

The 25 years of Hip-Hop performance was great as well, although Flava Flav’s hair made him looked like a devil. Melle Mel also needs to learn that you can’t take your shirt off after a certain age, no matter how muscular you are.

Janet’s lip-synched performance was okay and it contained the biggest surprise of the night...Elephant Man. Out of all the people to randomly appear during a performance, I certainly didn’t expect him.

The most disappointing performance of the night belonged to Usher, however. While he danced and sang live (something many singers don’t do), he sounded horrible. I don’t know if he’s started smoking or what, but he used to sound better when he sang live, even when he danced. And with him getting ready to go on tour, this doesn’t bode well for him putting on a good show without some form of vocal track. Then again, the only person I have seen that really could sing and dance live very well was Michael Jackson, and he can’t do that anymore.

The strangest performance came courtesy of Rick James and Teena Marie. Rick James is the one who brought Teena Marie out and they have done a few songs together. However, it was just plain strange when immediately after a commercial break, the two of them start performing. The announcer didn’t even announce them. For a second, I almost thought that they weren’t supposed to be singing. They ran through the aisles and rows of the Kodak Theatre as they sang and sang. Eventually, they made their way to the stage to present an award. After the award was presented, Rick James made his way to the mic and said the words that any Chappelle’s Show fan knew he would say...”I’m Rick James, bitch!”

All the other performances were good as well and contained their moments. OutKast’s performance of “Roses” was fun. It had The Love Below (the little group from the “Roses” video) performing and getting interrupted by the Speakerboxxx crew (also from the video), just as other live performances of the song have had. However, this one was pretty funny, right down to the one guy who just held a bucket of chicken for the whole performance. I cracked up when Big Boi knocked it out of his hand. I also liked Ludacris’s performance. Mo’Nique said that the show was “live-to-live” meaning that it had no delay. Well, Ludacris’s performance proved that, as a couple of cuss words slipped through. G-Unit’s performance was kind of blah, although when they got to “On Fire” it wasn’t so bad. Smokie Norful’s gospel performance was pretty good. There is nothing worse bad gospel singing and I would’ve hated to see the crowd if he hit a bad note. Also, The Isley Brothers proved why they have lasted this long with their performance. It was also pretty nice to find out that there are three brothers that are still alive instead of two.

-My sister and I decided that there were three things missing from this year’s show: R. Kelly, Prince, and A.J.

-It was very cool of the BET Awards to actually have real people sitting in the very front rows. I don’t know exactly how they got the seats, but you could tell those people really enjoyed the show.

-I think it made perfect sense that Bob Johnson would be the person to play Jay-Z at the awards. His fortune is a lot larger than Jay-Z’s. However, Jay will probably have the last laugh...because there’s no way that Bob’s expansion Charlotte Bobcats will beat Jay-Z’s New Jersey Nets more than once. And Jay-Z will probably be laughing at Bob from the 2005 NBA Playoffs as well.

-As much money as they spend on the BET Awards to make it a good show, why couldn’t they get a better set for the post-Awards special? First, it was hard to get to because you had to walk over one of those long dot-matrix screens. Then, the space itself was small and cramped with two leather sectionals, a table, and a TV screen. To top it off at that, they crammed way too many people into that space. You had to feel sorry for Raven as she sat between members of the Sugar Hill Gang among others on that set.

-What’s up with Farnsworth Bentley? When he appeared on the set of the post-Awards special, he laid across the set instead of sitting down on the couch. Also, he randomly pulled out a handkerchief out of his pocket, folded it, and stuffed it into Jamie Foxx’s front blazer pocket. You wanna know what's stranger? It actually matched Jamie’s outfit.

-The colors of the night were white and cream. Everyone looked pretty nice, except for Usher who looked like he woke up, ran some errands, and decided to go to the BET Awards on a whim.

-Wow, Beyonce actually could go to an awards show and enjoy herself without performing!

-Why is it that every time Steve Harvey introduces an old-school performer, he has to say something negative about the current generation?

-FOX should have known better than to put a new episode of The Bernie Mac Show against the BET Awards. But, maybe I should be happy that they haven’t unceremoniously dumped it like Boston Public, Wanda at Large, Cedric The Entertainer Presents...