Tributes to music legends – dead or living, homage to Black entertainment icons who have passed away throughout the past year, and comeback performances both from classic and more contemporary artists were witnessed by hundreds of attendees at the BET Awards last night, June 27, held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.
Academy Award nominee Queen Latifah hosted the event, lashing out her own brand of stand-up comedy to celebrity show-ups and award winners like Drake, where she sampled a line from one of the rapper’s tracks. But the night would be mostly remembered for Chris Brown’s self-redeeming tribute to the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, who passed away a little over a year from today.
Brown was in complete MJ fashion – fingers were bandaged, fashioning skinny high wasted pants and a pair of glittery gloves – coupled with the King’s dance moves best remembered from the videos of “Billie Jean” and “Remember the Time”, which the young artist performed with absolute grace and snappiness, it’s as if watching Jackson on stage again.
But Brown melted down during the song “Man in the Mirror”, where the audience took over in singing the song as he could barely get his act together on stage. Perhaps he was grieving for the loss of everyone’s music hero, or he could simply relate to the song due to his almost demise in the recent past. Whatever the reason for the meltdown was, audiences found Brown endearing, and they might’ve even forgiven him for his past sins, anyway, it has been a year and he has clearly shown remorse, at least as what it seemed from his “Man in the Mirror” act.
Meanwhile, a very preggers Alicia Keys did not let the baby bump impede her tribute to the one and only Purple One, Prince. Along with Patti LaBelle and Janelle Monae, they all sang “Adore” where the soon-to-be-married Keys was seen pounding the blacks and the whites – keys, that is – while she almost straddled herself to the piano. Prince was given the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Pianist and R&B artist John Legend was also recognized during the awards night for his humanitarian works.
Other noteworthy performances include returning artists like Eminem who shared the stage with breakout artist B.O.B to perform “Airplanes” and Marshall Mathers’ new single “Not Afraid”. El DeBarge also performed with their classic Motown set, with “Rhythm of the Night” setting up the tempo. Kanye West, after his stage hijacking incident last year, debuted his newest single, “Power” as the night’s opening number. West performed the song while standing at the peak of a makeshift mountaintop clad in red. Fresh from serving his sentence, rapper T.I also made a comeback by performing “Takers”, along with drummer Travis Barker.
But the big winners of the night were Drake and Nicki Minaj who both took home Best Male and Female Hip-Hop Artist honors, respectively. They both share the same record label owned by Lil Wayne who is now serving his sentence. Both artists gave a shout out to their boss and delivered knockout performances, as well – Drake with Young Jeezy, and Minaj with fellow colorful rapper Lil Kim. Meanwhile, the video for “Telephone” a collaboration between Beyonce and Lady Gaga, won Video of the Year honors.
Lastly, Lena Horne, Teddy Pendergrass and Gary Coleman, who all passed away within the past year, were acknowledged for their contributions to the Black entertainment industry.
