2009 B.E.T. Awards

The jury is out at whether or not "Skank Robbers" would be a good thing. On one hand, it is more tom-foolery, but on the other hand it's tom-foolery at its finest. Soul Plane if they had stepped up their game. Due to everyone's shocked reaction, I wouldn't be suprised if this becomes a reality. And Foxx's Wanda had the best line of the night. "I know it's Chris Brown's baby. He keeps kickin me."

After news of Michael Jackson's death, the B.E.T. Awards became a tribute show to Michael Jackson. They did their best with only 3 days preparation time, but I do think MJ deserved more than two mediocre performances from New Edition and Ciara, a crappy Keri Hilson dance, and a failed Jamie Foxx moonwalk attempt. Neyo did it right though as well as Jamie Foxx in the end. All the MJ testimonies were nice. I was disappointed that Beyonce didn't do more. If she did it up, she could have made a huge statement.

The BET Awards also give out Best Actor and Actress of the year. With all the hooplah, Best Actor was completely ignored. Yet, I'm guessing it went to Idris Elba since he was the only nominee in attendance and had the latest film out with Obsessed (other than Common in ill-fated Terminator Salvation but let's all do him a favor and forget about that). Best Actress went to Taraji P. Henson. She attributed all her young fans to BET's constant rotation of Baby Boy.  I'm happy for Taraji, but I wish more people in the black community would acknowledge Viola Davis' amazing performance in Doubt. She wasn't even nominated despite having a better chance than Taraji at winning the Oscar. Oh, Taraji and Tyrese recreated the Baby Boy drama on stage later, which got ruined by Vingh Rhames pretending to be drunk (I hope he was pretending cause that would a damn shame). 

Overall, I think the awards show did black people proud as best as a Viacom owned TV channel serving black people could. The O'Jays tribute was classy as well as many of the performances. The only embarrassing performances were from Soulja Boy and Lil Wayne/Drake (but what else is new). My favorite performances were Jay-Z, Ne-yo, Jamie Foxx, The O'Jays, and Monica's half of her duet with Keyshia Cole. 

Although it wasn't the Michael Jackson all-out tribute I wanted, I thank B.E.T. for doing their best. Here's to hoping the Apollo show kills it. Michael Jackson, now and forever.