BET Awards Show 2008 Recap
The 2008 BET Awards show opened up with Usher giving an energetic performance to his hit song “Love in this Club.” If you read my review of his CD, you know that’s not his best song on the CD. I wanted him to mix it and come back with one of his slow jams. He did a lot of grinding up there on stage.
DL Hugley was this year’s host. His joke about R Kelly didn’t go over too well, but otherwise, most folks thing he did okay as a host. I miss Monique–can’t nobody top my girl hosting.
Best Male R & B artist winner was Chris Brown.
I liked the song Young Jeezy performed. It got the crowd hyped. I might have to download that ringtone.
Best Male Athlete award winner was Kobe Bryant. At least he won something this June (I know that’s wrong because I’m a Lakers fan.)
Keyshia Cole performed Sent from Heaven. I loved those boots she was rocking. Lil Kim came on stage and almost took the spotlight.
It was like a Boyz N the Hood movie reunion with Cuba Gooding Jr, Morris Chestnut and Nia Long giving out the Best Female Hip-Hop Artist award (which Missy Elliott won).
I love me some Ne-Yo. I loved his performance but i might be a little bias.
Ladies still love cool James…well at least this one lady does. He just gets finer with age. Him and Ashanti gave out the Best New Artist award. I wanted Estelle to win, but it was cool that The Dream won. I was actually expecting Flo Rida or Soulja Boy to win.
Alica Keys performed her throwback song “Teenaged Love Affair.” That girl can sang (not sing, but sang). SWV showed up on stage with her singing “I Get So Weak in the Knees.” Alicia Keys performance was one of the best performances of the night. Just when you thought that was it, Envogue showed up performing “Don’t Let Go…” T Boz & Chili represented TLC with “Waterfalls.”
Niecy Nash has nobody’s sense. I won’t even repeat her skit. Funny though. 
She gave out the Best Male Hip-Hop Artist Award. Kanye West won this award; although I was thinking Lil Wayne had won when I saw him up on stage too.
T Pain worked with a lot of artists this past year as you could tell from his performances with Flo Rida, Rick Ross, Ludacrious and more.
Video of the Year award went to UGK (R.I.P. Pimp C)
There was a gospel performance by Marvin Sapp. I need to download the ringtone for the song he sang “Never Would Have Made It.” He also won the Best Gospel Artist Award.
Chris Brown always puts on a good performance. He’s all grown up. Him and Ciara performed Take U Down. I thought they would have to bleep the stage for a moment.
The Best Collaboration Award went to Kanye West & T-Pain. It was going to be hard for T-Pain to lose since he collaborated with a few nominees. Kanye said, “I’m one of the kings in this game right now.” I’m really feeling Kanye right now. He seems more humble these days.
Al Green not only received the BET Lifetime Achievement Award, he turned the show out with songs like “Let’s Stay Together” and “Love and Happiness.” He showed the youngsters how it’s done. In fact, I think when I get off here, I’m going to listen to me some Al Green.
Rihanna also performed. I loved her hair, but no comments on the dress.
Queen Latifah presented Quincy Jones with the Humanitarian Award.
Ashanti introduced her man, Mr. Nelly. A shirtless Nelly performed with JD and Fergie.
Lauren London and Sean “Diddy” Combs gave out the Best Female R & B artist award to Alicia Keys after declaring “Black is beautiful” (applause). Keys and others are hyped about the upcoming presidential election–Register to Vote y’all.
Lil Wayne closed the show out. 2008 is definately his year.
Overall, it was a good awards show. My favorite performances were Al Green, his tribute performances, Alicia Keys, Young Jeezy, and Ne-Yo.
What did you like about this year’s BET Awards?
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I think the tribute to Al Green and his performance were the standout moments for me. I liked how Kanye was humble at points and then dipped back into huge ego moments. Frankie and Neffie always make me smile for some reason… 😉
Gwyneth
I loved Alicia Keys and my girls. Now they need to do a tour together, I would go.
Al Green made me want to buy some tickets to his July show.
I think it was a good show overall. I missed Monique too. DL was OK but I think his jokes goes over the people heads. They’re wondering should they laugh or not.
You did a great review of the show.
It was pretty decent compared to previous years. The last few BET shows were held by a thin thread b/c Monique was hosting it. But DL, I’m just not really into his comedy these days. I LOVE ALICIA but I do not think she c an SANG. EnVogue can SANG, patti labelle can SANG. But mj blige (love her dearly) & Alicia are great performers who can sing carry a tune & they do have their own distinctive sounds but Alicia’s new songs that have been released of the AS I AM album, GET ON MY EVERLASTING NERVE. The lyrics are beautiful, the music is amazing. Her live performances are GREAT but her VOICE has got to go. Still she’s an overall good performer and one of the better examples of talent out there.
Gwyneth, yes, the Al Green performance was definately the highlight…he turned the place out. I loved the same thing about Kanye.
LaShaunda, thanks. Girl, I tell you I’ve been listening to some Al Green. My mama still has some of his old 8-tracks and an 8-track player to play them on…lol
Kd, we’ll agree to disagree. I still think Ms Keys can sing or it maybe the fact that she’s such a great performer that it enhances her singing…who knows (smile)…I would love to see the original members of EnVogue do another CD.
I loved your review. I really enjoyed last night’s show, the previous years were alittle to ghetto for my taste. I loved Al Green and his tributes, Quincy’s great wisdom and most of the ladies looked beautiful.
I was happy to see SWV and EnVogue get to show the younguns how they will probably look in a few years and a few babies. But still can sang sumtin and rock the house.
I was disappointed in my girl Keyshia Cole, she was horrible. And, Lil Weezy needs to definitely go in rehab b/c I couldn’t understand a thing that he said.
You know Niecy Nash went Over The Top when KANYE was lookin at her like:
Did that fool really just say that???
Nice to know Kanyeezee can be shocked though.
Alesia, I can never understand what Lil Weezy says…lol But everybody seems to love him.
Brooklyn Darkchild, yep…I noticed that too.
I missed everything before Al Green’s performance so I’ll have to catch it this weekend. Although its the BET “Awards”, it should really be called the BET “Music Fest” with a few awards thrown in, from what I heard.
I’m not an Usher fan and I like D.L. Hughley but without even seeing the whole show, I still miss Monique. She keeps me laughing.
I must say that i really enjoyed last night. i guess that worst part of the night to me was listening to the host. He is so not funny to me.And lets not forget about Keysha Cole…I think that she just forgot that she was live. i was so disappointed in her performance.
I did not like D.L. he was horrible. Now Keysha Cole, she knew she was live, what the hell was that. I did’nt like it and I know she can do better. On the other hand CHRIS BROWN that freaky boy, turned me on with that performance with Ciara, A plus all the way. And did it well in front of his women.
I watched the awards and thought that your opinions were pretty close to what I was thinking. The worst performance to me was Keysha Cole and Lil’ Kim. I like Keysha Cole but maybe she’s just not an artist who can perform outside the studio. I expected more from Usher, his performance was just okay. I really expected Usher to come out with something hot but his album is not really a dance album. Neyo on the other hand did what I expected from Usher. Loved his performance. I also loved seeing SWV, En Vogue, and TLC perform with Alicia Keys. Seeing Maxwell was a nice surprise and Al Green’s performance was just Awesome!!!
The show was simply ok. Better than the MTV one with Brittney Spears as the opening act though. Where was everybody? B? Jay-Z? Missy? I even wanted to see that guy Plies! My favorite moment was Al Green’s performance and the thing with DL H. is that everyone does not understand his comedy, I do and I think he is hilarious!
Key Cole and Kim looked like 2 chicks in the hood that got pass security and my husband was amazed at Alicia’s hips and bottom so…that’s my take.
BET is a white-owned station that only caters to the lowest common denominator of(naive teens)African Americans. When BET was Black owned it carried only classy, intelligent shows that anyone would be proud to watch. When MTV/Viamcom bought it early-to-mid-1990’s it’s like they had an agenda. Degrade the network and the people. Against numerous consumer complaints, the (MTV)BET killed off all of their classy, intellectual shows and resorted to only denigrating shows, (violent gangster rap videos, showing pimp characters, all females had to resemble prostitutes or strippers, all shows were anger-based, all males on the show have to look and talk like they’ll murder someone at any given minute. When MTV/Viacom reduced BET to this format, they completely lost their adult audience. Now only young people too naive to understand are feeding on this trash and unfortunately it is shaping them. There are statistic to prove the growth in violence in demographic that nurse on the (new) Viacom-BET. Despite countless pleas to the company, they are forced to stick with the only format that the MTV Corporation (Viacom) will fund.
http://www.enoughisenoughcampaign.com is just one of campaigns aimed at trying to get BET back to a reputable format, like the one when all knew and loved before the MTV/Viacom take-over. BET is NOW only watched by naive, influential young people and giving them the impression that gangsters, pimping and hoochies are how they should act. Parents do their part but kids are more influenced by trends in the media and this white-owned BET (MTV/Viacom) is destroying generations of impressionable young people with its negative images. They flatly refuse to show anything positive, despite the countless petitions and complaints. No other teen network in America would be allowed to force feed a steady diet of such influential trash to their young people. Only BET and the majority of BLACK hate this (new) BET. TH3 TRUTH HAS SPOKEN.
Bet has been a hot mess for more than a few yrs and Bon Johnson sold it in 2000.
Alicia Keys and Chris brown took my breathe away. Thats all I have to say……..
Overall , I think this year’s awards was not the best but cool. First of all I want to thank Ashanti for letting Nelly show those ripped sweaty muscles, but he shouldnt let her wear that dress, Neyo was awesome, I love his style, Usher was lip singing “thank God” and his routine dance moves saved his performance. Keyshia Cole’s “Heavent Sent” sounded like all hell broke loose and she should have lip singed like Usher, luckily her all white outfit and Lil Kim saved the performance. Lil Kim sounded good but her plastic surgery looks terrible. Missy should have been there to show off her dance moves, cuz Keyshia’s were awful. Chris Brown and Ciara shut it down, I loved their performance. Ciara proved that she will take Rhi Rhi’s man if she doesn’t get off that gothic ish. I hated Rhianna’s dresses, but she sounded pretty good to make up for it. Alicia Keys looked great, her performance was good, but maybe she should have stuck with EnVogue and left Tboz awful singing and SWV jealousy at home. WHOA!!! to hell with Justin Timberlake, Maxwell definitely brought sexy back, so what if they had to dig it up, Jill Scott is my girl, but it is going to take me awhile to get used to that new hairdo. Anthony Hamilton was born to sing and that is what he always do and lovin the new shave. T-pain and Lil Wayne “T-Wayne” whatever, looked horrible as usual. I hated the whole circus fiasco luckily my boys Big Boi and Luda saved it, Rick Ross needs to keep his damn shirt on, that was Nelly’s job. I like Jeezy new song , but Kanye should have rapped in his regular voice. I did not care for any of their performances at all, I am so over that electronic mic. OK, DL was so wrong for getting Marvin Sapps name wrong, overall Marvin did a superb job with the gospel music. Where in the hell was Jay and B to show these people how to dress at the award show, cuz apparently Cassie did not get the note, Diddy shoulda been smacked for that winkled pink shirt thing she had on. Queen Latifah looked stunning as usual and represented for the healthy plus girls because J-Hud and Toccara needed those tips. Al Green gets an A+ for his performance it made up for all the downfalls of the night.
i was wondering the song that was playing when Q got the humanatarian award, by micheal jackson what was the name of it or was it the jackson 5
The only highlight of the show was when Maxwell performed. He was simply beautiful and the song was good too.
Overall I will say that the awards were good. I was able to watch the ENTIRE show this year. Mon’Nique’s presence was surely missed. Either you like DL or you don’t and I think that’s why he got mixed reviews. Highlights for me were:
*Ne-Yo is a great performer and I agree that he did what I expected Usher to do. Usher just didn’t WOW me this time.
*Chris Brown and Ciara (I love her) were GREAT! Loved their performance.
*Rhianna looked beautiful as always…her style is a little funky but she wears it well. She makes you pay attention.
*Alicia Keys…..that’s my girl and she was great! I think she can SANG too. This performance didn’t highlight that but there have been performances we she has shown her chops! Loved that she took us back to the girl groups that we love. En Vogue looked GREAT! Happy to see the ORIGINALS back together again. SWV..loved them but Coko threw me off. Her outfit did nothing for her.
*Rev. Al Green and his tribute! I SCREAMED when I say Maxwell!!! They were talking about him on the radio a few days earlier this week here in DC wanting him to come back…give us some great music and he pops up on the show giving it to us! GO MAXWELL!!! Rev. Al Green looked good!
*Keyshia Cole didn’t sing as well as I expected her to. I’ve seen her live before, singing both songs and she was great, can’t say the same for her performance on the show. It was entertaining though.
*Wasn’t into all the hip-hop acts and I LOVE RAP…the new music just doesn’t appeal to me too much. There are a few songs that I like BUT, overall it’s not for me. Loved Nelly’s performance with Fergie!
*Marvin Sapp!!!! Love that Song!!!
My other thoughts are that the BET Awards were missing something. They were missing the Grown and Sexy performances and awards. Look at who was nominated. In a sense I felt like I was watching a toned down version of the BET Hip-Hop Awards! Where were the G&S nominations? I understand that they went with “What’s Hot” right now, but it’s like R&B gets lost sometimes in this world of “what’s hot.” Everyone is collaborating with a hip-hop star so the song has more of a hip-hop feel than R&B. I think that Raheem DaVaughn should have been on the show (not pre-show), Ledisi, Chante Moore, Keith Sweat, Jennifer Hudson, Robin Thicke…..there are a host of other names. All of these people have albums that are newly released or being released soon but have very popular singles on the radio. My bad, some of them aren’t hot on the urban, hip-hop station nor are their videos on 106 & Park so they don’t make the cut. SHAME ON BET!! Someone needs to step in and say we need to showcase MORE of OUR music! I thought they were doing better.
It’s true that they have lost most of their adult audience, the show reflected that. I walked away feeling like I missed something. Now that the Soul Train awards are NO MORE and they were a lot more balanced, what do we have left?
PatriciaW, I don’t mind the performances. I’m sure you’ll be able to catch the show in reruns.
Wraijha, Resse Cup, Jayebee, the best part about Keyshia’s performance were the boots. I temporarily forgot how young Chris Brown was for a moment–lol
KG, it was definitely better than Britney’s opening act.
Ogden/SexyGal, I try not to get involved with the politics of it all–there comes a time when we (women) need to stop degrading ourselves and stop dressing like we stepped out of the shower and save the hoochie dances for the privacy of the home–that’s another post for a different blog.
Cindy, their performance was HOT!
Kshel, I like Rick Ross but with his shirt on. Now Nelly…he can keep it off all night long.
Oliver, I can’t recall the song. If I do, I’ll email you and let you know.
Cari, I’m in love with Maxwell. I could look at that man all night (and day).
Kay, the show has definitely gone more rap than r & b over the years. I like hip-hop but I like r & b too so it would be nice to have a better mixture in the future.
I wished they had a different host … Maybe someone who could make me laugh. Alecia Keyes is normally my girl, but for some reason I wasn’t in love with the album or her performance. Keyshia Cole needs to stay away from live performances, but at least she looked good. Rick Ross needs to never perform with his stomach out. It wasn’t sexy when Fat Joe did or when Bone Crusher did it. And what was he thinking with tattoos on it?
I have to say the Chris Brown and Ciara rock the house down. Ne-Yo performance was great to and i was happy to see the Jabbawakees (ABDC) for life. Keyshia Cole is my gurl but her performance wasn’t all that great I was very disappointed. Alicia Keys was ok but that’s not the Alicia that first came out. When she came out she reminded us of a female vesion of Prince( The Artist formally known as Prince).LOL. But becsides that the show was great. Lil Wayne was good to but he needs to dress his daughters a little better.
Ignore my first entry. Spelling errors. I have to say that Chris Brown and Ciara rock the house down. Ne-Yo performance was great to and I was happy to see the Jabbawakees (ABDC) for life. Keyshia Cole is my gurl but her performance wasn’t all that great I was very disappointed and Lil Kim wasn’t no help either. Alicia Keys was ok but that’s not the Alicia that first came out she had looked fake a Beyonce wanna be. She had her own swagger and style. When she came out she reminded us of a female vesion of Prince( The Artist formally known as Prince).LOL. But besides that the show was great. Lil Wayne was good to but he needs to dress his daughters a little better.
i really like the show it was hot and i really enjoy it in i cant wait to it come back next year and i really like lil wayne performes and chris browns and keaisha cole but i like the whole shows see you next year when you come back on and usher was hot when he open up the show
to da person who saidlil wayne needs to dress his baby better THAT IS THE WAY NEW ORLEANS PEOPLE DRESS. DO SOME RESEARCH.
Just because that’s the way so and so does it, doesn’t make it appropriate. When out in public, folks should try to dress accordingly.
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