Bark + Bite

Thoughts and Reflections on the 2012 BET Awards

Why Did Chris Brown Come to the BET Awards in a Half Silver Surfer Halloween Costume?

Chris Brown is in a funky place. He's just now getting back to speaking with the press and he's in the middle of ongoing beef with about 25 different people in the music industry at the same damn time!

Whenever Chris Brown is booked for an award show performance, you can expect two things: He'll be shirtless at some point and he'll dance like an angry ballerina with a runny tummy.

Perplexingly, even though "Turn Up the Music" peaked long ago, it's still the main track he's promoting. Even more confusing, he performed his two dance-pop tracks in front of the BET audience. Isn't the whole point of the split urban/pop discography thing that he's been doing to cater the urban tracks to black audiences and push the pop tracks to mixed/white audiences?

Whatever. We should stop trying to make sense of Chris Brown's logic. Even Dr. Phil would have a hard time cracking this nut.

The BET Awards are not taking the Video of the Year category seriously this year

So the BET Awards nominations were recently announced and the nominees included many of the usual suspects. A lot of Beyonce, a lot of Kanye, etc. That's normal and to be somewhat expected.

But there is truth to the saying about avoiding too much of a good thing. And the BET Awards went overboard the most in the Video of the Year category. The nominees went something like this:

• Beyoncé – “Countdown”
• Beyoncé – “Love on Top”
• Jay-Z & Kanye West – “Ni**as in Paris”
• Jay-Z & Kanye West – “Otis”
• Usher – “Climax”

Beyonce and Janye (Jay-Z + Kanye) received 4 of the 5 nominations overall, with Usher's "Climax" being the sole non-Blue Ivy blessed entry. That's just plain ol' lazy.

2011 BET Awards: Big things talkin', but nothing poppin'

There was a lot of noise coming from the 2011 BET Awards, but very little of it was worth tuning in to.

This applied in particular to Rick Ross and DJ Khaled who must've donated a hefty sum of coins to the BET donation box, as the two kept popping up over and over throughout the broadcast. There were the two for Rick Ross's performance and DJ Khaled's performance of his new single "I'm On One," and there Rick was again for Alicia's performance, while Khaled made an appearance at the end of Mary's opening.

On the awards front, there were no surprises, except for the painfully awkward mix-up over whether Rihanna & Drake or Chris Brown and co. had won the Viewer's Choice Award. The end result: Chris did, but Drake had already accepted on TV for him and RiRi, leaving BET in the uncomfortable position of having to take back an award it had already given out. As Drake succinctly put it: Awkward.

2011 BET Awards Performances

The 2011 BET Awards was jam-packed with performances, as usual. It was an awards show that rolled between honoring the past and the present. Mary J. Blige started things off by tributing her widely praised sophomore album My Life, then she crashed uncomfortably into her noisy new single featuring Jadakiss and DJ Khaled.

But the highlights of the night were when Cee Lo Green came out in his wildly fantastic getup for the Patti LaBelle tribute. Cee Lo is perhaps second only to Lady Gaga when it comes to converation starting stage costumes and his cockatoo do was topped off by a glittering blouse that Patti was most definitely proud of.

The other big wow moment of the night was when Kelly Rowland popped, locked, dropped and rolled with it for her sexy hit "Motivation." The world was not ready for all the jelly that it was seeing from Miss Kelly.

Kelly Rowland's sister of destiny, Beyonce, closed out the show with a pre-recorded performance from her set at Glastonbury in the UK. She kicked things off with "Best Thing I Never Had," but she quickly let her hair down and rocked out to "End of Time" in that signature Sasha Fierce way.

Watch the 2011 BET Awards performances below

Mary J. Blige

Trey Songz and Kelly Rowland

Patti LaBelle tribute featuring Cee Lo, Marsha Amrbosius and Shirley Caesar

Beyonce Glastonbury

Alicia Keys featuring Bruno Mars and Rick Ross

Chris Brown featuring Busta Rhymes

Rick Ross and DJ Khaled

Jill Scott

Big Sean featuring Chris Brown

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SOURCE: Mr.WorldPremiere

2011 BET Awards Noms: Everybody loves Chris Brown, Nicki Minaj in a league of her own

The nominations for the 2011 BET Awards were announced yesterday (view all the tomfoolery in its photographic glory over at Crunk + Disorderly) and Mr. Breezy came out on top with a whopping 6 nominations. BET even gave him a nod in the Best Actor category for his little role in Takers.

After orchestrating the return and redemption of Chris Brown with his high profile tribute to Michael Jackson at the 2010 BET Awards, BET is continuing to lavish the troubled pop star with accolades and attention. Clearly, BET is investing heavily in Chris Brown.

Another BET favorite, Nicki Minaj, is pretty much all by herself in the Best Female Hip-Hop Artist category. Oh, there are names surrounding her's, but none of them are of any consequence. Diamond, formerly of Crime Mob fame, has been trying to put herself on all last year, but the only thing she's really done of note was get her car repossessed on WorldStar.

BET was so desperate to fill out the category that they went and added Cymphonique, Lil' Romeo's 13-year-old sister, to the category. Note, however, that despite the thinness of the category, BET declined to nominated Lil' Kim, who spent most of 2010 bitching and moaning about Nicki Minaj, dropping mediocre diss tracks, which culminated in the disappointingly PayPal-sold Black Friday.

Perhaps we should be grateful that BET didn't throw Missy into the mix like they have every other year for this category, but it's obvious that Nicki will be walking away with the award that night. They might as well just rename it The Did It On 'Em award.

See the rest of the nominees in the music categories below

Nicki Minaj is innocent, she did rap live on the BET Awards

When the BET Awards aired last month, Nicki Minaj gained many detractors for what appeared to be lip synched performances of her features on Dirty Money's "Hello Good Morning" remix, Ludacris' "My Chick Bad" and DJ Khaled's "All I Do Is Win" remix. Nicki took to Twitter to explain that people in the auditorium could hear her live, while those in TV Land heard her dubbed over voice.

Many mocked Nicki's explanation, calling it a smokescreen excuse and a lame attempt at covering up her alleged lack of talent. Well, BOOYAKA! Here is the evidence that clears Nicki Minaj's good name.

Wigs, smoke and tears: BET Awards 2010 recap

Photo credit: Wireimage

It certainly was a night full of emotions. The BET Awards had everything that a good televised award show needs: A comeback story, a water cooler moment and an over-the-top musical tribute. The comeback kid of the night was Kanye West. Mr. West had been on a self-imposed sabbatical after ruffling feathers when he got onstage at the VMAs last year and snatched the mic from Country music's babydoll Taylor Swift.

At the BET Awards, Kanye seemed intent on proving that he was in control. He performed perched above the audience on a faux mountain, commanding a violent storm as he half yelled the lyrics to his stormy single "Power." Perhaps Kanye's still not ready to let the world all the way back into his world. By performing atop a mountain the whole time, he avoided any real engagement with the audience and remaining largely silhoutted. It felt purposefully distant and detached, much like most of his work post-mic snatch. The backlash has clearly left deep scars.

Ready for more? Here's what you really need to know about what went down at the 2010 BET Awards.

BET Awards 2010: Performances

Photo Credit: Wireimage

The BET Awards promised to be an award show of comebacks and there were a few veterans who reemerged from obscurity to reclaim their throne. Kanye West, who has laid low ever since he unpopularly stepped on country music's little kitty Taylor Swift, opened the show with his thundering new single "Power." Chris Brown returned to the BET Awards stage to tribute Michael Jackson after being forced to take a hiatus last year due to his assault of ex-girlfriend Rihanna. Other surprises included Nicki Minaj's multiple wigged out appearances and rockers Travis Barker and Tommy Lee playing drums during T.I. and Ludacris' set.

Check out the performances below, thanks to Mr.WorldPremeiere.net