Soundcheck: 2011 BET Hip Hop Awards: Scathing Cyphers, Political Points, and Missing Winners
posted in: Music News • Reviews & Playlists • Urban
The 2011 BET Hip Hop Awards was filmed in Atlanta on October 1 and aired on BET last week. Packed with powerful performances and full of surprises, the show offered the world a glimpse of some of rap’s most promising up and comers through their nine cyphers, and gave some unexpected players a turn at the mic while other big names were noticeably MIA.
The show’s opening set the pace for the night. A fire-filled stage revealed Young Jeezy who spit some verses before throwing the mic to T.I. Making his triumphant return to the stage in his hometown of Atlanta, the recently“released rapper got straight to the point, spitting I been out of sight/ been out of mind¦another year of prison/ promise this is it for me/ trying to make it through the storm/ should be makin’ history. /No feeling sorry keep your pity and your sympathy/ good or bad take it like a man whatever’s meant to be.
Hosted by Mike Epps, the show was light on awards. An hour into the show, they had only given out one. The night’s biggest winner was Chris Brown (who couldn’t be bothered to show up) for his hit, Look At Me Now featuring Busta Rhymes and Lil Wayne. The song nabbed a total of four awards including Best Hip-Hop Video, People’s Champ Award, Reese’s Perfect Combo Award and Best Featured Verse from Busta.
Nicki Minaj was absent for the night as well, but was named MVP of The Year and won the Made You Look Award, (whatever that is.) Another no-show, Lil Wayne took home trophies for Lyricist Of The Year and Best Live Performer while absentee Jay-Z was awarded Hustler Of The Year. Kanye‘s My Beautiful, Dark, Twisted Fantasy scored CD Of The Year and Nelly presented LL Cool J with the I Am Hip-Hop Award. Again, whatever that means. All in all, most of the night’s big winners were no-shows, so it’s a good thing the pre-recorded cyphers were so damn good. Still, I have to wonder where Drake landed on the list, and with an album to promote, it’s weird he wasn’t there.
Wiz Khalifa won Rookie Of The Year and Track Of The Year for Black & Yellow and J.Cole took home the prize for Best Mixtape. The remaining winners were Waka Flocka Flame & Roscoe Dash (Best Club Banger, No Hands), DJ Khaled (Best DJ ) Lex Lugar (Producer Of The Year) and Hype Williams (Director Of The Year).
Lupe Fiasco’s Lasers was also iced out of the winner’s circle, but that didn’t stop him from delivering the most powerful performance of the night. Adorned in a simple #OCCUPY t-shirt, the Chicago native performed his politically charged single, Words I Never Said to a captive audience. The hook, we assumed was being sung by Skylar Grey in a full burka, turned out to be Erykah Badu when she uncovered her face at the end of the set. Lupe’s last lines seemed eerily appropriate given the current climate of our country, rapping I think all of our silence is worse than all the violence¦ Well said, Lupe.
Other performances came from Maybach Music Group including Rick Ross, Wale and Meek Mills. A shirtless Wiz Khalifa gave a high-energy performance and Big Sean had the crowd going with his hit, Chardonnay. In another shocking turn, Heavy D hit the stage for the first time in who knows how long. He wasn’t the only one off hiatus; turns out the Dog himself, DMX was ready to take the stage. His unmistakable growl kicked off his medley of ten-year-old hits including Ruff Ryders Anthem and Party Up.
There’s no doubt the best part of the show was the nine cyphers of the night, which pitted some of hip hop’s biggest names with indie favorites and some vicious up and comers. With too many standouts to cover, I suggest you watch the cyphers here. There was something for everyone in these eclectic sets that represented all corners of the hop-hop world, literally. Here are the highlights:
Indie Meets Mainstream Cypher: DJ Premier kicked off the first cypher of the night with Big K.R.I.T, Tech N9ne, and Machine Gun Kelly. Compton’s Kendrick Lamar, (one of my favorite up and comers) gave a great verse and B.o.B. ended his set with a good point: Yall trippin on Tip? Get off his neck, I’m just sayin Martha Stewart left prison in a jet.
Uncut Cypher: New York’s Reek Da Villain was followed by Atlanta’s own 2 Chainz. Busta Rhymes gave a scathing verse for his theatrical turn, followed by another Atlanta native, Ludacris.
Survival Of The Illest Cypher: Lady of Rage represented for the females, while Blind Fury proved why he’s one of BET’s best discoveries of all time. Skillz closed the set with a strong showing.
Maybach Music Group Cypher: Wale, Pill, Staley, Meek Mills and Rick Ross weren’t bad, but after a Maybach Music performance, they could have skipped the cypher.
International Flow Cypher: Nitty Scott, MC proved pretty girls cap spit hard and was followed by Christian rapper, LaCrae. Frenchman, Soprano spit his entire verse in French, with the English translations rhyming perfectly too, and Estelle debuted her sick rhyming skills, giving the strongest female showing of the night.
Chris Brown & Friends Cypher: This cypher included Ace Hood, Kevin McCall, Tyga and Chris Brown who took an impressive turn on the mic, telling his haters, shame on you.
Shady 2.0 Cypher: The Slaughterhouse Cypher was my favorite of the night, with Yelawolf, Joe Budden, Crooked I, Joell Ortiz, Royce Da 5’9, all doing some serious boasting, closed out by a hard-hitting verse from their leader, Eminem.
Recommended Posts: