The other night my wife went to bed early and I’d been sleeping all day, so I settled down alone on the couch for some twilight TV.I consider this a fun past-time because you never know what you’re going to get.
It could be hilarious commercials for male enhancement products, or sci-fi Anime epics or really kooky televangelist programs, or any number of oddities that, for whatever reason, were pushed to the late night hours.
But that night I caught a re-run (or encore) presentation of the 2010 BET Hip-Hop Awards, and it was rad.
I like hip-hop as a casual listener, or on special occasions like at the club or wedding receptions, but I have to admit I’m not that well versed on what’s happening on the scene right now, so it was really interesting to see all that’s going on.
One thing I noticed about the awards show itself was that it was a lot less formal and a lot more about fun than some of the rock awards shows I’ve seen.
At the rock shows, people don’t really seem to be in a solemn “honor the artists” mode. They don’t rock out to the live performances much, but at the BET Hip-Hop Awards, each artist seemed to be trying to one-up the last one and the crowd was standing up and dancing and shaking through the whole show.
It really made things seem less stuffy and made me feel like that would be a real happening place to be. Even moguls like P. Diddy and Jermaine Dupri were up and moving to the music all night.
Host Mike Epps seemed well versed in hip-hop culture from the past 20 years, coming out between each set with crazy costumes. During one monologue he was dressed as Slick Rick, eye patch and all. And when he made fun of performers, it wasn’t followed by the stuffy silence like you sometimes see during the Oscars. Everyone was laughing and having a good time with him.
Several different genres of hip-hop were seen coming together. Some of the more teeny-bopper rappers like SoulJa Boy had elaborate performances with crazy dancers and lights, lots of bells and whistles, and you also had some novelty rap moments like the Antoine Dodson/Gregory Brothers hit “Hide Your Kids, Hide Your Wife” (based on an Auto-Tuned YouTube version of an Alabama newscast).
That one was interesting because it was originally about a serious crime and some pundits thought it was too controversial to turn into a funny song, but because it charted the family was able to move out of the projects into a new home.
At the same time, titans of the rap game like Jay-Z were bringing home awards; Jay won “Best Collaboration” for his work with Alicia Keys on “Empire State of Mind.” A whole new crop of fierce female rappers like Nicki Minaj stepped up into stardom.
And finally, my favorite feature of the show was called the Cypher. This was a series of simple black-and-white videos featuring some of the best new upcoming rappers swapping what seemed like freestyles over continuous beats by an upcoming new DJ.
I can’t even remember the name of most of the rappers I saw, but if they are the future of rap, I see some great potential.
Again, I am not an expert, but it seems like hip-hop is moving away from the lyrical materialism and sunny So-Cal beats of the late ’90s and early 2000s and moving back into social consciousness and artistic competition. The beats seem more electronica and dance-oriented but also more symphonic, melodic and epic. Rappers like Drake bring a soul and sincerity that seemed to be lacking for a few years. Deadly rapper rivalries seem to be on the decline and collaboration seems to be skyrocketing – one of the finalists for Best Collaboration was a song featuring at least six major artists.
Overall, as somewhat of an outside spectator on the rap scene, I had a great time watching the 2010 BET Hip-Hop Awards.
It made me want to listen to more, and I think hip-hop fans have a lot to look forward to in the coming years.
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