BET’s tribute to the King

I rarely watch BET, and after last nights award tribute to The King Of Pop I’m glad that I don’t. When arriving home yesterday evening, Jamie Foxx was on the downstairs television dressed in a red jacket much like the one Micheal wore in  his “Thriller”  video.  Quickly I rushed upstais to my room to watch the rest of the show, where I was able to catch Jamie’s moonwalk and figuring that it would be an outstanding tribute…how naive of me.

Past award shows were always avoided by me  simply because there were times wheere one, such as myself,  would become lost because of the loud unncessary rap music filled with cursing.  In BET’s case this was saved… until the end, and after the final tribute to Micheal Jackson.

Now, not all of the events that had taken place was a complete wreak, there were segments that were actually good, but yesterday’s  awards was supposed to be a tribute to Michael Jackson, not an invitation for folks to act a fool at certain points, wear weird clothing, promote their upcoming tours and reality series, and then claim  the inspiration that The King Of Pop gave them. As a friend of mine mentioned earlier today on facebook, “I wish BET died and MJ did a tribute to them”.

Speaking of which, both Facebook and Twitter were hot last night with comments and updates regarding the supposed tribute , here’s a few:

The BET awards was some damn foolishness! Black celebrities that patronized this spectacle are an embarrassment and should never do tributes…ever

3-4 days even if you had 3-4 months this show would have looked like crap. EXCEPT KERI HILSON, TARAJI P. or TRAVIS BARKER!!!!

Is it just me…or is anyone else bothered or disturbed by Joe Jackson and Al Sharpton’s presence….

I wish I could say this show was great and all…but as my g’ma says: Give me my roses whilst I’m alive. MJ should have been given all this tribute a long time ago

thinks the best part of the BET awards, was when they actually did a tribute to Michael Jackson

BET’s president  stated that it took 3-4 days to prepare the tribute award show once they had learned about the death, though it was really hard to tell, maybe they should have done a seperate show. My high school teacher actually had an idea of how the show should have been presented, perhaps BET should have hired her, now as you read imagine the awards show if it were like this:

I think if you asked anyone to appear at the last minute to the BET awards to do a tribute to Michael Jackson–they would have. What I think is that BET wanted to be the black people last night and “claim” Michael Jackson as ours and hence hog the tribute glory. In my fantasy–the tribute would have gone something like this:

1. The show opens with Mary J. Blige singing “Man in the Mirror” backed up by full on gospel ensemble.

2. Towards the middle of the show, we have Ne-yo and the great black hope–known to many of us as Justin Timberlake–do a dance/sing-off of MJ’s greatest hits.

3. We close the show with all the musical guests singing “We are the world”

The best part of the show,  in my opinion,  was when they finally did a tribute to Michael. Near the end of the show Janet Jackson  came out onto the stage,  pausing for a moment before speaking, “…To you Michael is a icon, to us he is family” .

There are folks out there, most around my age I would think, who thought yesterdays tribute was spot on. Why the hell do they think that in order to show tribute to someone as great as Michael that you just smash acts together and add a little rap accompanied by loud cursing, I have no idea, but everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

After Janet left the stage, a tribute to Michael was finally given, though there were “supposed tributes” throughout the one at the end was the best. Maybe if BET wanted their tribute to Michael to be felt by their viewers, they should have calmed down a bit on the excessive rap performances that just seemed out of place.

Death of a King

It was in music class in elementary school where I first heard of Michael Jackson, and though I didn’t understand who the man was one thing was certain,  he could dance better than anyone I had ever seen. My favorite, the moonwalk. So much in fact, that I would try to mimick it myself. Unlike most of [...]