The 2008 BET Hip Hop Awards virtually TOOK OVER Atlanta this past weekend.   Streets were shut down and midtown residents were pissssssed off!  Me?  I was in heaven as all my favorite hip hop honorees were in one spot and although the awards SHOW took over Atlanta, Atlanta artists took over the show!  I came, I saw, I wrote about it…check out a few of my favorite moments from the show:

T.I. jumped off the awards show and got the audience pumped with “Swing Your Rag”

…the set was ended with Ludacris joining Tip onstage for a performance of “On Top of the World”.

In an unexpected twist, T-Pain took the stage as host for the awards, explaining that he got the call at 2am the night before.  Murmurs could be herd throughout the crowd as everyone was trying to figure out what happened to Katt Williams (host of the previous two awards).  Word quickly spread during the 3 minute break that Katt had lost a bet with T-Pain. (Side Note:  The truth we may never know, but I heard another story that Katt got into with BET producers and they abruptly booted him from this year’s show).

Keyshia Cole and Big Boi presented the first award for the evening. 

Lil Wayne won the first award of the evening and proceeded to stage with syrup in hand.  He also dropped the bomb that he was expecting another child (a son) “any day now”…  

The “A”’s own Shawty Lo won an award for MySpace Music Rookie of the Year.  Not sure where they had Lo sitting but when they announced his name he came running in from the back.  Maybe he’d just gotten there…I dunno?  He was joined onstage by all of Bankhead and Lil Wayne as he accepted his award:

“It’s a blessing and an honor to be able to win this BET award and I hope this shows people that you can definitely turn a negative situation into a positive one if you keep God first and stay focused.”

OK…I know that sounds positive and all, but Lo also ended his lil speach by shouting “Wassup T.I. ~ BANK-HEAD!”  They say the Beef is over but I’m still not sure if that was a digg or a celebratory shout out.

My Favorite Performances:

Young Jeezy in a suit will do it to me every time!  Jeezy took the stage looking rather presidential as he performed “Crazy World” with a live band.  He made me even more  excited when he chucked the suit and donned his signature black tee and sunglasses:

He was then joined onstage with what I called “the Black Panther Party” in my Live Twitter.  LOL! 

The leather clad dancers then began to march and step to Jeezy’s “Crazy World” reminiscent of Public Enemy + Professor Griff.

Ne-Yo and Plies performing “Bust It Baby”

Ludacris joining T-Pain and Lil Wayne on stage for “Chopped & Screwed” was another highlight of my night. At the end of this set, Wayne dropped an impromptu freestyle about Sara Palin, McCain and adding 4 “F”s to his name.  Since he dropped the “F” Bomb this may or may not get edited out of the show, but I’m hoping they find a way to make it fit.

I know I may be a bit biased to all things “A” but the ladies of hip hop set was amazing!!  Salt, Pepa AND Spinderella had the audience crunk as we all sang along to “Shoop” and “Push it.”  They also performed “What a Man” and dedicated it to Barack Obama.

Yo-Yo was DOIN IT in her black catsuit!  She is just beautiful…almost how Lil Kim would look without plastic surgery, but I digress.  We were all screaming ”you can’t play with my yo-yo!” as she took us back in time.

I don’t know where they found Lady of Rage but she still rocks them dayum afro puffs!  

MC Lyte still knows how to work the crowd too! She performed several songs that had the crowd hyped.  When “RuffNeck” came on, everyone was screaming…but she only performed about 2 seconds of it. 

BET definitely showed VH1 how their hip hop honors SHOULDA been done!

Lastly, my homie NecoleBitchie did her take on the show with The Good, The Bad & The Gossip, but I need to add an ugly to that…

Lil Ike’s Bow Wow’s outfit.  WTF is this?

Bow Wow and Soulja boy closed out the show by performing “Marco Polo.”  Don’t ask me why…you’ll have to take that up with BET.  But all in all the show was definitely worth attending and I may even experience it again once it airs.  The one thing that I noticed was that most of the performers wore Black.  I don’t know if this was a consolidated effort in support of the upcoming election or not.  But I basically decided in my own mind that it was and that the theme of the awards show, “Game On” was symbolic of “you gotta play to win” as in ….y’all need to get your “A”zzzzez out and VOTE!

As Ice Cube said at the end of his set….VOTE Black!

The show airs Thursday night (October 23rd) at 8:00pm.  Game on bishes!