Missy Elliot
Snoop Dogg
Whodini
The movie "Wild Style"
New Jack Swing
A Tribe Called Quest
Comedian Tracy Morgan was the host.
Now, on with the festivities. They opened up by honoring Missy Elliot. To me, this seemed like "OK, let's get this one out of the way so that we can get to the real innovators." I don't HATE Missy, but if you are going to honor her, it is FAR too soon to do so. I will give her credit because her videos are innovative (not too many people would like like a black Sta-Puf Marshmallow Man on purpose). But is that innovation a tribute to her, or to the director? Anyway, for the most part, she is known for her production skills and turning nonsensical phrases into an art form. Who would have thought that "Beep beep/who got the keys to the jeep?/errrrrmmmmmmm..." would be something that someone would quote? It sounds like something you'd hear from someone who needs a helmet to protect themselves. Ciara and a bunch of other folks did some OK renditions of her song. Again, with someone like Queen Latifah not being honored yet, it's too soon to honor Missy. And the whole set seemed to be "...now that we got this over with, let's get on to the festivities."
The tribute to the movie "Wild Style" was OK. The best part of that was a performance by old school legends Chief Rocker Busy Bee and Grandmaster Caz (did you know that he wrote one of the raps for the Sugar Hill Gang?) and recent honoree KRS-One. It was nice, and it sounded like KRS was freestyling the whole time. All of them sounded like they still had it (of course, KRS never lost it).
The tribute to "New Jack Swing" was a bit too long. T-Pain did the impossible and sounded worse than Keith Sweat. Keisha Cole (who has the most gorgeous eyes ever) just went through the motions. Doug E Fresh was pretty good, and one of the Blackstreet dudes (Chauncey, I think) was capable in the supporting role. Nick Cannon (which made me think "Who invited HIM?") did an OK job during this set as well.
The highlight of the set was the appearance of this man:
...Kool Moe Dee, doing "How You Like Me Now." As you can see, it looks like our friend Moe Dee has been in the buffet line too many times. It looks like his name should be "Kool! Mo' Desserts!" Vocally, he sounded as fresh as ever, but him doing any dance steps was simply out of the question. I say that they missed a golden opportunity for complete awesomeness by not having Bobby Brown come out, even for a brief moment, to do "My Prerogative." That would've been television history.
Don't ask me about the Snoop Dogg portion, because at the time, the season premiere of "Boondocks" was on, and I decided that Boondocks >>> Snoop Dogg. Yeah, I said it. Big whoop, wanna fight about it? I do remember that T.I. did one of the Snoop tribute songs, and he sounded better working a Snoop Dogg verse than he did trying to flip a Big Daddy Kane verse.
The tribute where everyone seemed to have the most fun was Whodini's "enshrinement." Nelly and Jermaine Dupri came out and did a couple of songs, and Whodini themselves came out and performed. Dr. Ice, from UTFO, was working the "hype-man" role, and doing a good job of it... especially since Ecstacy sounded like he had one too many Newports before the show started. During "Funky Beat", Dr. Ice was going through a bunch of old school dances, and Nelly even joined him to do the Wop. Jermaine (who got his start working as a dancer for Whodini) did some breakdancing footwork. The set ended with Grand Master D on the turntables, and he had to be carried off stage. It was great... everyone lifted him up, and his hands were still on the tables, and he was still sounding like a skilled DJ. Like I said, it looked like they had fun.
The Tribe Called Quest tribute should've been the highlight of the night. But it was kinda marred by Lupe Fiasco messing up a verse... not for the mess-up itself, but for the attitude that he had afterwards, and how he was almost proud to proclaim that he never heard a Tribe album. Busta Rhymes came out during the performance of possibly one of the greatest posse cuts ever, "Scenario." But he yelled so much that you could barely understand what he was saying. I've seen Busta do MUCH better on TV, including an awards show where he did "Touch It" (which was capped off by a surprise Eminem performance -- but I digress). The Tribe tribute wasn't as great as it could've been. And also, Phife Dog needs a kidney. He was looking "sickly" throughout the tribute, and I found out that it's because he needs a kidney transplant.
All of this brings us to possible honorees for 2008. If it were up to me, here is who I would suggest for VH1's Hip Hop Honors Class of 2008:
Stetsasonic: The original hip hop band
Queen Latifah: Before she started singing, she was the epitome of the Female MC. Plus, her work with the Flavor Unit was ahead of modern-day moguls like Jay Z and Puff.
NWA: At the time, NWA produced groundbreaking material. And if you've gotten the attention of the FBI just for making songs, you must be doing something right.
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Too $hort: I'm not a fan of Todd Shaw, aka Too $hort. But his influence in West Coast Hip Hop is unmistakable. Without Too $hort, there would arguably be no Snoop Dogg.
Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince: Shoot, why not? Plus, a DJ tribute to the Magnificent Jazzy Jeff would be face-meltingly awesome, if they got the right turntablists (Q-Bert, Roc Raider, Babu, Mix Master Mike, etc) to do the job.
The movie "Beat Street": What is more hip hop than a movie about a DJ at the famous Roxy, with secondary stories about breakdancing and graffiti, and performances by the Treacherous Three and Grandmaster Melle Mel? Not too many things, my friends.
Wild Card picks:
EPMD
Gangstarr
Slick Rick
See you in 2008!
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