As the MTV Music Awards become clumsier with every passing year in a less-than-subtle expression of how much acknowledging musical accomplishments has become an annoyance for a network that would much rather chase teenagers around with cameras, the BET Awards stand as the only place where you’ll see the biggest acts in pop music (Lil’ Wayne, Usher, Mary J. Blige, Mariah Carey and Nelly are already scheduled to perform) presented with production value and professional competence, acknowledging elders (Al Green and Quincy Jones will respectively receive lifetime achievement and humanitarian awards) without turning into a hoary grandpa fest. “Best Group” seems a little duo heavy, and it’s funny to see T-Pain lead the nominations solely on guest spots, but it’s refreshing to see a “Best Female Hip-Hop Artist” category. A list of the awards and nominees below.
Video of the Year
Ashanti “The Way That I Love You”
Alicia Keys “Like You’ll Never See Me Again”
Mary J. Blige “Just Fine”
UGK feat. OutKast “Int’l Player’s Anthem (I Choose You)”
Kanye West feat. T-Pain “Good Life”
Erykah Badu “Honey”
Best Female R&B Artist
Alicia Keys
Mary J. Blige
Keyshia Cole
Rihanna
Mariah Carey
Best Male R&B Artist
Raheem DeVaughn
Trey Songz
Ne-Yo
Chris Brown
J. Holiday
Best Group
Danity Kane
UGK
Day 26
Playaz Circle
Gnarls Barkley
Best New Artist
Flo Rida
Estelle
Chrisette Michele
Soulja Boy
The-Dream
Best Female Hip-Hop Artist
Kid Sister
Trina
Lil’ Mama
Missy Elliott
Eve
Best Male Hip-Hop Artist
Snoop Dogg
Jay-Z
Lil’ Wayne
Common
Kanye West
Best Collaboration
DJ Khaled feat. Lil’ Wayne, Big Boi, Ludacris, Fat Joe & Young Jeezy-”I’m So Hood (remix)”
Keyshia Cole feat. Lil’ Kim & Missy Elliott-”Let It Go”
Kanye West feat. T-Pain-”Good Life”
Flo Rida feat. T-Pain-”Low”
Chris Brown feat. T-Pain-”Kiss Kiss”
Viewer’s Choice
Chris Brown feat. T-Pain-”Kiss Kiss”
Lil’ Wayne feat. Static Major-”Lollipop”
Keyshia Cole feat. Missy Elliott & Lil’ Kim-”Let It Go”
Alicia Keys-”No One”
Soulja Boy-”Crank Dat (Soulja Boy)”
Jordin Sparks feat. Chris Brown-”No Air”
Lifetime Achievement
Al Green
Who Cares About Talent? [Bossip]
Hey, I don’t see Little Feat anywhere on this lineup, what a ripoff.
What? No award for best ringtone? That has to be one of the pre-awards show categories.
@Al Shipley: Sam Clayton clearly is more deserving for the Lifetime Achievement award than Al Green. Also I think Kenny Gradney might be part-BET awards eligible. So there’s always next year.
T-Pain was shutout?! How is that even possible? I thought he was part of just about every song this year?
A few things:
(1)Who pulled what strings to get that Ashanti video nominated for video of the year?
(2)Day 26? Best Group? Really?
(3) Who the hell is Playaz Circle?
(4)Oh Best Female Hip-Hop Artist Category. Trina should be disqualified based solely on the fact that her single with Keyshia Cole is just wrong y’all. WRONG!
Kudos to Kid Sister and Lil Mama for their noms, but this category still gets me scared for female MCs. Eve’s album had been on the back burner since forever, and Missy ain’t dropped a new album in nearly three years right? It’s like they were nominated on the strength of Tambourine and Ching Ching alone.
(5) And I would speak on the omnipresence of T-Pain in the Best Collaboration category, but honestly, what’s the point?
If Flo Rida and/or Soulja Boy win, I would fear for Maura’s sanity…
Any awards ceremony that has Soulja Boy in any category should not be lauded for their “professional competence.”
@Empire: Like the lame Caucasian I am, I just NOW learned what ’superman’ meant in that song… [www.urbandictionary.com]
Is… is T-Pain rocking a Mooninite?
@pantycrickets: I wrote that all wrong. I meant there’s no way T-Pain will be shutout. Blerg!
@natepatrin:
Yes, yes he is.
I don’t know how they decide the winners, and I don’t normally encourage the fixing of awards shows, but if they don’t rig it for UGK to win best group, they’ve managed to completely fuck the dog on a golden opportunity to broadcast a truly historically powerful moment, the sort of thing these shows all beg and pray to be associated with.
Granted, UGK shits on all those other bums anyway, but pardon me for my skepticism about the best artist winning at awards shows.