Onika Tanya Maraj... does she really need an intro?

So last night the 10th Annual BET Awards graced the television sets of blacks all over the nation. We laughed, we cried, we cheered but all we had a good time enjoying the festivities. The show always goes in the same order every year. There's a 106&Park pre-show with up and coming artists who weren't "good" enough to make it in this year. Then the show starts at 8 PM Eastern Standard Time(or 8:13 CPT) and some big name artists trying to get back into the spotlight opens up on the main stage followed by a introduction of the host. Then there's about 1 hour of full throttle entertainment followed by a more relaxed feel leading to the gospel section which hits somewhere around the hour and a half mark. After the gospel section there's a few performances including 1 from a washed up artist who someone felt it would be a good idea to put back in the spotlight, before they give the lifetime achievement award to the REAL artist from yester-year who never saw any of their videos on BET. They bring out some budding stars and another washed-up oldie to perform some the lifetime achievement winner's best hits, before they give you the video of the year award and rap up the show afterwards.

This year Queen Latifah hosted, Kanye opened, women were throwing their panties at Tyreese on stage just moments before the gospel section, El Debarge performed a medley, Prince got the Lifetime Achievement Award, and Pattie Labelle donned the stage to perform "Purple Rain." All in all last night's award show just as good as the other 9, as the mediocrity continued. I have always felt the BET teeter-totted on the line between positive black representation and robust coonery, but that's just me. I'm sure plenty of the people who saw were talking at the water cooler today (or tweeting last night) about Nicki's 4 different looks and 3 different wigs, or Chris Brown's breakdown during his Michael Jackson tribute, or even the ratchetness of Alicia Keys & the "Own Her Own Ex-Starlet" by kicking off there shoes and tearing the house down during the Prince tribute. Others will be speculating as to why Beyonce wasn't there, why Trey Songz gave such a sub-par performance, and who told Chico Debarge he could do multiple songs.

My VERDICT:
Was last night's BET Awards a night to remember... no, but the show will go on and I will continue to watch. BET can never convert to the ideal model of positivity for the black race, because it would never function successfully that way society will not allow it. With that being said, though I think of the BET Awards as somewhat of the Negro Olympics I was never the less entertained by the combination of talent and ignorance.