I remember watching the Soul Train Music Awards in 2007. It was PATHETIC. Everyone that won an award that night accepted via videotape. It was like no one even cared to attend…the only big names I remember seeing that night were The Isley Brothers and Robin Thicke (who was just in the process of blowing up). It was like the BET Awards came and knocked everything out of the box.
Well, the Soul Train Awards are back. The BET and VH-1 merger network called Centric will be airing the 21st annual ceremony and it looks like the organizers have made this an event for the grown folks. This is almost completely an R&B award ceremony, making it a decent complement to the BET Awards, which are heavily hip-hop skewed.
This year’s big nominees are Beyonce Knowles and comeback king Maxwell, with four nominations each. Newcomer Keri Hilson also scored four nominations, including Best New Artist, where she’ll vie against Drake, Jazmine Sullivan, Ryan Leslie and Solange. Hmm, sounds like the Soul Train Awards have picked up the very Grammy-ish habit of selecting Best New Artist nominees who aren’t new artists.
To me, the strongest categories are Best Album and Best Male Artist. Beyonce is joined by Kanye West, Ne-Yo, Jamie Foxx and Maxwell in the former category. Maxwell leads the latter category, going against Raphael Saadiq, Robin Thicke, Charlie Wilson and Musiq Soulchild.
Wilson, of Gap Band fame, will be honored with a special achievement award at this event, along with the legendary Chaka Khan and the production team of L.A. Reid & Babyface. A special posthumous Entertainer of the Year award will be given to Michael Jackson.
The Soul Train Music Awards will air on 11/29 on both BET and Centric.
VH-1’s Hip Hop Honors show is one of my favorite shows of the year. It’s still amazing that VH-1 of all stations pays respect to the hip hop genre best, but hey, I’m not complaining.
(By the way, I know that it’s not technically live considering I’m on the West Coast, and I’m DVRing it so that I don’t have to watch commercials, but when people look at this in a few years, will they even know?)
(Wait, I just let the cat out of the bag. Damn.)
This year’s show pays respect to the Def Jam label. I hope we see some Rick Rubin tonight. I know we’ll see a lot of Russell Simmons.
And away we go…
Russell Simmons at the 2008 VMAs– I think I saw Rubin already. It was either him or Jesus Christ. I’m not quite sure yet.
– If you like you some Tracy Morgan, this is your show. If you don’t like you some Tracy Morgan, I’m not sure how much of this you’ll be able to stomach.
– Hey, LL is on this show even though he doesn’t have a record to pimp. Wait, didn’t he just start a new TV show?
– Black Thought and Eminem tear up Rock The Bells, but I was a bit sad watching because it takes Em doing hip hop karaoke to show that he can still bring it.
– Jazzy Jeff was spinning and ?uestlove was on the drums by the way. Talk about all-star cast.
– Why is Jimmy Fallon on this show? Oh yah, he put the Roots on his show. He can be on it.
– You know how Dr. Dre got all swoll in his later years? Chuck D doesn’t believe in that.
– Another reason I like this show is because it’s the one time a year where we get to see what Flavor Flav did that truly made him famous.
– I’m not quite sure that Ludacris deserves to be on the same stage that Public Enemy just graced, but oh well, it’s all about the love tonight.
– KRS-One doing No Sleep ‘Till Brooklyn? Well, he can do whatever song he wants as long as he doesn’t get mad at us.
– For The Love Of Ray J is still on? It’s amazing that the same station that puts Ray J in his drawers on TV is the same station that puts this show together.
– Warren G and Trey Songz just doesn’t have the same ring to it as Warren G and Nate Dogg. “And I see my homie Trey,” just doesn’t work for me.
– Only Brett Ratner would use the name “Method Man” and the words “true genius” in the same sentence. I’m not sure Mef’s mom would say that. Whatever happened their TV show Method and Red?
– Uh oh, I may get a little excited here. Mary J is here and she and Meth are going to perform I’ll Be There for You/You’re All I Need to Get By, and it’s not the Diddy remix.
– Onyx is on the stage and everyone watching all said at the same time, “I guess Onyx is still alive.”
– I think the last time I saw Eve was on last year’s Hip Hop Honors show.
– Ja Rule and Ashanti are on the stage doing an old favorite. Wait, I’m not sure any of their songs were old favorites. I always thought that they should let Ja Rule stand on a box whenever he was rapping on stage. He looks like Tupac’s mini me.
(For the first time in the history of this show, I hit the fast forward. I apologize. Ja Rule and Ashanti did a second song. I couldn’t take it anymore.)
– There’s been an Oran “Juice” Jones sighting. I repeat, there’s been an Oran “Juice” Jones sighting.
– Hold on, I may have to fast forward again. I think Tracy just introduced Rick Ross. On most of the earlier performances, Russ Simmons and Chris Rock were rappin’ along with the songs. Not with Ross. They’re just pretending to like it.
– DMX is back! If you’ve been wondering what X is into lately, he’s supposedly “fighting” on an MMA show. Notice the word fighting in quotes.
– Let’s put it this way; Kid Rock is a more charismatic rhymer than Rick Ross.
– EPMD is doing Crossover, but poor Parrish’s mic isn’t working.
– Foxy Brown is wearing the same clothes she wore in 1997, except she’s about 25 pounds heavier in the chest area. Always trying to keep up with Lil’ Kim.
– I can’t believe they ended the show with Doug E. Doug doing Kanye’s Touch The Sky.
– Oh well, even though it was probably the worst of the Hip Hop Honors show, there was still some good stuff. Watch for the first half.
– By the way, was Jay-Z busy or persona non grata?
The nominations were released today for the American Music Awards, and we wouldn’t usually make such a big deal about the nominations. But, when word came out today that Michael Jackson had five posthumous nominations, it became very newsworthy.
You may wonder like I did, how Jackson could be up for an award being that he hasn’t released a new album in many years. According to The Rolling Stone, it’s because of the sales racked up by Jackson’s Number Ones, which was released some 6 years ago.
According to a press release, the nominees “were selected from data supplied by the Nielsen Company’s Broadcast Data Systems, which monitors radio airplay performance, and SoundScan, which tracks retail music sales.” This pretty much explains why Michael Jackson and his Number Ones are included on the nominees list: Even though the greatest-hits compilation was originally released in 2003, it’s sold almost two million copies since the King of Pop’s death on June 25th, making Jackson’s eligible for a posthumous Artist of the Year award.
Taylor Swift at the Sydney Factory TheatreTaylor Swift and Eminem are also up for three awards. Jackson, Swift, Eminem, Lady Gaga, and the Kings of Leon were all nominated for the Artist of the Year award. Swift leads all artists with six nominations, while Jackson had five and Eminem received four.
American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert is scheduled to perform his first single from his upcoming album at the awards show, alongside Alicia Keys, the Black Eyed Peas, and Jennifer Lopez.
The show is set to air live on November 22.
You can see a full list of the categories and vote for who you think should win at ABC’s website.
