web analytics

Tag: Mary J. Blige

  • 2009 American Music Awards Play By Play – West Coast Edition

    Since I’m on the West Coast, we’ll pretend this show is just starting.

    (By the way, Money Mike posted his own East Coast version up. It’s East Coast vs. West Coast all over again.)

    I remember as a kid when I used to count down the time until the AMAs were about to start. Now? Not so much. They don’t make award shows like they used to, but hopefully we’ll get some fun performances.

    I expect lots of Jay-Z love, lots of Michael Jackson love, lots of Taylor Swift love, and the opposite of lots of love for Kanye West.

    Like Arsenio used to say, “Let’s get busy!”

    Janet Jackson
    Janet Jackson
    – The show started with Janet already in mid-performance. She’s going through the old hits, though not wearing the old wardrobe. She’s wearing a brown outfit that makes her look like a baggy Pocahontas.

    – Who seated Mary J. Blige next to Carrie Underwood? I bet they could talk about old boyfriends.

    MJ: Girl, you think Tony Romo was bad? Man, I wanted to break K-Ci’s knee caps.
    CU: You dated KC from the Sunshine Band?
    MJ: Um, no. K-Ci from Jodeci. Forget it.

    – The only problem with Janet going through her old hits is that it just makes anything she’s done in the last 5 years look so bad in comparison.

    – Paula Abdul is the first presenter. No, she didn’t make any Ellen DeGeneres looks, acts, and sounds like a boy jokes, though you know she wanted to.

    – The Black Eyed Peas won the first award which was for favorite group in the pop/rock category. At least this time, Fergie’s face didn’t break the HD tuner on my TV like it did last week.

    (I DVRd Saturday Night Live last week and watched it after the fact. The picture was perfect until Fergie started to sing. The picture became pixelated and then was suddenly fixed when the performance was over. Coincidence? I think not.)

    – The only thing I can really say about Shakira’s performance is, “Oh my damn.”

    – Even though that long dress made her hips and legs look like a pair of parentheses ( ), Kelly Clarkson sung the hell out of We Were Never Meant To Say Goodbye.

    – Alex Rodriguez just introduced Jay-Z and Alicia Keys. I bet he and Timberland and Dr. Dre could talk PEDs for days.

    – Nope, not sick of Empire State Of Mind yet.

    – Kate Hudson is wearing a dress that shows off her 14-year old boyish chest. She could get away with going shirtless and I don’t think anyone would flip.

    – Oh man, I hope my TV can take it. The Black Eyed Peas are back on stage. Fergie Ferg ’bout to break my TV again.

    – Thankfully, my TV was fine. The performance was actually fine too. And she didn’t piss herself on stage, which is always a plus.

    – Your boy Michael Jackson won the award for favorite male artist in the Soul/R&B and you know who accepted it for him. If you answered greasy Jermaine, you were right. Also, you got to see his son Jermajesty, which was a treat in that of itself. I was almost sure that child didn’t really exist. But he did!

    – I know nothing about the Zack Brown band. But what I learned today is that some of those dudes have some manly beards.

    – Beyonce won an award and then it was announced that she wasn’t there. My heart rate has never been so up and down in a five second period ever in my life.

    – Hat makers thank Ne-Yo for keeping them in business.

    – Rihanna has the same haircut that David Silver rocked in the first season of Beverly Hills, 90210.

    – Carrie Underwood looks good and sounds good, but needs to stay off the salad. Yes, you can be too thin. She and Kate Hudson are trying to out-skinny each other.

    – Lady GaGa was carrying something in both of her back pockets, but she doesn’t have any pockets. Hmmm.

    – That Lady GaGa performance was just, um, it was just, um, hmm. If I tried to describe it, you wouldn’t understand and I’d just give myself nightmares. This is why YouTube was invented.

    – Not sure about you, but I can really do without these Perez Hilton audience shots.

    – Some country group called Gloriana just beat Lady GaGa for the Breakthrough Award. I think I saw GaGa walk off in a huff and fly away in her spaceship.

    – Ok, I think they edited this show for us on the West Coast. There’s supposed to be a part during J-Lo’s performance and she falls while performing. All I saw is that she jumped, all of a sudden it went into slow motion, and then jump cut city. Again, why YouTube was created.

    – You go Whitty. Do your thing. Somewhere, Bobby Brown gently weeps while shaving those lines into the side of his head.

    – I’m not sure Whitney did this on purpose or not, but she screamed, “I love YOU,” like Michael Jackson used to do it where you emphasize the “you”. I think that was a shout out to Mike.

    – Taylor just won award number two and she’s not even there. I think that if you don’t attend the show and you’re not in jail like TI, or you didn’t pass away before it was given out, you have to automatically give it to Kanye.

    – And just as I say that, MJ won for favorite male artist in Pop/Rock. Greasy is back on the scene to accept the award, but this time, sans Jermajesty.

    – Lady GaGa was breaking fake glass on her piano that was on fire. Alicia Keys just did her one better by playing her piano in mid air while it was spinning. Supposely GaGa saw that from her space ship and just went into hyper speed.

    – It’s pretty telling that Eminem decided to do his verse from Drake’s Forever since nearly everything on his album was garbage.

    – Timbo is now on stage and the back of his neck looks like a pack of hot dogs. But I’m not mad because he just let Nelly Furtado join him and she’s still looking foine.

    – There’s been a Toni Braxton sighting. Good to see her back and I hope she’s healthy. Jimmy Jackson and Jason Kidd just remembered why they hate each other.

    – My main man Ryan Seacrest is out to give out the Artist Of The Year.

    Let me run down the candidates quickly:

    Eminem – Relapse may be the worst album of the year.
    Michael Jackson – Dude sold more records dead than anyone alive is selling this year, except probably Taylor Swift. Also took all the buzz away from the Beatles re-releases.
    Kings Of Leon – My friend Christal had to show me their video the other day. I’d never seen it before. Enough said.
    Lady GaGa – She’s too far ahead of her time. Like by maybe 500 years.
    Taylor Swift – I don’t have a Taylor Swift song in my music library, but she was pretty fun on Saturday Night Live.

    And Taylor Swift beats MJ. Ok, maybe she wasn’t that fun on Saturday Night Live. And she talks like Drew Barrymore.

    – Adam Lambert is closing the show. However, I don’t think he’s closing it out Mariano Rivera style.

    – I wonder if I can get my hair as high as Adam’s. That might be a 2010 goal for me.

    – Wait, is Adam Lambert gay?


    Photo of Janet from Wikipedia and shared through creative commons

  • 2009 Hip Hop Honors Live Play By Play

    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
    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.

    bbvsta_dmxvsem– 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?

    Photo of Russell Simmons by Philip Nelson, Live Streaming Expert and shared via creative commons

  • First Listen: Whitney Houston’s “Million Dollar Bill”

    So I’m thinking this Whitney comeback might actually get pulled off. “Million Dollar Bill” is the second radio single from her upcoming album “I Look to You”, and it’s a pretty damn good record. Produced by Alicia Keys (and Swizz Beatz…I think), it’s got a retro-disco vibe that Whitney’s never tried before. It works for her. I’m glad they’re not going the Auto-Tune/trendy club beat route with her (you hear that, Mary J. Blige?)

    What impresses the most is that the voice is still there. Whitney can still sing, but then again, I’m of the belief that her voice actually got better once Bobby (and all the other attendant issues) came into the picture.

    So, this is a pretty cool track. I’m excited for the album. What do you think?

    Reblog this post [with Zemanta]