Thursday, October 13, 2011

2011 BET Hip Hop(?) Awards



The State of Hip Hop has long been criticized for its steep decline over the past few years. I won't name any specific rappers or singers, but I think everyone shares basically the same opinions on who's terrible. Some say Hip Hop is dead.. Some say you just arent real fans if you cant adapt and adjust with the times. Others believe every artist gets off and starts losing his ability to create good music after a certain point in his/her career. I beg to differ. I used to believe that my favorite lyricist, Eminem, had fallen off upon the release of his fourth Major Album, Encore. then Relapse dropped four years later, followed closely by a plethora of monstrous Mathers collaborations, and possibly his most widely acclaimed album, Recovery. Recovery is incredible in my opinion. After this album, Em signed a new, fresh group of lyricists who are more than capable of surviving the solo artist world as well. Slaughterhouse, a group that consists of Joe Budden, Joell Ortiz, Crooked I and Royce Da 5'9", and solo artist Yelawolf. They all appear together and solo on the Shady 2.0 mixtape available on any mixtape download site (FIRE).. and Em and Royce have a Gold-selling EP entitled 'Bad Meets Evil'. These artists are now a part of Shady Records. The video above is footage of the Shady 2.0 cypher that aired during the 2011 BET Hip Hop Awards. Now, I personally can't stand to watch BET award shows anymore. They consist of too much of the same artist performing over and over again, not enough sofistication and class, and not enough variety when it comes to the artists on hand. I know personally, instead of Lil Wayne and Soulja Boy CONSTANTLY being on stage or getting awards.. Let's put some artists with a different style, a different message, etc.. The number of artists is too high to keep putting the same faces on the most anticipated parts of the show. Granted, BET does a good job showcasing various artists on these cyphers, but real fans want to see these guys perform, and get an award every now and then. Between Wayne with two awards (if you don't count his contribution to --->) Chris Brown's 'Look At Me Now', which one three awards, and Wiz Khalifa's Rookie of the Year Award even though he's been a major artist for over two years now... fans can get a little frustrated when watching these BET award shows. I mean, come on.. there are only 18 awards total, and all of them are being won by the same nominees. (And if we don't get another fresh female on the scene, Nicki Minaj will grab the Made You Look Award every year.. which I think should've gone to Alicia Keys.. indefinitely. Anyway, if you didn't get a chance to see the cyphers, which is the only good part of the show, Let me direct your attention to the video above. Shady 2.0 Cypher. Hip Hop is alive again, BET. And These guys deserve to be listened to and seen on stage. Check out the other cyphers on BET.com, too, they're not bad either.

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