[Sunday Coffee Sipper] Reflecting on the BET Hip Hop Awards
On October 16 in Los Angeles, California Rap music's elite showed out for the annual BET Hip Hop Awards, commemorating the best of all things hip-hop in the past year. Kendrick Lamar cleaned up, hauling in five awards including best album and lyricist of the year while Jay-Z, Big Sean and the rest of hip-hop's governing body took turns patting each other on the back. For today's Sunday Coffee Sipper I break down the list of winners from several of the categories and decide who I would have picked from the very small group of nominees that were available for the awards, enjoy!
Best Hip-Hop Video: Drake "Started From The Bottom": I literally thought this was the most bogus video I had seen until Chief Keef's "Love No Thotties" premiered this week. Seriously though, you're not making it any easier to legitimize the "Started From The Bottom" mantra with the opening scene of a Toronto youth soccer game played in a bubble, or perhaps it's the perfect metaphor. The fake snow, all white everything convertible dance scene is just downright goofy, as is the Wal-Mart confetti-strewn dance party. Drake had a lot of dance parties at the bottom. Where is 'here' anyway? Could be anywhere. Ah, Drake, they'll love whatever you do.
Who Should Have Won: Kendrick Lamar – ‘Don’t Kill My Vibe’
Reese’s Perfect Combo Award (Best Collabo, Duo or Group): A$AP Rocky f/ 2 Chainz, Drake & Kendrick Lamar "Problems": Of the nominations, this was an easy favorite for the best collaboration of the year. Featuring the top names in hip-hop today and a blistering verse from K Dot it stood head and shoulders above even Ace Hood and Future's summer banger "Bugatti" and J. Cole and Miguel's "Power Trip".
Best Live Performer: Jay-Z: Not sure about the nomination or the win on this one. Jay-Z is certainly a pillar of hip-hop, but there are plenty of better live acts around the country that could have vied for the title, even outside of the nominees. Granted, Jay-Z proved to be a step ahead of the competition in the crafting of a different live set idea with his "Picasso Baby" art installation, a wholly different take on hip-hop as an accepted artform. Regardless, I can't help but feel there was a better choice to be had.
Who Should Have Won: J. Cole/2 Chainz
Lyricist of the Year: Kendrick Lamar: They probably didn't need to announce this one. Between good kid, m.A.A.d. city, the much-talked about verse on Big Sean's "Control" and a host of outstanding features throughout the year, Kendrick cemented himself as the lyricist to match in 2013. The "Control" verse in general, in which he called out the other top names in the game, nestled Kendrick firmly in the upper echelon of hip-hop artists today.
Album of the Year: Kendrick Lamar, Good Kid m.a.a.d. City: Again, a fairly easy choice as the top rap album of 2013. Kendrick finally emerged from Section 80 to the big leagues with his chart-topping album that, as stated earlier, vaulted him from one of the new guys to the forefront of everything happening from here on out.
Producer of the Year: Mike Will Made It: It's hard to be too upset with this decision, Mike Will Made it had some of the year's biggest songs, using his enormous drum ensembles to shake the walls of clubs from coast to coast with songs like"No Lie" by 2 Chainz, "Bandz a Make Her Dance" by Juicy J, "Pour It Up" by Rihanna and "We Can't Stop" by Miley Cyrus. They weren't the best songs of the year, but they topped the charts. I can't forgive him for allowing Cyrus to don a Michael Jordan jersey while twerking in their "23" collaboration, though. In comparison, Pharrell did songs with Jay-z, Justin Timberlake, Robin Thicke and Daft Punk.
Who Should Have Won: Pharrell Williams
Track of the Year: "Started From The Bottom," produced by Mike Zombie and Noah "40" Shebib: Can't even lie about it, this song was not the best track of the year, by any means. Drake's attempt at convincing listeners that watched him as Jimmy on Degrassi that he, "started from the bottom" was ill-conceived and uninteresting. Sure, the beat and hook get stuck in your head, but is that all it takes to have a hot track? Of course, you catch more fish with a larger net and most of the nominees for each category were held to roughly the same six characters. That makes for a small net.
Who Should Have Won: ‘Don’t Kill My Vibe’ – Produced by Sounwave (Kendrick Lamar)
Best Mixtape: Big Sean, Detroit: This one just didn't make sense. In a category that included a host of independent artists including Chance The Rapper and Travi$ Scott, this would have been the perfect opportunity for BET to sway towards the up and coming, essentially the heart of hip-hop today. Instead, the crown for best mixtape was given to Big Sean's Detroit, making for an un-inspirational win for the G.O.O.D. Music star.
Who Should Have Won: Chance The Rapper: Acid Rap
Who New? Rookie of the Year: A$AP Ferg: This is deserved. Trap Lord was easily one of the hottest releases of a packed summer of new music and Ferg showed that the buzz surrounding him and his major debut release was no fluke. With co-signs from just about everyone in the game right now, the award was fitting. Tough competition here, too, with Earl Sweatshirt, Action Bronson and Joey Bada$$ rounding out the nominees.
MVP of the Year: Kendrick Lamar: Honestly, he could have taken most of the awards with the competition BET stacked up against Kendrick. More than anyone else, Lamar and his TDE crew have brought about a sound and a mentality that had been lacking in hip hop as of late. As he made it known on that fateful "Control" verse, this is now Kendrick's game, and everyone has to step up.
[Sunday Coffee Sipper] Kanye, Kimmel & Fame
Last Wednesday Kanye West made an appearance on the Late Night with Jimmy Kimmel to address the feud between the artist and talk show host that rose from a skit with children impersonating West's replies to questions in a BBC interview with Zane Lowe.
The interaction was farm from what most fans who followed the back and forth between the pair would have expected, especially after West's personal-attack laden Twitter rant in which he repeatedly questioned Kimmel's ability to pull good looking women. Instead, the two had an interesting talk about the status of being a celebrity in today's 24-hour news cycle, shedding light further not only on how West views himself, but also on what it's like being among the biggest stars in the country and just wanting some privacy.
In the interview, West likened being a celebrity in America to being an "animal in a zoo," fodder for people to stop, point and stare and then move on to the next exhibit. It's certainly true that the pedestal on which many celebrities are placed on have a string attached, the expectation to entertain at all times. To be sure, West, arguably the biggest music artist in the world, lives his life squarely in the public eye. Marrying Kim Kardashian and popping up on episodes of her family's disdainful reality series isn't exactly subtle or private. Regardless, it shouldn't be a chore or an event for these stars to be able to live their lives.
The conversation soon segued to Kanye's personality, with Kimmel and West reminiscing on a recent wedding for a friend of Kimmel's that both attended. Eventually, Kanye was Kanye and announced that he was, in fact, a genius, explaining his reasoning behind the world and somewhat chastising the public for reacting in a negative way to his declaration of artistic prowess. Not the most surprising thing from an artist who released an album named *Yeezus* with a song named "I Am a God", it makes sense that if he truly believes himself as such, and is seemingly told it is true regularly, that he should be allowed to express that sentiment. Kimmel, for his part, credited Kanye as someone he sees as being a genuinely good person, but also conceded that West may bring it on himself a bit. This is true. There have been few stars bigger than West who have spoken with such a loud and seemingly honest voice in the pop culture lexicon.
One weird point of the interview was West describing his love of "cool things" on the heels of a statement about making people's lives easier. Mentioning that he spent his first two telemarketing checks on a pair of Gucci slippers, West alluded to helping the world by making these cool things more readily available. The Internet seems to be doing a good job of that, not to mention the fact that the city West is from, Chicago, faces myriad problems that could use some fixing.
Kanye West is a lot of things, but one thing he will always be good for is a little bit of controversy. With no one to stir the pot, there is little chance of forward movement. Kanye is the wood spoon, occasionally swooping in to mix things up, add a wrinkle to what's happening, in turn keeping things fresh as he continues to push what exactly that is. During their talk, 'Ye said himself, "I'm not running for office, I'm here to make good music and make people feel good when they hear my music." This is true. West shouldn't necessarily be held to a higher standard because of what he does, or his positioning in society. At the end of the day he is simply an honest, multi-layered human being with a larger-than-life stage from which to spout his thoughts. West wrapped the talk perfectly, saying "You're gonna love me, or you're gonna hate me, but I'm going to be me." Indeed Kanye, indeed.
http://youtu.be/3ax9FSRdvAw
[Sunday Coffee Sipper] Kanye West: "Everything I Am Made Me Everything I'm Not"
Just as sure as September brings a chill to the air in Chicago, another Kanye West-induced pop culture drama has played out in the media, this one in the wake of his Twitter rant pointed at Jimmy Kimmel. He doubled his Twitter output in ten minutes, coming off childish and innocuous. It's become the norm for West, who has had a double major in music and media relations in the years since his dropout made him famous.
Since the passing of his mother Donda in 2008 and break up of his longtime relationship with fiancée Alexis Phifer soon after West has been strikingly different in his actions and music, beginning with his pilgrimage to Honolulu for three weeks while recuperating and crafting 808s and Heartbreaks. He left the mainland with a heavy heart and arrived back with an attitude and auto-tune. What followed was a cacophony of public relations missiles that would have derailed most any other career. In a story for Pitchfork this week, Ernest Baker noted that Kanye has been in the game, at the top of the game, for just nearly a decade. In that time his career has intertwined itself into our daily lexicon. Hurricane Katrina, Taylor Swift, the Kardashians: it all feels like a big charade. But, as West displayed this week, it's a charade he's willing to throw anyone under the bus for.
He named his first album College Dropout and used soul samples and clever hooks and bars to capture America and an entire generation that would grow up with seminal Kanye records every few years. College Dropout came out in 2004 as I was entering high school, figuring out what music was after binging on 2pac and Biggie for my middle school years. Graduation was released in September of 2007 as I was preparing for exactly what the title inferred. Standing in Union Park on Sunday at Pitchfork festival this year watching R. Kelly do what seemed like his entire discography, I felt as though each song represented a different grade, life experience, etc. West is certainly in the same rarefied air, although I'm still not sure I connect to Yeezus the same way as the rest of his body of work.
"Lock yourself in a room doin' 5 beats a day for 3 summers, that'sA Different World like Cree Summer's, I deserve to do these numbers/the kid that made that, deserves that Maybach." Listening to "Spaceship" now it's obvious that a young Kanye is predicting the future. He has had his eye on the throne on which he is currently perched for a long time. To him it was and is deserved and perhaps helps explain some of his erratic behavior over the years, a sense of entitlement that existed since the early days of 'Ye.
To be sure, it was the car accident that inspired the now-iconic "Through the Wire" track that gave the artist the kind of passion and drive that only near death experiences seem to provide. It's maybe why he feels the need to go bigger, feeling as though he cheated death. In his phone conversation with Kimmel the other day he allegedly referred to himself as 'Pac. 2pac, West is not, but a parallel can certainly be drawn between both artists actions after near-fatal experiences. Pac's surviving being shot five times, lead to the East/West rap feud and, ultimately, two caskets for the artists involved. In West's case the ability to cheat death has served as a launching board for everything that has come after. Where 'Pac pushed an agenda, talked militant, and ran with Suge Knight; Kanye rants at listening parties, fights paparazzi and dates a reality-TV star. In Ye's tweets to Kimmel he mentioned that Kimmel doesn't have to worry about people jumping over fences to take pictures of his daughter. Maybe not, but it's also a simple fact that those intrusions are a product of the life West has chosen for himself.
At the end of the day, none of this really matters to the subject of this article. Because, as he told us on Graduation, "Everything I'm not made me everything I am," the inverse may also prove to be true.