Fifth Annual BET Awards – Bling? Bling!, Yahoo! News, Fashion Wire Daily
28.Jun.2005, 10:22 pm
The screaming began before any reason arrived – crammed onto a policed Hollywood Blvd., fans rehearsed fanaticism until 3 pm PST, when the glammy bodies began their red carpet hustle at the fifth annual BET Awards.
It was a parade of gorgeous gowns, grills, and shades. Girls were in everything from Roberto Cavalli to Valentino, from Baby Phat to “Nordstroms!” laughed rapper Lil’ Mo. And diamonds were a dude’s best friend — apparently platinum teeth are back in, topped with tinted lenses — by Versace, Dolce and Gabbana, Marc Jacobs, of course – to shield eyes from the bling.
Texan DJ Paul Wall stayed behind Versace shades, and smiled about his $2,500 dental work — 20 karats spell out his name on his canines.
“This is part of the Texas culture [and] this is really starting to get worldwide,” he said. “I just did a grill for Fabolous, Kanye West, Lil Jon, T.I, Nelly… All of the rappers are coming to get the grills now.”
Heavy on the name-dropping, complemented by generous sprinklings of dirty south talk of getting crunk, attendees like 2005 NAACP Image Award nominee Judge Mathis spoke out about the real culture behind the BET Awards.
“So many times our young folk get a bad rap. They’re portrayed as criminals and thugs in the news media,” said Mathis. “But tonight we get to show the real picture – and that is great young people displaying great talent. We have the whole world following our young people: in Asia they’re following hip hop, in Africa they want to be hip hop, in Europe they’re dressing in Sean John and Rocawear and singing Jay Z. So that’s the real picture of our young people, as leaders in culture and leaders in entertainment, and that’s what we’re here to celebrate.”
And celebrate they did — freshly emancipated, Mariah Carey performed during the show, and also — like other A-listers Mr. Katie Holmes, Best Group winners Destiny’s Child, and hosts Will and Jada Pinkett Smith — freed herself from most press junkets. It wasn’t until during and after the actual awards shows that most celebs — and that means talents who didn’t have reporters whispering, “Wait, who was that again?” — came out for mass media question-and-answer sessions.
Stevie Wonder’s talk time, touching everything from the influence of African music on hip-hop, to black businesses supporting each other, was bookmarked with pressroom applause.
But it was Lifetime Achievement Awardee Gladys Knight who was super-loved: cynical celebrity journalists booed the BET publicist who was going to turn down the media center’s live broadcast of her performance for another press junket. And when a televised you warms the hearts of people who shrug off of Stevie Wonder and John Legend duets — “It’s like for ten years, every awards show someone wants to sing with him,” said a reporter — a lifetime achievement award must be very deserved.
“I have really over my life been given something wonderful, and I didn’t know it in the beginning,” said singer Knight. And speaking of beginnings, did the lifetime achiever have any advice for youngster artists? “As we were coming up we had this little thing called the Twist. And I remember our parents and our grandparents were so outraged about the Twist. And so today, they’ll be outraged about a lot of things that they do. [Still], I would caution [younger entertainers] to keep certain things in place… your moral levels, your conscience, and how you treat other people.”
Does that mean avoiding lyrics about ho-smacking?
Knight need not worry about songstress Alicia Keys, who presented Knight with the lifetime achievement award. Later speaking of her admiration for Knight’s constant integrity, Keys said, “I want to be Gladys Knight thirty years from now.”
And with another Best Female R&B award under Keys’ belt and zero tabloid covers in her press kit, she’ll probably get her wish.
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27.Feb.2006, 01:37 am
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[...] achieved–I worked “ho-smacking” into a Yahoo! News article: “I have really over my life been given something wonderful, and I didn’t know it in [...]