HIP HOP HONORS: A LOOK BACK IN JOY/ANGER

October is a fairly dull month for me.

As a fan of the New York Mets, there's no need to worry about watching the World Series. But there's one thing that I actually look forward to...VH1's Hip Hop Honors.

What I love is the homage to the past which I think is missing with a lot of the rap stars of today. The tributes are usually done by upstarts who don't seem to take it seriously (Lupe Fiasco, I'm looking at you).


But sometimes, it's veterans paying tribute to other veterans, like EPMD tipping their collective fisherman hats to De La Soul by performing "Ego Trippin' (Part Two)."So ask you can see I was in for a night of highs and lows.

This year's sole honoree was Def Jam, the iconic hip-hop label.


So going into this I knew what to expect, some LL Cool J (just the good songs), some Public Enemy, all the greats. What I forgot about was the dark times...(take a breath)...but I'll get to those later. Hip Honors 2009 host Tracy Morgan created a character named Scoopy Giles who was the fictional third founder, along with Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin. The Scoopy Giles vignettes are what saved me from walking away as soon as the darkness hit.



Eminem, Black Thought and DJ Jazzy start it off with LL Cool J's "Rock The Bells." The fact that this is the first time that Eminem and Black Thought have done a song together is criminal. Some might see this as the most overrated emcee and most underrated emcee meeting together on the same song. (Apparently, someone else though this should happen again.) This with Jazzy Jeff on the cut was a great start. Frankly, I think I would have ended with this because it can only go down from moments like this.

Public Enemy came out backed by The Roots to do their classic "Rebel Without A Pause." Also, they were joined by Street Sweeper Social Club's Boots Riley and Tom Morello. (Note: "classic" is a word that I'll probably be using a lot...bear with me) Again, this was great and made me forget about Flavor of Love for the entire duration of the song. That is to say, the song ended and all my hatred of Flavor Flav came back...with a vengeance.

Redman and Method Man came out and did "Da Rockwilder" which is a song I had completely forgotten about until I heard it. (Blackout! such a great album. I really can't get over that I forgot about it.) But then Mary J. Blige came out. You know what that means? "I'll Be There For You/You're All I Need To Get By." (For the record, I am the only person who doesn't like this song. If you also don't like this song, contact me. We'll start a Facebook group. Love songs...who needs them? I prefer a love song about losing love, not being "in love.")

KRS-One, Travis McCoy from Gym Class Heroes, Wale perform Beastie Boys' "No Sleep Till Brooklyn." KRS-One opted to freestyle his verse instead of doing the original. You would think this would have been great. It wasn't. (No disrespect which is what people say before they say something sacrilegious ) He freestyles like it's still 1987 which is frankly a little boring. Plus, it seems like maybe he should have just kicked the original verse, even though he did send a shout-out to ailing Beastie Boy Adam Yauch/MCA.

The Def Jam South era is commemorated by Ludacris and Scarface doing "Southern Hospitality" and "Guess Who's Back" respectively. Two great performances but there was an interesting wrinkle that I noticed. (Nerd alert) "Southern Hospitality" was produced by The Neptunes who owned the first half of the 2000s, while "Guess Who's Back" was done by Kanye West, one of the dominant forces in music over the second half of the decade. I thought it was interesting. It had a bit of an alpha-omega moment for the Aughts.

Now for the creeping darkness. Onyx, backed up by Gym Class Heroes, do "Slam" in an extra rap-rocky fashion. Not like the cool rap-rock sound of the Judgement Night soundtrack or the Bionyx remix of "Slam" performed with Biohazard, but schlocky, slapped-together rap-rock sound. Not quite as bad as Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit or any other band with poor spelling but nowhere as good as the original.

Warren G does "Regulate" with Trey Songz. (Like I posted on my Facebook status "What the fuck is a Trey Songz?" Frankly, I still don't know.) Oh, the G-Funk Era was in effect...until Songz (brilliant name for a singer) opens his mouth for the hook which was depressing. I like to call this a "Janet's breast moment" or "pulling a Janet's breast." (Janet's breast : a severe disappointment. Origin: when Janet Jackson's breast came out at the Super Bowl and disappointed men, especially fans of Control era Janet who as 11 year olds dreamed that this moment might change their lives forever. Sigh.)

Ja Rule and Ashanti do those songs they did when they were popular. I don't know their names. Frankly, I think they're all one song...you know, the one where he gravelly croons "Baby" at some point. God, I hated that era. If I can thank 50 Cent for one thing in my life, it's the elimination of Ja Rule...even though he ended up doing the same thing. (Meet the new boss, the same as the old boss.) I forgot they were part of Def Jam. Memory is fickle like that. I would have replaced this with either 3rd Bas or maybe Blu and Asher Roth doing "The Gas Face," only to cap it off with DOOM aka Zev Love X come in and do his verse. That would have been great. Alas, no such luck.

Rick Ross does "Hustlin" and manages to wear shirt. (America's eyes thank you, Mr. Ross.) Nothing really to add. It's pretty underwhelming.

Now time for the medley. Kid Rock pulls a half-Bono at every Hip Hop Honors. (Pulling a Bono [verb]: rich and famous artist, who is probably sincere but still comes off as a bit of a douche whenever there's a tribute to a less popular artist who is nowhere as popular but decidely more talented than the puller of the Bono. Example: Bono totally pulled a Bono at the induction of Bob Marley into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I hope this makes sense.) He does "I'm Bad." Kid Rock. Whatever.

They stick EPMD in the medley to do a portion of "Crossover." Personally, I enjoy their pre-Def Jam work more but I think they deserve more than getting stuck in a medley. They're E(fucking) PMD. Show some respect, VH1. (VH1...you get so much right, but you still have a lot to learn. Now, I know how my mom felt when I was kid.)

Foxy Brown does "I'll Be" with Fabolous doing the Jay-Z part. Oh yeah, where's the Jay-Z portion of Def Jam's legacy? It's not like he didn't sell any records for Def Jam. There's nothing else to say about Foxy Brown.

Ghostface performs "Back Like That" with Chrisette Michelle, instead of Ne-Yo. Again, one of my least favorite Ghostface songs. What would have been better? "Run" with Jadakiss who's also on Def Jam. You're welcome. (VH1 needs to hire me for next year. I work fairly cheap and with better results. Just saying...) This would have hyped the crowd instead of lulling them to sleep.
Finally, Wale brings it to a close with Kanye's "Touch The Sky." It's weird about how people forget that he actually makes really good music...despite being on the Vice Versa/Freaky Friday-14 yr old trapped in a grown man's body tip.

Another Hip Hop Honors on the books. I don't know who they're letting in next year but I'll watch. Why? Like a dog that gets kicked a lot, I always come back for more.

Oh and I forgot about Oran "Juice" Jones guest appearance. This when R&B was enjoyable. That was probably my favorite part of the night.

For those who don't know...