2004 BET AWARDS IN REVIEW
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Usher, OutKast, and Beyonce are just some of the big winners at the 2004 BET Awards, check out the other big performances and winners inside:
Black is everywhere, it’s a great time to be black.” Jamie Foxx smiled brightly as he fielded questions at the 4th annual BET Award show that was held June 29th, at the highly acclaimed Kodak Theater in Los Angeles, California. His statement seemed to embody the mood of the evening as one successful black entertainer after another took the stage to demonstrate their talents as artists who are keeping the urban, the hip-hop, and the R&B movement in high demand from fans across the nation and the world.
Broadcast to nearly 78 million households, the show was hosted by one of the reigning “Queens of Comedy” Mo’Nique, whose opening number had the crowd roaring to their feet as she and six other beauty queen dancers, all of whom carried 200 plus pounds on their frames, took the stage and pounded out the dance rendition from Beyonce’s video “Crazy in Love.” The actress/comedienne appeared after the show in a beautiful yellow dress that hugged her curves and displayed her shapely legs and commented on the opening number. “I did that number for my mother and worked on it for a month with the help of the wonderfully talented choreographer Regina Williams and I did this performance because I wanted to give people options, options to say what beauty is. You know so many times we are forced into thinking what beauty is and we have not allowed ourselves to come up with our own thoughts on what beauty is so tonight I just wanted people to know that they have options.”
As the awards were dealt out, the big winners of the show were Usher as the Best Male R&B Artist as well as being honored as the Viewers Choice Award along with LiL JON and LUDACRIS for their collaboration of “Yeah.” “Crazy in Love” by Beyonce featuring Jay-Z won for Best Collaboration, the two each netted individual awards. Beyonce won Best Female R&B Artist of the Year and Jay-Z for Best Male Hip-Hop Artist. OutKast also took home two awards for Best Group and for the Video of the Year of “Hey Ya!” The Best Female Hip-Hop Artist award went to Missy Elliot. Newcomer Kanye West had these words on winning the Best New Artist award. “Man it feels so good its like dreams come true. When I got up there and you standing up there in front of all these famous people you think it could never, never happen to you. This is what you dream about you know, you hear them say best new artist and then your name it just like if you were to ever see a movie about someone trying to rap, they would definitely have this at the end of the movie and I feel like the credits are rolling right now and it’s a happy ending!” Yolanda Adams, who worked with Kanye West on the hit “Jesus Walks,” also came up a winner for Best Gospel Artist. Denzel walked away with the Best Actor award and Halle Berry for Best Actress. Serena Williams and LeBron James took trophies for the Best Female/Male athletes of the year and special honors were given to Danny Glover for the Humanitarian Award. The Isley Brothers performed a sexy medley of songs to pay tribute to being awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award. India Arie gave a heart-felt tribute to the late great Ray Charles by singing “Georgia on My Mind.” A nostalgic feel was also incorporated into the night’s events as The Sugarhill Gang, Grandmaster Melle Mel, Slick Rick and Public Enemy laid down Hip-Hop memories reminding everyone the road from which it all came up. When asked to comment on the old school message, Jay-Z had this to say of the legends: “You know this is their job to me and it’s my job is for the next generation to pave the way. It’s every generation's job to make it easier for the generations to come.”
With another gigantic success behind them, BET has defiantly helped pave the road, and the challenge has been set for the young up-coming artists to fulfill the prophecy. How it all plays out remains to be seen, but I know the staff here at Flossin’ Magazine are watching to see what this ever changing movement does next to entertain us. We can’t wait!
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This article was originally published in Flossin Magazine #1. The original author of this article is Fawn Aberson. This article is optimized for web by Steven Christian (Artist | Author | Podcaster) and Edna Waters.
