VH1 Hip Hop Honors

VH1 Hip Hop Honors aired on October 13. This year VH1 took a different approach and rather than honoring icons in the hip hop industry, the decision was made to honor an iconic label in the hip hop music industry: Def Jam. Throughout the show the founders of of Def Jam talk about their experiences. Lyor Cohen described Def Jam as the “Aamco Transmission” of the industry where they were willing to get under the car and get dirty unlike some other labels (he threw Bad Boy Records under the proverbial bus when he mentioned that they were probably unwilling to do the same for fear of soiling their shiny Versace suits!). Hustle “Russell” Simmons described Def Jam as the “most respectful of the culture” as he sat with Def Jam co-founder Rick Rubin during the pre-recorded segments. Mr. Rubin looking very much like a live Buddha – shoeless, long haired and cross legged joked about Russell wearing a fake Rolex back in the day. Boy. how things have changed!! During the show, Kevin Liles sat with his compadre Russell. The always fly L.A. Reid was also in the building. L.L. was not present but he was honored (by uber fan Eminem) and L.L. also did a pre-recorded segment.

Some performances of note included Ashanti and Ja Rule, DMX (he’s still got the same energy!), Mary J. Blige and Method Man preformed their legendary duo “You’re All I Need to Get By”. The closing medley was also very memorable. It included Kidd Rock, Fabolous and Foxy Brown (Foxy looked like she was about to lift off with those eyelashes!) and I loved Chrisette Michelle (although she didn’t sing much she looked awesome!) Tracey Morgan did a good job as the host which also included some comedic pre-recorded sketches. Love Tracey’s hairdos (now that was “good hair”)!

RED CARPET ARRIVALS
Fabolous, Ashanti (I love her new look but I’m not sure if she’s owning it yet), and the original femail Ruff Ryder Eve!