What was Swizz Beatz doing on the piano for the opening of Drake’s performance? Dressed like a light skinned Ray Charles, Swizz Beatz rocked back and forth on the piano with his hands on the keys, not playing one single note.
Clearly trying to relive Alicia Keys and Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind” moment in 2008, Keys should have given him a few lessons on at how to look like he was playing the piano before he pulled that stunt.
Drake’s performance was many things. After it was over, the camera shot to Rihanna, who had a brief fling with the Young Money rapper, Drake. The VMA camera caught Ri-Ri clapping after giving him a eye roll, hand and hair flick, and whisper to new BFF Katy Perry. We can only imagine what she said, but what it looked like was, “Trust me, Drake ain’t that fancy.”
Performing for the pre-VMA activities Nicki Minaj took the outside stage to perform her hit single “Your Love,” and her newest track “Check It Out,” with Will.i.am. In a futuristic purple and pink latex one piece, and all pink chignon and bangs, Nicki oozed sexy. However when she turned her backside to the cameras, audiences everywhere were rendered speechless. Let’s just say in March her booty was in kindergarten, and last night it was all grown up. Booty Pop may have created exclusive pair of booty pads for Minaj.
Eva Marcille showed women how to do blond the right way. Dressed in a red and blue sequined dress with feather details, from her head to her blue pump Versace toes, Eva Marcille was gorgeous. Lance Gross was somewhere kicking himself, and Amerie needs to be taking notes.
Kanye’s West interruption of Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at last year’s VMAs is a pop culture moment that will live in infamy. So we didn’t quite understand why Taylor chose to play a clip of Ye’s interruption right before her performance last night. Her song, “Innocent,” became a stab at Kanye more than a song of forgiveness. Taylor in all her fabricated barefoot sweetness gave a revengeful response to last year’s incident singing, “32 and still growing up now.” Quite frankly, after that tone deaf performance Taylor needs to apologize to Kanye.
Will.I.Am made a few sensitive viewers upset when he appeared on stage with Nicki Minaj rocking his signature gumby haircut and black face. Twitter blew up with comments on his unorthodox styling choices, to which the producer/artist responded, "Let go of the past. There are far more important things 2 bark about… not a black man wearing all black everything.” We just thought maybe he had a real crispy tan from being in the sun…
Chelsea Handler, host of E!’s late night show “Chelsea Lately” is known for having few limits. Handler, whose comedy is well liked by many rappers, took it too far when she said in her opening set that it was time to address the “Big Black elephant in the room,” referencing Kanye West. People gasped, and then nervously chuckled. Would of been great to see Kanye take the mic away from her at that moment.
Dressed in an all-red suit that only he could wear, Kanye rapped about his transgressions as an artist as he closed out the 2010 VMAs. Many thought we were going to see Kanye’s version of Chris Brown’s BET Awards performance, we were relieved that he took things in a different direction. ’Ye toasted all the douchebags, assholes, scumbags and jerkoffs, in a way apologizing for what he did, but not for who he is.
The performance ended with everyone chanting his name, proving that Kanye knows how to make lemonade out of lemons.
Usher killed his performance last night. Starting with his pop hit, “DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love Again,” followed by the dance smash, “OMG,” Usher had everyone out of their seats — including many of us at home. As Usher danced and sang, he reminded everyone that he still has it. We can imagine him getting off stage and calling C. Breezy on his cell like, “Yeah, dawg don’t get it twisted.”
The Queen of Hip Hop and R&B graced the stage performing with Drake and Swizz Beatz, not only upstaging the two rappers but stealing the best performance of the night prize. Mary J. Blige’s addition to Drake’s hit “Fancy” was what was missing all along from that song. Good job Mary!
