While I was happy that Prince got the Lifetime Achievement Award from BET. At the same time I was worried about "the World's" eyes being fixed on BET for over 3 hours. Maybe I'm just overly concerned about "image" but I just had the feeling that parts of the show would be a "hot mess"...and it was.

Waaay to many rap artists performing and very scarce true talent. You had one Ike Turner protege' who's a MJ fan, break down on stage and darn near blow his nose with his sleeve. One tone deaf Prince admirer singing and making me wish that Kayne was there to bum-rush the stage. One prego Piano climbing maniac who made the weirdest falsetto enounciation sounds in Adore; weirder than my ears could ever plan for. One Legend who abbreviated / rearranged the crap out of Purple Rain and did not show the "beauty" of the song eventhough she was more than capable of doing just that. One relative newbie to the game who in my opinion did a great job but at times seemed to perform like she was in some sort of a talent show. And one "uneventful" stand up bass player who completely screwed up the first heightened note of the song, and made me zone out due to bordom.

Well, that's the bad of it! Maybe BET will finally figure it out. Hey, I posted a more optimistic interpretation of what I saw earlier in the threads.

Reel said:

While I was happy that Prince got the Lifetime Achievement Award from BET. At the same time I was worried about "the World's" eyes being fixed on BET for over 3 hours. Maybe I'm just overly concerned about "image" but I just had the feeling that parts of the show would be a "hot mess"...and it was.

Waaay to many rap artists performing and very scarce true talent. You had one Ike Turner protege' who's a MJ fan, break down on stage and darn near blow his nose with his sleeve. One tone deaf Prince admirer singing and making me wish that Kayne was there to bum-rush the stage. One prego Piano climbing maniac who made the weirdest falsetto enounciation sounds in Adore; weirder than my ears could ever plan for. One Legend who abbreviated / rearranged the crap out of Purple Rain and did not show the "beauty" of the song eventhough she was more than capable of doing just that. One relative newbie to the game who in my opinion did a great job but at times seemed to perform like she was in some sort of a talent show. And one "uneventful" stand up bass player who completely screwed up the first heightened note of the song, and made me zone out due to bordom.

Well, that's the bad of it! Maybe BET will finally figure it out. Hey, I posted a more optimistic interpretation of what I saw earlier in the threads.

But besides that you enjoyed it, right?

kpowers said:

Reel said:

While I was happy that Prince got the Lifetime Achievement Award from BET. At the same time I was worried about "the World's" eyes being fixed on BET for over 3 hours. Maybe I'm just overly concerned about "image" but I just had the feeling that parts of the show would be a "hot mess"...and it was.

Waaay to many rap artists performing and very scarce true talent. You had one Ike Turner protege' who's a MJ fan, break down on stage and darn near blow his nose with his sleeve. One tone deaf Prince admirer singing and making me wish that Kayne was there to bum-rush the stage. One prego Piano climbing maniac who made the weirdest falsetto enounciation sounds in Adore; weirder than my ears could ever plan for. One Legend who abbreviated / rearranged the crap out of Purple Rain and did not show the "beauty" of the song eventhough she was more than capable of doing just that. One relative newbie to the game who in my opinion did a great job but at times seemed to perform like she was in some sort of a talent show. And one "uneventful" stand up bass player who completely screwed up the first heightened note of the song, and made me zone out due to bordom.

Well, that's the bad of it! Maybe BET will finally figure it out. Hey, I posted a more optimistic interpretation of what I saw earlier in the threads.

But besides that you enjoyed it, right?

He he he.....very clever Batman (Eartha Kit voice).

Hi guys,

Does anyone know where i can see the speech? I can't find it anywhere. Only the performance from the ladies.

Many thanks

i thought it was nice and i liked his hairdoo

Sly said:

Hi guys,

Does anyone know where i can see the speech? I can't find it anywhere. Only the performance from the ladies.

Many thanks

www.drfunkenberry.com You will have to do a search. Have tissues ready

luv4u said:

Mindbells9 said:

Did Alicia Keys slip "fuck" past the censors at BET during her performance of "Adore"? Right when she climbs up on the piano, Prince leans in ,I'm assuming, 2 see if she'll say it and it sounds like she does when she says "...they know U are fix. I know that U know I ain't cheating baby. They know this is serious, I don't fuck with U 4 kicks!" Did anyone else catch this?

I think Prince was concerned about Alicia's safety. She's preggers and getting up on top of something could be dangerous to herself and the child.

I never heard her say "fuck" . Your ears were playing games on you

AH I didn't know she was expecting.

PurpleLove7 said:

kpowers said:

Ok I know there is a 26 page thread on this already and don't fee like reading it all but can anyone tell me how many times do they show Prince at the award show? I'm gonna watch the encore and don't feel like watching 3 hours just to see 5 minutes of Prince.

Watch the last 30 min. of the show for the "Prince Ladies" ...

Who was the first lady? That was horrible.

Alicia was the best.

bellanoche said:

bettybop said:

The one thing that could have given the tribute a proper perspective was a better video montage at the start. I wanted a longer video segment that featured great moments from his career and showed how long it spans. I'm talking Prince on American Bandstand and Soul Train; Prince receiving his Oscar for "Purple Rain"; Prince winning tons of Grammys, American Music Awards etc! Show all his album covers! Mention how many #1 songs he's had! Show him at the Super Bowl doing "Purple Rain"! Show him playing different instruments and emphasize that he's a singer, songwriter, musician, dancer, etc. In truth, they could have just showed a nice long video montage, let Stevie talk and then had Prince perform--we wouldn't have needed anyone else to do his songs at all!

At any rate, he looked fantastic and at peace. He seemed to really appreciate the love and that was nice to see. Congratulations, Prince!!

I REALLY agree with this. No, the performances weren't "Prince-perfect," but they were genuine and heartfelt. I actually enjoyed Esperanza the most followed by Patti, Alicia and Janelle. However, I do think that there could have been more performances. To properly honor Prince, they really needed to do something longer. They could have even had different artists sing his songs throughout the show. Maybe songs from different decades. As a lifetime achievement award for someone who has achieved so much in his lifetime, I definitely thought the montage could have been better. This was a golden opportunity to acknowledge how multi-faceted Prince is for those who are not as aware of him beyond the obvious. It wouldn't even have cost much money if they had a good graphics and research team.

Some things I would have done -

1. Acknowledge P as a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, businessman, philanthropist, Web innovator.
2. List his number one albums and songs (They did this for Alicia Keys as artist of the decade but couldn't do it for an artist whose career has spanned 5 decades?)
3. List hits he's written/produced for others
4. Highlight some of his proteges/artists he's worked with
5. List some of his recordbreaking achievements/career highlights like tours, awards, etc.
6. Show the covers of all his albums
7. Include clips of artists commenting on him about working with him or his influence on them(This could have been achieved through archival footage if BET was too cheap to film original interviews).

That would have been a kickass tribute if it had been done your way Bellanoche. I thought there would have a bunch of artists talking about Prince in the video part of the tribute. Well, this is BET we're talking about.

Everyone seems to have expected the performers in the tribute to match Prince note for note on the songs they sang. That's not the purpose of a tribute. They each got up there to pay homage to Prince not to do a kareoke session. Nobody will sing in the exact style of Prince on these tracks. Even Stevie Wonder's little take on 'Purple Rain' was different than Prince's vocal blueprint. Trey Songz shouldn't have tried to include himself in the tribute. His voice was horrible and the snippet of 'Purple Rain' he did was unbearable. The tribute as a whole served it's purpose to highlight Prince and to show that he is well respected in the musical community by various generations. From Patti Labelle who began her career long before Prince and to newer artists like Janelle Monae his influence is evident. His legacy is respected by many and equalled by none.

HonestMan13 said:

Everyone seems to have expected the performers in the tribute to match Prince note for note on the songs they sang. That's not the purpose of a tribute. They each got up there to pay homage to Prince not to do a kareoke session. Nobody will sing in the exact style of Prince on these tracks. Even Stevie Wonder's little take on 'Purple Rain' was different than Prince's vocal blueprint. Trey Songz shouldn't have tried to include himself in the tribute. His voice was horrible and the snippet of 'Purple Rain' he did was unbearable. The tribute as a whole served it's purpose to highlight Prince and to show that he is well respected in the musical community by various generations. From Patti Labelle who began her career long before Prince and to newer artists like Janelle Monae his influence is evident. His legacy is respected by many and equalled by none.

Speaking for myself only, I was not expecting these women to match Prince note for note. I mean, Janelle definitely had her own spin on LGC and I enjoyed it for the most part. My problem was, when some of them went for the notes, they often missed them....by a mile. Alicia Keys in particular was reaching and missing all through her song. Now, I think she made up for it with passion and spectacle, but she was struggling with the high parts of that song. I agree with the rest of your post, though.

nursev said:

Erika2k8 said:

Once again

the tributes where amazing, I liked some more than others but they where performed from an honest place ,so good on all of them! lool Prince looked happy and sexy.

Its all good.

I thought the tributes were atrocious.

Reel said:

kpowers said:

But besides that you enjoyed it, right?

He he he.....very clever Batman (Eartha Kit voice).

Catwoman, my Kryptonite.

npggirl77 said:

nursev said:

I thought the tributes were atrocious.

Good for you.

YESWECAN said:

luv4u said:

I think Prince was concerned about Alicia's safety. She's preggers and getting up on top of something could be dangerous to herself and the child.

I never heard her say "fuck" . Your ears were playing games on you

AH I didn't know she was expecting.

I caught it. Good thing I DVRed it.

I have to go back and watch again, but I also was fairly certain I heard the Alicia F bomb. But I also agree that this tribute left a lot to be desired and it just proved to me how difficult it is for people other than Prince to try and do Prince. Their performances were fair except for Patti LaBelle who was awful. I wonder if she even rehersed this or did she just show up and think she could deliver it based on her talent, well it did not work. And I for one do NOT blame Prince for this. The whole thing from the video montage to the performances was just mediocre at best. I did enjoy his tone of the speech but could you all believe the BS he was shoveling about the future being in good hands with the new artists. OMG!! Today's R&B/"Black" music is horrid and how he could say that was beyond me. It ranked right up there with me as when he said in the Ebony article that you cannot surround yourself with "yes" people, Huh!! His whole career has been that including his wives. His hipocrisy is always interesting.

But still congrats to him for his honor and I do like when his talents are recognized

My mother called me a little while ago and said that she read this in the New York Daily News....

http://www.nydailynews.co...sides.html

(part of a list of gossip tidbits)

- If Prince ever decides to change his name to a symbol again, we would like to suggest a big honkin' question mark.

After accepting his Lifetime Achievement Award at the BET Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday, the pocket funkster left the show's producers scratching their heads after he skipped out on a nine-minute "surprise" performance which the awards presenters,Chaka Khan and Patti LaBelle, "were supposed to 'coax' out of the singer."

Perhaps the soul divas weren't persuasive enough because, soon after collecting his award, Prince left the Shrine Auditorium without an explanation. He ended up giving a genuine surprise performance at the House of Blues.

bashraka said:

As far as Prince lifetime achievement award tribute, I think any tributes in the future have to be done independent of Prince. To learn that Prince handpicked these artisits to pay him musicial homage only further underscores how much of a control freak he is. I think BET should have booked artists who could do Prince's music justice, whether he approved or not . The tribute is just as much about Prince's longevity and sustained creativity in the performing arts as it is about what the fans want to see and hear. If Maxwell or D'Angelo wasn't available, how about Pink, if you wanna stick with all females. Esperanza Spalding was fantastic (my future wife. That kiss she blew at Prince gets me everytime), but Patti Labelle should have left PR alone and sung a tune like "Most Beautiful Girl In The World". Prince should have taken one of those symbol guitars and impaled Trey Songz in the throat for that performance of Purple Rain. At least for me, even though it shouldn't bother me, Prince should have performed. If you're going to piously sit in the front row and either show disgust or approval of people's performances during your tribute, at least perform a song to show the viewing audience how your music should sound. Lastly, it sounds like Prince is mellowed out on the "real music by real musicians" thing. People know how he feels about today's music, but when he said "he feels music is safe", I think he was trying not to appear judgemental.

The fans already feel they should be calling the shot enough with every other facet of his life. Can other artists pay homage to Prince without having to log onto the ORG for consent first?

The speech was the polite equivalent of attending dinner at someones home who you know can't cook but eating the meal nonetheless and being gracious to your host and the other guests. Very classy of Prince.

Sorry if someone else has already said this and I missed it, but one thing that makes me kind of is why Alicia, who KNOWS Prince and is aware he now frowns on profanity and that he has a much stricter moral code abput how he, and others, should live their lives in the "right way", would choose to include elements in performance - a TRIBUTE performance TO Prince, no less - which she knows he is uncomfortable with and/or flat out doesn't condone...i.e. using the F word, writhing around suggestively on the piano. Not to mention I'm wondering what the new moral Prince thinks of this unmarried pregnant woman who commited adultery (in a very public way) being the one paying him 'tribute'. I realize Prince likes Alicia and her music, but still...I have to wonder.

RubyButterfly said:

Sorry if someone else has already said this and I missed it, but one thing that makes me kind of is why Alicia, who KNOWS Prince and is aware he now frowns on profanity and that he has a much stricter moral code abput how he, and others, should live their lives in the "right way", would choose to include elements in performance - a TRIBUTE performance TO Prince, no less - which she knows he is uncomfortable with and/or flat out doesn't condone...i.e. using the F word, writhing around suggestively on the piano. Not to mention I'm wondering what the new moral Prince thinks of this unmarried pregnant woman who commited adultery (in a very public way) being the one paying him 'tribute'. I realize Prince likes Alicia and her music, but still...I have to wonder.

Finding religion doesn't make you judgemental and holier than thou. Prince doesn't curse yet he attended a show that was laced with profanity throughout the night. He did get on stage and chastise anyone for their choices. His respect for Alicia Keys is obviously still intact by the applause he gave her and the fact that she was chose to be there to honor him. I'm pretty sure her personal life isn't an issue for Prince.

HonestMan13 said:

RubyButterfly said:

Sorry if someone else has already said this and I missed it, but one thing that makes me kind of is why Alicia, who KNOWS Prince and is aware he now frowns on profanity and that he has a much stricter moral code abput how he, and others, should live their lives in the "right way", would choose to include elements in performance - a TRIBUTE performance TO Prince, no less - which she knows he is uncomfortable with and/or flat out doesn't condone...i.e. using the F word, writhing around suggestively on the piano. Not to mention I'm wondering what the new moral Prince thinks of this unmarried pregnant woman who commited adultery (in a very public way) being the one paying him 'tribute'. I realize Prince likes Alicia and her music, but still...I have to wonder.

Finding religion doesn't make you judgemental and holier than thou. Prince doesn't curse yet he attended a show that was laced with profanity throughout the night. He did get on stage and chastise anyone for their choices. His respect for Alicia Keys is obviously still intact by the applause he gave her and the fact that she was chose to be there to honor him. I'm pretty sure her personal life isn't an issue for Prince.

eh forget it. not worth it.

[Edited 7/1/10 23:31pm]

I think its great just to see Prince so filled with genuine emotion while watching. Rare, and indeed a pleasant treat,

chocolate1 said:

My mother called me a little while ago and said that she read this in the New York Daily News....

http://www.nydailynews.co...sides.html

(part of a list of gossip tidbits)

- If Prince ever decides to change his name to a symbol again, we would like to suggest a big honkin' question mark.

After accepting his Lifetime Achievement Award at the BET Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday, the pocket funkster left the show's producers scratching their heads after he skipped out on a nine-minute "surprise" performance which the awards presenters,Chaka Khan and Patti LaBelle, "were supposed to 'coax' out of the singer."

Perhaps the soul divas weren't persuasive enough because, soon after collecting his award, Prince left the Shrine Auditorium without an explanation. He ended up giving a genuine surprise performance at the House of Blues.

that's disapointing..

RubyButterfly said:

Sorry if someone else has already said this and I missed it, but one thing that makes me kind of is why Alicia, who KNOWS Prince and is aware he now frowns on profanity and that he has a much stricter moral code abput how he, and others, should live their lives in the "right way", would choose to include elements in performance - a TRIBUTE performance TO Prince, no less - which she knows he is uncomfortable with and/or flat out doesn't condone...i.e. using the F word, writhing around suggestively on the piano. Not to mention I'm wondering what the new moral Prince thinks of this unmarried pregnant woman who commited adultery (in a very public way) being the one paying him 'tribute'. I realize Prince likes Alicia and her music, but still...I have to wonder.

Alicia definitely dropped the F-bomb, and it was clear and crisp. Not sure why other orgers couldnt' hear what she said. But ...after she said it Prince and Shelby gave 2 fists pumps. Fist pumps usually mean that a person is in support of, or liked a particular thing...or that they are "hyped up". So I really am not sure about all of what you said.

Lol!! Dru Hill felt like they should've been invited to do the MJ and Prince tributes! Yeah...ok.

http://www.bet.com/Music/....01.10.htm

Prior to C. Breezy taking the stage, BET.com caught up with Sisqo from Dru Hill, who shared his thoughts on MJ's tribute."I heard it was supposed to be a, like a tribute for Prince and Michael, we should have been on that, you know?" Sisqo said. "Considering we sang ‘The Beautiful Ones’ and you know, I do a pretty good "Billie Jean." We did ["The Beautiful Ones"] with Mariah Carey on the Butterfly Album. Check it out."

Esperanza Spalding is my girl soon to be my future wife. That woman is so sexy, beautiful, worldly and evolved. I would spend my dollar, and penny on that woman to make her happy. I don't care what nobody says Spalding delivered the better performance, because her voice was sweet and soft enough to convey the message of the song. And her blowing kiss a Prince was a nice touch, although in my mind she was blowing a kiss to me.

On a side note, I hope Esperanza Spalding works with Prince alot more. Hopefully, he'll jam with her in concert or vice versa, and with any luck they'll record. Maybe not vocally but maybe work on music from one musician to another.

You know you are the man when men trip over themselves to pay tribute to you. Sisqo, STFU!

Seriously, Dru Hill might have done a better job than Trey I know Trey wasn't suppose to sing PR and he should have left it alone but Dru Hill/Sisquo can actually sing-hell the boy can blow when he wants to I coulda went for PR/Tell Me What You want

I enjoyed all of the performances, but Alicia kicked a**! I love it when I feel the passion in an artist's performance and Alicia was bringin' it. Patti was in the Purple Zone in Patti LaBelle style. LOVED it when she kicked off her heels and so did Prince, it appeared.