Lessons Learned From Watching The Grammys

The Grammys were on last night.For once, I wasn't bored half to death waitng for the performances I wanted to see.But the telecast was an emotional experience for me because I was yelling at the tv screen every three to four minutes.Yes, I get that into this show.I learned some things from the telecast, so that's how the review is going to go.

First thing I learned, CBS should stand for Censoring Black Shit.CBS doesn't care about rap people.This is in regards to Drake's performance.Drake has to be rap's Rookie Of The Year.Two Grammy noms with no official album out.That's a feat in itself.But why would you invite the guy to perform if you were going to mute half of the damn performance?Lil Wayne's first segment, ok, you can mute that because him making "rock" music is blasphemus.Once Weezy, Drake, and Em start performing "Forever", CBS turned into some punks and wouldn't let any verse get any shine.WTF?!Drake curses in, maybe, three parts of the song.Weezy says 'shit' a few times in his verse and CBS muted the whole bar if it had a curse in it.Once again, WTF!?Em doesn't even curse on his absolutely brillant verse and he was muted at the best part.You know, once he starts rhyming in compound syllables.Yes, that's the official name for it.But I felt disrespected as a fan to have the music chopped up like that.Its further evident that CBS doesn't care about rap people because they put the Best Comedy Album on the telecast, but left off every single R&B or Rap catagory off, except for Rap/Sung Collaboration.The only reason that was on the show is because it was going to Jay anyway.

Second thing I learned, America still has a slave complex.We can, also, call it The Rosewood Syndrome.Remember the movie Rosewood?In it, a black man is being hunted because a white woman lies, saying he disrespected her.Well, this relates to the Grammys because Taylor Swift won Album Of The Year?!Yes, you read correctly.The only reason Taylor Swift won that award is because Kanye grabbed the mic from her.This is not to negate the talent of Taylor Swift, but come on.If anybody deserved that one, it was Lady Gaga.She had five back-to-back number one singles off of her first album.HER FIRST ALBUM.Now, some may say I didn't check out Taylor's album, but I did.It was good,but not the best of the year.Hell, Beyonce had a good album, but she didn't deserve that nod either.Which brings me to my next point.

In the Grammy voters eyes, Beyonce can do no wrong.Congrats are in order to her because she set the female record for the amount of wins in one night with six wins.The record was five set by Lauryn Hill.It was later tied by Alicia Keys and Beyonce in 2001 and 2003, respectively.Her performance started out good, but progressively got worse.You can't be nominated for "Single Ladies" in five of the ten catagories you're nominated in and don't perform it.On top of that, you don't segue into "You Oughta Know" at the Grammys, when the person who originally sang the song did it better than you at the same place fourteen years earlier.That's like two women wearing the same exact dress to the same party.It's a huge faux pa.Sidebar, Alanis Morissette came out fourteen years ago?I'm getting old.Ha!

The Grammys are victims of their own hype.Since MJ died, everyone knew he was going to be honored at the award show.Nobody could wait to see how they were going to pay tribute to the legend that is Michael Jackson.We learned Usher, Jennifer Hudson, Celine Dion, Carrie Underwood, and Smokey Robinson would be doing the tribute in 3D, no less.CBS and the Grammys hyped this performance up like crazy.I know because I follow the Grammys on twitter. Well, when it comes down to it, that perfomance wasn't all that.You see Usher and Smokey trying to take the performance to the level it was supposed to be.Overall, it didn't work.It turned out to be a tad better than the BET tribute.Yes, I thought it was that ok.Plus, Michael Jackson had the best vocals during that performance.His kids flubbed their speech, but they're kids.They get a pass.Did anybody see 3T standing on stage?If those are Tito's kids, why are they looking more like Jermaine?The processed hair and the nose jobs were a bit much for me.

All the performances ranged from ok to great.Lady Gaga and Elton John got the party started.They did their thing.I felt like he was passing the torch to her because he used to give his audiences the same theatrics that Gaga is giving us.Pink's spot was nice.It wasn't anything special, but it was good.Mary J. Blige brought me to Jesus.Her and Andrea Bocelli sang the hell out of "Bridge Over Troubled Water".It was the epitome of the hood mixing and mingling with the upper class, if you will.Bon Jovi finally got their Grammy moment.Thank the heavens because if you're from the Jersey area and haven't bumped "Living On A Prayer" at least once, you're not really Jersey.Oh and before I forget, Jamie Foxx is a damn fool.I mean that in a good, semi- sarcastic way.He thought he was performing on a pirate ship or something.He had a lot of fun and I did enjoy that.Plus, I love that fact he had his Down Syndrome sister come on stage and shake what her momma gave her.Go 'head girl, do your thing.We watched Maxwell grind up on Roberta Flack.That was great to see.She can still sing her ass off too.Why wasn't Teddy Pendergrass given more than a two second tribute? "Wake Up Everybody" sounded better than some of the performances.

All in all, it was an ok show.the winners were a tad predictable.Then again, when have the Grammys been unpredictable?Now, I'm going to run to the store to get my 3D glasses and watch them again.