BET Hip Hop Awards 2011 aka T.I.'s homecoming party: Spoiler alert
Heavy D is still the Overweight Lover, T.I.'s still the Kang, and the EBT, scratch that, BET Hip Hop Awards are still something to tweet about
- Picture Group, Courtesy of BET Networks
- THE KANG IS BACK: T.I. (right) salutes the crowd at BET Hip Hop Awards with Young Jeezy
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The 2011 BET Hip Hop Awards — airing tonight at 9 p.m. on BET — returned to Atlanta with plenty of fanfare. How convenient that the taping of the annual show rolled around the same weekend as T.I.’s release? It was also right around the Kang’s birthday, as well as Young Jeezy’s, so there was a lot of activity in the city. Regardless of the complaints from previous years, the award show remains a huge draw, with some folks literally paying hundreds of dollars to attend. Needless to say our seats were not front-row but we were in the house and here’s how it went down.
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Unlike the Soul Train Awards (another BET awards show taped in Atlanta), there was no marathon recording session for the BET Hip Hop Awards. At 4:45 p.m., the doors were closed, with the show kicking off at about 5 on the dot. Dressed in all-white everything, except for the mandatory black Hollywood shades, Jeezy kicked off the show performing “F.A.M.E. “Although he had an elevated stage, plenty of screens with clouds and even a ring of fire, the highlight was the appearance of T.I.
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Dressed in all gray, the backdrop changed to the Atlanta skyline at night to announce the return of the Kang, who, as you recall, got snared into his web of recent legal trouble at the 2007 BET Hip Hop Awards. While time was limited, T.I. tried to give the people what they came for and even went into the crowd. He thanked them for the support before breaking off a little of “I’m Flexing,” his new single with Big K.R.I.T., before exiting. From the bottom to the top, the crowd seemed genuinely pleased to see him.