Jumping into this topic is similar to a bear walking on thin ice because hip hop has a love/hate relationship with MTV. Their consistent decline of hip hop coverage makes rappers hate them, but they’d still jump at the opportunity to premiere their music video with them. MTV decided to mend a major fence with hip hop with the VMAs.
2013 MTV VMAs in Brooklyn:
During the spring, MTV revealed the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards would be held in a different location. Brooklyn’s Barclays Center would be the host of the VMA ceremony, which took place last night. With Jay-Z being responsible for the Barclays Center, hopes were high for the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards.
In the days leading up to the show, MTV provided extensive hip hop coverage from Brooklyn. Taking it back to their roots, MTV held interviews with such mixtape stars as Troy Ave and Nitty Scott MC. They fully capitalized off Brooklyn when they had Lil’ Kim walk Sway Calloway through The Notorious B.I.G.’s neighborhood.
The Actual Award Winners:
This year’s MTV Video Music Awards also gave a big spotlight to Lil’ Kim, having her present some awards and introduce some of the performers. When she would take the stage, some of her hits from years past played throughout the arena. But, when it came to the actual show, hip hop and the extended family lost. Miley Cyrus has transformed herself through hanging out with Lil’ Kim and doing songs like summer anthem, “We Can’t Stop,” which lost every award it was nominated for.
Both Lil’ Scrappy and Fabolous took to Twitter to address the failures of the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards. There were three hip hop performances, with Kanye West and Drake doing solos, but Kendrick Lamar, 2 Chainz, and Pharrell all did a joint performance alongside Robin Thicke and Miley Cyrus. When it came to the awards, hip hop did not take home a moonman. Lil’ Scrappy went on Twitter and said what he said, as did Fabolous.
The little focus MTV placed on hip hop was great, but it was admittedly few and far between. At this point, the people know what to do and the question being asked, did MTV diss hip hop at the 2013 VMAs?
