VH1 2016 Hip Hop Honors

After a six-year hiatus, VH1 has brought back Hip Hop Honors, and it has come back with a vengeance. This time it celebrated the women of Hip Hop. VH1 honored the female “trailblazers and trendsetters” and it was All-the-Way-Live from New York’s David Geffen Hall at the Lincoln Center.

Hosted by Eve, the broadcast kicked- off with the co-founders of Black Lives Matter. They spoke on all of the trauma in today’s headlines before introducing the ladies of the evening for a grand performance.

The Hip Hop Honors tribute started with a performance of Missy Elliott’s hit Misdemeanor while Missy Elliot with Lil’ Kim, Queen Latifah, and Salt-N-Pepa with Spindarella looked on.

The performance moved into Missy Elliott’s WTF (Where They From) performed sang by Remy Ma. Remy and Fat Joe then performed All the Way Up.

Eve then opened the show and listed all the honorees of the night and their attributes, Queen Latifah, Missy Elliott, Lil’ Kim, and Salt-N-Pepa with Spinderella.

The Honors Begin

Angie Martinez, Busta Rhymes, and Timbaland were the first presenters. Timbaland started by speaking on the artistry of Missy Elliot. In the video portion of her tribute, Missy said she was humbled and grateful.

Missy then stood up in the side balcony with the other ladies and said, “They just gave me this mic, I didn’t know this was happening.” She thanked God and the women with her. She said they are her sisters and she thanked and loved them. She also said that and Salt-N-Pepa are the reason she is a rapper. She then kissed the ladies before thanking her mother and her fans. She ended by dedicating this honor to Aaliyah.

Remy spoke to Missy and said, “I told you, you were an icon.” And then told Lil’ Kim you already know, and ended by telling Salt-N-Pepa with Spinderella you opened doors.

LL Cool J

LL Cool J was next and said he was so honored to be there and began the honors for Queen Latifah. He called her a visionary before her career highlights video played. She spoke about how she became Queen Latifah. She said she never thought of herself as just a female rapper or she would never be where she is today.

The Queen then took the stage and performed Give Me Body before moving into rapping. She was joined by Da Brat and performed Had It Up 2 Here and then Ladies First.

The ladies of SWV were next and they introduced Naughty By Nature to continue the Hip Hop Honors tribute to the Queen. They performed their mega-hit Hip Hop Hooray.

Eve was back to introduce Kelly Roland. Kelly spoke of educating women and girls. Let Girls Learn is an initiative started by the Obama’s to help 62 million girls around the world receive an education. She then introduced a video of Michelle Obama thanking them for the support.

Next, it was time for Salt-N-Pepa’s salute. During the ladies video, they said there were a lot of women inspired by what they were saying and they finally own it in every area of their lives.

Amber Rose

Amber Rose followed and she continued the tribute by saying she wanted to “Talk About Sex” and tried to sing a little bit of it.

She welcomed Eva, Ashanti, and Keke Palmer to continue the tribute to Salt-N-Pepa and sang Shoop, Whatta Man, and Push It.

Then Salt-N-Pepa and Spinderella stood and said, “If it wasn’t for you we wouldn’t be able to do it.” They thanked their fans of 30 years for their support. They also spoke on the troubles of the today and gave a word of support.

Pepa said she lost her father at a young age and Rap helped her make a life for herself. She said she hopes that seeing them helps young people express themselves every day.

Spinderella said that they had to overcome rejection and failure before overcoming and succeeding. She also said, “This is Hip Hop history tonight,” and thanked VH1 and the fans for keeping them alive for 30 years.

Faith Evans

Faith Evans was next to introduce the tribute to Lil’ Kim. “She turned sex into power and made new rules.” Lil’ Kim said the rappers never thought she would be a break-out star.

Kim has made a lot of changes in her appearance and her new look is a departure from the Lil’ Kim who rose to stardom.

Dancers and performers took the stage to sing Lil’ Kim’s hits, Crush On You, No Time, and It’s All About the Benjamins.

Puff Daddy

Puff Daddy came out with no introduction and the audience went wild. Lil’ Kim ran to the stage and hugged him as he asked VH1, “What took so God damn long to honor our queens?”

He said, “Let me honor you, Kim, there’s only one Queen B.” He also said he always knew she was going to be a superstar.

Puff said, “We’re going to take our time to honor you” and the audience began to chant at her.

He also said it was Lil’ Kim’s birthday. He led the audience in the Happy Birthday song before Kim took the mic. She said the first thing I have to do is say, “Thank you, Father God.” She thanked her mother, her little boy and all of her fans.

She went a bit long, but they cut to a quick video of Mary J. Blige honoring Kim.

Phylicia Rashad

Phylicia Rashad was next and received a long standing ovation. She continued the tribute to Queen Latifah. She spoke of how the Queen made a space for herself in music, Hollywood, and Broadway.

Queen Latifah then stood up and said, “I am so blown away by tonight.” She thanked God, her mother, and father, her partner, and Monica Lynch. Who she made stand up in the audience as the Queen said, “I really am Queen Latifah because of that women right there.”

She ended by saying, “I love all of you and appreciated all the love that you give me because you really don’t have to.”

“Our world is really tense right now … I am hoping that we can channel all of these emotions in a positive way.”

Jasmine Sullivan and Kesha Cole were next. They continued the tribute to Missy Elliot.

Missy’s manager Mona Scott-Young took over the honors. “You made it possible for others to become stars.” Mona then introduced people Missy helped, Fantasia, Monica, and Tweet.

Fantasia sang Free Yourself. Monica sang Let Me Love You Down and Tweet sang Oops Oh My.

La La Anthony and Channel Iman continued the tribute to Lil’ Kim. They paid tribute to her fashions, from the famous pasties to full bodysuits.

Then it was time for Lil’ Kim to take the stage. She was joined by Rich Homie Quan and they sang Get Money.

Kim struggled a bit, but she got through Lighters Up.

Common

Common continue the Hip Hop Honors tribute to Queen Latifah as he said, U.N.I.T.Y. He spoke of the problems of today and said, “We need to have a more Black woman as leaders” and asked Latifah if she would be our president.

Queen Latifah took over with her performance of U.N.I.T.Y.

All the woman came to the stage holding their Hip Hop Honors awards as the Queen continued to sing. When she finished Eve thanked everyone closed the show.

When the show is live there are no do-overs, and the ladies didn’t need one.

Congratulations and ladies!

Tanya Hart

Twitter @TanyaHollywood