As the MTV Video Music Award 2004 wraps up, i cannot help but feel violated and unfulfilled. I had been looking forward to this event for the entire summer and now that it has happened, i am left wanting so much more. The potential for this event to be great was enormous. With mega hits like "Hey Ya," "Yeah," "The Reason," and "Breaking the Habit" by established superstars, the rise of Yellowcard, Maroon 5, JoJo, the Darkness, and many others, the retirement of Jay-Z and hyped performances of Kanye West, Yellowcard, Maroon 5, Jet and Alicia Keys, this year could have been awesome. Instead, it turned into a 3 and a half hour ad for apathetic teens to get out and "Rock the Vote."
The first three hours contained bits on how it's "vote or die" and "uniting" to vote with the Kerry and Bush daughters, but in the last half hour, MTV ruined what could have been a superb performance by Outkast by shoving voting banners, voting booths, red white and blue balloons and confetti down our throats. In the three and a half hours of promoting the election, they only said that we need to LEARN THE ISSUES once, yet they said we need to vote upwards of 500.
Back to the VMAs. It was held in Miami. Not New York, not LA, but Miami. never before has it been held in Miami. Miami is in Florida. they suck at deciding who to vote for because it's in Florida which filled with old people, drug dealers, Haitians and Cubans, and Shaq's ego. It is also an Election Year. Florida screwed up big time in 2000. coincidence? i think not. Here are a couple other things that reeked at the VMAs this year:
1) People coming in on Boats. They hyped this up big time, and it turns out only 20 people came in and 15 were in P Diddy's entourage. I want the red carpet. i want to see all the stars coming in and wearing their barely there clothing. The red carpet is how you know what big stars arrived. They way they presented it, the only people there were P Diddy, Nelly, Usher, Lil John and Jessica Simpson.
2) Lack of star power. Where was Eminem? D12 was there, but no Marshall. where was Britney? she was nominated 4 times. and where was 50, snoop and Dre? where are the TV and movie stars that usually flood this event? oh yeah, they're in New york and Los Angeles.
3) no host. how do you not have a host!?!?! they hyped Dave Chapelle up to be the host and he only came out twice. he would have been an awesome host. he could have done hilarious skits as Lil John, Rick James' ghost, prince, that crack addict. but no. they had a bunch of different people announcing a bunch of other people. you need something to keep the show together, that links it. there was none.
4) sub par performances. with the exception of Usher, they all blew. they were uninspired and boring. Outkast's Andre 3000 had his hands in his pocket while singing Hey Ya at the end of the show. HEY ACT LIKE YOU ENJOY IT AND MAYBE I WILL TOO! they also crammed three great bands, Yellowcard, Hoobastank and Jet into one set that lasted 5 minutes. they should have each been given their own slot, instead of wasting it on every god damned rapper under the sun. they say it was a big year for hip hop and i can respect that, but it was also a big year for rock.
5) Shaq pretty much spitting in the face of every fan he had in Los Angeles. He shows up looking like a rail. Lakers ask him to lose some weight and he PMS's, he goes to Miami and in 2 months, he lost like 200 lbs. Screw you Shaq, Kobe is our star now and he has this thing you don't have: work ethic and dedication.
