BET has revealed who will be included in their Prince tribute at the 2016 BET Awards. D’Angelo, The Roots, Janelle Monae and Shelia E. are among the artists involved.
The BET Awards stuck their necks out when they clowned Madonna‘s Prince Tribute at the 2016 Billboard Awards. Now they are hoping to back up their “We Got You” claims by tapping a handful of artists that Prince had a big influence on.
D’Angelo pretty much secured his bid with an emotional performance of “Sometimes It Snows In April” on The Tonight Show. There was no way that Prince-stan Questlove of the Roots was not going to have his band involved somehow. Janelle Monae was a protoge and collaborator with Prince and Shelia E. preceded her in that.
All eyes have been on BET since Prince passed with fans anticipating what the network was going to do to celebrate the late musician. The BET Awards has earned the unofficial responsibility of producing proper send-offs for African-American musicians and artists that are either overlooked in tributes by the Grammys or underrepresented at tributes at the MTV Video Music Awards. The 2009 BET Awards that featured a Michael Jackson tribute remains their highest rated telecast. That year, Jackson died just days before the show was set to air and BET scrambled to put a tribute together.
With months to plan around Prince, best believe viewers will be watching with a critical eyes.
BET also revealed that Maxwell and Alicia Keys will be performing at the awards show as well.
What do you think of BET’s selections so far? Here are the artists that HipHopWired.com recommended.
Photo: WENN.com
Since D’Angelo came in the game in 1994, he’s drawn comparisons to Prince. He has has cited Prince as one of his main musical influences and the reason why he sought to play every instrument on his debut album Brown Sugar. Like Prince, his ability to meld soul and funk, sexuality and sensuality, is a rare talent that many artists do not have. Plus, his emotional tribute on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon is proof enough that he deserves to be called upon.
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Janelle Monáe
Janelle Monáe was already setting herself apart from the crowd as an unique artist when she signed to Big Boi’s now defunct Purple Ribbon Records and then developed a partnership with Diddy’s Bad Boy records. But in 2010 the talented singer was introduced to an even larger audience when Prince recruited her to join him on his 2010 Welcome 2 America tour. From there Prince would mentor Monáe and even appeared on her 2013 album The Electric Lady. Prince always went out of his way to work with and support women, especially Black women. If Prince were here to produce his own tribute, best believe the cyborg known as “Jane” would be on it.
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Bilal
There are very few singers who had the vocal abilities of Prince that could change from sultry baritone to a soul-shaking shriek. Bilal drew Prince comparisons on his debut album First Born Second, but he was damn near considered the second coming from the vocal performances he turned in on his eternally-shelved Love For Sale album. His live shows are also comparable to Prince’s even though he’s usually playing smaller stages with less production. His last three albums, Airtight’s Revenge, A Love Surreal and In Another Life all contain the experimental elements that you would expect from Prince album, but they also have the straight up Black music that you want too.
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Esperanza Spaulding
Esperanza has never been nominated for a BET Award and a lot of Black folks were the first to attack her when she beat Justin Bieber for the Best New Artist award at the 2011 Grammys. So, there’s a good chance that Black folks are going to give her the same “who dis” look they did when she performed at Prince’s 2010 tribute [he requested her presence by the way]. Hopefully, more people will know who she is this time around if BET were to call her up again. Sidenote: The fact that Prince is about to garner two BET tributes shows you just how bad he was to begin with.
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Miguel
Prince once asked Miguel to sing “Purple Rain” for him and Miguel said “no” out of respect, or fear. We’re guessing that if BET were to ask him to sing the classic song for a tribute he would do it in a heartbeat. Let’s just hope that they don’t call on him to do any stage jumps.
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Rihanna
Ri-Ri should get a call to sing “Gett Off” so she can come out wearing something like the assless number that Prince rocked while performing it at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards. Not because Rihanna is only good for sexy outfits, but because like Prince, she is completely comfortable showing her own definition of what sexy is.
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Van Hunt
Van Hunt has had one of the sickest pens in the game since he debuted in 2004. While many regular BET viewers may not know who he is, they should know that he was handpicked to perform in a Sly Stone tribute at the 2006 Grammys. Like Prince, Hunt opted to take full control of his career and release music independently as he pleases after seeing his 2008 album Popular get shelved by his then label home Capitol Records. If you’re not up on his music, listen to “Down Here In Hell” above. Then listen to “Seconds of Pleasure,” “Priest Or Police,” and “The Lowest One Of My Desires and tell us he can’t pull off a fire Prince tribute.
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Shelia E.
This is a no brainer. No Prince tribute can happen without including one of his direct protégés. Sheila E. is one of the few musicians, like Prince, who can rock a whole show while wearing heels.
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Lenny Kravitz
You can’t have a Prince tribute without including a man who was perhaps the most recognizable living Black guitarists besides him up until his death. Lenny Kravitz was one of the few musicians that Prince actually trusted enough to play alongside him and the two of them were actually friends. The clip above was recorded at a 1999 New Year’s Eve party/concert where Kravitz left his vacation in the Bahamas to join Prince in cold-ass Minnesota. Why? Because Prince called and asked, that’s why. BET doesn’t recognize Kravitz for much outside of being a piece of male eye candy, but they can really show that they know what they’re doing if they can pull off an appearance from him.
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Anderson .Paak
Tributes can also be a time for new jacks to shine and an Anderson .Paak debut at the BET Awards would be more than appropriate. Paak is emerging as one of the better, young musicians on the scene and his recent coming out party at the Coachella Music Festival was proof of that.
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BONUS: Morris Day & The Time
Eff what you heard, Morris Day & The Time are still out here doing shows and jamming, hard. Day hasn’t been seen on a grand national television stage since Rihanna brought The Time out to perform “Jungle Love” at the 2008 Grammys. So he’s long overdue to steal the show again. Now to think of it, whatever the BET Awards chooses to do, The Time [Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, Jesse Johnson] should be considered as the backing band for the entire operation.
