Late night talk show host Chelsea Handler hosted the 2010 MTV Video Awards, being the first woman in 16 years to do so. While the night featured a number of Hip Hop performances, The genre did not fare so well in the awards aspect.
Eminem opened the show with the first single from his Recovery album, “Not Afraid” and was later joined by Rihanna to perform “Love the Way You Lie.” Em won two awards, including Best Male Video and Best Hip Hop Video, but left after his performance to join Jay-Z on their New York/Detroit tour.
Rick Ross made a quick and somewhat bizarre appearance on an electric scooter, picking up Handler and not appearing on the show again.
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As has been reported this past week, Taylor Swift recently wrote a song for Kanye West, which she performed during the show. The song was reported to have been a sort of “forgiving” for Kanye’s infamous antics at last year’s VMAs. While much of the lyrics felt unrelated to the rapper, others were spot-on references to ‘Ye: ’32 is not growing up now/Who you are is not what you did/ You’re still an innocent…Everyone of us has messed up too.’
Drake was joined by Mary J. Blige and Swizz Beatz on the piano. The trio performed the T.I.-featured “Fancy,” although T.I. did not attend the awards show, possibly because of recent drug charges.
5-time VMA nominee B.o.B. took the stage with both Bruno Mars and Hayley Williams to perform both “Nothing On you” and “Airplanes.” However, B.o.B did not win any awards.
New G.O.O.D. artist Pusha T joined Kanye West, who was the last performer of the night. West raised a toast to all the “douche bags,” “assholes,” “scum bags,” and “jerk offs” in reference to last year’s VMA fiasco. “You’ve been putting up with my shit for way too long,” he sang during the performance.
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While Eminem left the awards show early, Jay-Z (who was also nominated for awards) did not attend the show, nor did wife Beyonce. Nicki Minaj lost out on the Best New Artist Award to Justin Beiber, while Pop artist Lady Gaga ended up taking home many of the awards including Best Female Artist and Video Of The Year for “Bad Romance.”
