VH1’s Def Jam Hip-Hop Honors Re-Cap (Pics inside)

Last night VH1 held their annual Hip-Hop Honors show in Brooklyn that was an all-star tribute to Def Jam Records.  Basically, everyone that was ever on Def Jam was there except for Jay-Z, Kanye West, and Rihanna.

I was sitting in the balcony, near Rick, Russel, Lyor, Kevin Liles, Julie Greenwald (if you don’t know who these people are… u better find out quick ), as well as a bunch of cats who were all live-twittering the show.  There were some dope performances, and some wack ones.  (SPOILER ALERT)

The show kicked off – after Tracy Morgan‘s intro – in the right way: a tribute to the Lip-Licking Cool James by Black Thought and Eminem, backed by the Roots.

This was followed by another pretty interesting ensemble tribute, of KRS-One, Wale and the Gym Class Heroes (who suck are not as good of a house band as the Roots) paying their respects to the original white boys of rap, the Beastie Boys.

Public Enemy and Onyx both threw it down.

DMX rocked the crowd hard-body (pause).  Dude has hits for days. 

Officer Ricky probably had one of the worst live performances I’ve ever seen… he looked drunk, and was generally not giving a fuck/forgetting his lyrics. 

Meth & Red made up for it, with their high-energy performance, and the crowd went absolutely nuts for Miss Mary J and Meth‘s “You’re All I Need…”

Trey Songz and Warren G busted out “Regulate,” and then Ja Rule and Ashanti took the stage.  No comment.  (He’s still relevant/exists?)

Then Scarface and Luda did a little piece, followed by a Jazzy Jeff DJ’d medly w/The Roots, Kid Rock, EPMD, Foxy Brown, Faboluous, Ghostface and Chrisette Michelle and Wale.  The whole show was punctuated with these documentary style black & white interview clips/vignettes that were pretty funny/clever/interesting.  Presenters included Brett Ratner, Eve, Chris Rock & lots more.

Props to Rashaan on the pics: