Last night’s BET Awards was one of the best in a long time. That’s not saying a whole lot. There was an energy present that was missing from some of the earlier shows. Kevin Hart was an above average host. The kids who stepped with him was fantastic. Mary J. Blige with Anita Baker was a gem. Bobby Brown was hilariously funny in The Real Husbands of Hollywood skit. The night was not smooth as the biggest hiccup was the Viewers Choice Award that went from Chris Brown to Drake to Chris Brown again, after Drake already had given an acceptance speech.   Hopefully, next year’s show will b better than this year’s; there’s much room for improvement. Here are some of the Soul Brother’s best moments:

Best Soulful Performance

Jill Scott & Idris Elba

That was grown, sexy, jazzy, classy & smooth. Jill Scott looked great! 

Best Family Moment

Jada & Will Smith.

The pride and tears from Will when Willow & Jaden won the Youngstars Award. A great moment for both.

Best Dressed Presenter

Taraji P. Henson & Traci Ellis Ross (tie)

runner-up: Keri Hilson

Taraji & Tracee exuded mature, classy sexiness without being hoochie. Both wore pieces that accentuated their natural beauty. Last night, Keri looked the best she has looked EVER! Let’s be honest, some of her earlier looks were train wrecks. Hopefully, she will keep up the positive trend!

Most Creative Performance

Chris Brown with Busta Rhymes. Excellent performance by Chris. The synchronization with his dancers and the creativity of his lighting people pulled off a signature performance. Busta, brother you gotta do some push back exercises from the dinner table! What happened to the cut look from Pass the Courvoisier?

Best Throwback Performance

The Five Heartbeats & After 7

The Five Heartbeats is a classic film. The fact that they reunited for the show is notable. It brought back memories of the film. After 7 was good and the two together was FANTASTIC.

Best Ol’ Skool Performance

Cherelle & Alexander O’Neal

Cherelle was looking HOT!!! The two of them still got it! They are one of only a handful of artists I would pay $100 a ticket for and onlywould want to hear their classics.

Not So Best dressed

Pooch Hall & Barbara Lee

Pooch must’ve been channelling Will.i.Am but missed the mark horribly. Did you see the stiff train on Mrs. Lee’s dress? Step it up!

Best Commercial

Chrysler’s ad for the Martin Luther King Memorial

August 28, 2011 will be a special day in our history. The first non-President and African-American; Dr. Martin Luther King will be honored with a memorial. For more information: http://www.mlkmemorial.org

Forgotten Family?

Reverend Al Sharpton’s speech was possibly written by the staff writers but, how can they forget that the south was not the only region that was and is affected by storms & flooding? What about the brothers and sisters in the Midwest?

Not-So Best Performance 

Big Sean & Chris Brown

It sounds better on the radio! Bis Sean has almost zero-stage presence. Chris Brown was simply exhausted from his earlier performance.

Best Performance

Alicia Keys

She hit some notes vocally that I have never heard her hit before! She gave us a performance that takes us back to her classical roots with some Beethoven & Ravel thrown in for good measure. I didn’t need to be distracted by Rick Ross & Bruno Mars. They were unnecessary throw-ins. Alicia slammed it!

Most Outrageous Performance 

Cee-Lo Green’s tribute to Patti LaBelle. Outrageously fierce. Hairspray was hilarious. He just didn’t drop the F-bomb but the MF-bomb. It appeared that Patti enjoyed the tribute too. That’s always good.

Best Taking Us To Church Performance

Shirley Caesar didn’t just take us to church, she took us to chuurch! A great angel inspired sky blue dress complimented her powerful voice & performance. It was fitting that she wrapped up the tribute to Patti LaBelle. Can the church say, “Amen!”

The Bring the House Down Performance

Ms. Patti LaBelle.

After 50 years in the game she is still showing the youngsters how it’s done! I thought at one point she was gonna kick off her green Louboutin’s.

Most Impressive Performance

Kelly Rowland

The outfit wasn’t the greatest but did you notice that the hat she wore never moved on her head even during her dancing? She has finally broken out from under the shadow of Destiny’s Child and Beyoncé and is charting a path of her own that has great potential.

Honorable Mentions

Ledisi

Queen Latifah

Marsha Ambrosius

Beyonce’

Ledisi’s tribute to Teena Marie and Queen Latifah’s tribute to Gil Scott-Heron were absolutely remarkable and worthy. Marsha Ambrosius’ tribute to Patti LaBelle was great. Especially after the outrageousness of Cee-LO. Marsha PLEASE continue to wear dresses similar in styling to what you wore here. It elongates you and you work em well! Her performance was a treat because she hit high notes I’ve never heard her hit before! As Patti LaBelle said, “You are a bad, bad heffer!” We only saw a snippet of a HOT, FIERCE, and FINE performance by Beyonce at the Glastonbury Festival. According to some peeps from across the pond she KILLED IT! It was tape delayed since by the time we all saw the performance it was already 4am in the UK. Here’s some video we didn’t see: