The 2017 BET Awards went down at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California. I confess that I only got a chance to catch the end as I was heading to the beach to celebrate my eldest kid’s birthday and didn’t settle in to our suite until the show was well into its fourth and final hour! But I must say, that I thorougly enjoyed the singing chops of our Bellyitch Bumpwatch alum Tamar Braxton who did an excellent job performing her new song, “My Man” on stage.

 

Sadly, I missed a couple of our other bumpwatch alums, Kandi Buruss and Tameka “Tiny” Harris perform with their 1990s R&B girl group, Xscape. 

The duo joined fellow members LaTocha Scott and Tamika Scott in a medley of their hits on stage since breaking up as a group 18 years ago. It was the first of two explosive 90s R&B performances. The New Edition tribute and performances later blew me away!

Xscape will document their work as they prepare to perform at the 2017 Essence Festival. The docuseries, titled Xscape: Still Kickin’ It, premieres this fall on Bravo.

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I noticed some fashion and hair trends beginning with the blunt platinum bob LaTocha Scott and Braxton wore. Singer-Actress Kat Graham who plays Jada Pinkett-Smith in the new movie All Eyez on Me, rapper and star of Love & Hip Hop: New York Cardi B and our other bumpwatch alum Blac Chyna  all did the blunt blonde bob.

And platinum blonde, in general,  had a big showing  on Tiny’s daughter Zonnique, who is also a recording-artist. She wore her hair in that shade as did Lateysha Grace, a German transplant who has been on three seasons of MTV show The Valleys.

It was also cool to see so many parents bring their children to the show. DJ Khaled actually brought his son Asahad on stage with him during his performance. It reminded me of all the NBA babies at their dads’ games.

Jamie Foxx had his daughter Annalise help him present on stage and Future got his daughter Londyn a matching bedazzled mask to wear in honor of his popular new single “Mask Off” which he later performed that night with a cameo from Kenderick Lamar. Another big winner was Chance the Rapper whose mom accompanied him to the show.

Speaking of Winners. Beyonce was a BIG winner taking home the most awards for Best Female R&B Performer, Viewers’ Choice, Video of the Year for her song “Sorry” (which tied with Bruno Mars) and is off her album Lemonade, which one for Album of the Year.  The director for “Sorry” won the for Best Director.

Her sister Solange  took home the Centric Award for her song “Cranes in the Sky” which also earned the star her first Grammy award earlier in the year.  Besides Solange, we spotted a few of our other Bumpwatch alums at the event including Keyshia Cole.

Speaking of Blac Chyna and Amber Rose. The two of them once famously attended back to back awards shows in 2015 hand in hand but last night came with other people, Chyna with other people.

  

We frequently spotlight what mom LaLa Anthony wears on arrival carpets and she did not disappoint.

Not a mom, but I love Yvette Nicole Brown‘s look and my African sister Issa Rae from her hit HBO Insecure.

I also want to shout out other aspects of Africa represented last night in the strapless Ankara  (West African) dresses worn by beauty blogger Jennie Jenkins and The Color Purple veteran actress  Margaret Avery and actress Nomzamo Mbatha‘s South African print trimmed dress and in South Sudanese model Duckie Thot, Sudanse vlogger Nikki Perkins and Afro German soap opera actress  Sandra Lambeck.