Words by Alyson Robinson
The BET Hip Hop Awards 2013 took place on Saturday Sept. 28th at the Atlanta Civic Center for another staging of mostly cyphers and performances.
Only three awards were presented during the show, A$AP Rocky won the award for the Perfect Combo category for “F*ckin’ Problems” which Kendrick Lamar and 2 Chainz accepted in his absence. Drake won the People’s Champ category with “Started From the Bottom,” and A$AP Ferg won the Rookie award .
Host, Snoop Lion/Dogg, we’ll just call him Snoop, hosted the show with finesse and popped in a few jokes here and there along with a few skits with the help of friends. Skits included Snoop at a card table with Daz, Snoop as a DJ, Snoop as a commentator with Kevin Hart’s alter-ego Chocolate Drop.
The “Real House Husbands” cast had their own cypher, along with newbies Action Bronson, Rapsody, Astro and Asia Sparks. Slaughterhouse also made an appearance and delivered crowd appreciated freestyles.
Kendrick Lamar committed fully to his cypher and brought his “Control” persona for the ride and acknowledged the responses other rappers made to the verse.
The scantily clad Rick Ross performed the Mastermind single “No Games,”
Future performed his new single “Sh!t,”
and Yo Gotti performed his club banger “Act Right.” 
ScHoolboy Q, who was introduced by Snoop as one of “three artists bringing soul to hip-hop,” performed his recent drop “Collard Greens.”
French Montana graced the stage later and performed the remix to “Ain’t Worried ‘Bout Nothin'” with Rick Ross and Diddy, who had a minion bring his gold crown out on a red cushion, clearly a tongue-in-cheek nod to Kendrick.
2 Chainz’ performance was even more creative than last year.
“As the song starts with him arguing back and forth with his mother, he’s in his bedroom on one side and a woman donning a housecoat and haphazardly placed sponge rollers is in the kitchen on the other side. He quickly moves from this to run off stage and change outfits. 
“Go DJ” starts blasting from the overhead and Mannie Fresh saunters out onstage with unbridled confidence. 2 Chainz reappears with five dancers, kicking off the first verse to “Used 2.” 2 Chainz left the dance moves to them this year — which was disappointing. Everyone knows the best part of a 2 Chainz performance is watching him dance erratically, but he made up for the lack of dancing on his part by having Juvenile come out for a quick set. Juvie performed “Back That Ass Up,” paying homage to the flow that inspired the “Used 2″ track.” –Billboard
And Of course, the much talked about, anticipated category, I Am Hip-Hop Award went to MC Lyte, after a montage featuring Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith who spoke about the respect they had for her throughout the years. Presenting the award was rapper, Eve. MC Lyte accepted her award with a speech and made mention of her new venture Hip-Hop Sisters Foundation.
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony also performed and belted out hits like “Thuggish Ruggish Bone,” “1st of the Month” and “Crossroads.”
The 2013 Hip-Hop Awards airs Tuesday, October 15 at 8pm EST.
Photo credit: BET.com
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