Dear Gossips,
There was a lot of nostalgia last night at the BET Awards. New Edition was honoured. Mary J Blige showed us how great it can be to set yourself free. And Xscape came back onstage together after 18 years apart. But to balance the nostalgia, there were several new school highlights as well. Chance The Rapper was honoured with the Humanitarian award after a video tribute from Michelle Obama, among others. And even though they f-cked with her sound at the beginning, SZA gave us the new and the nostalgic because she is both now and then in the best way possible.
Also, Toronto’s very own Jessie Reyez. Is this when it’s the most fun? Watching an artist go from career peak to career peak week to week? Last weekend Jessie was at the iHeartRadio MMVAs. This weekend she’s giving notice at the BET Awards. 15 seconds into her performance Twitter was like, who IS this girl? And suddenly streams for her album, Kiddo, are higher than they’ve ever been. If you just met Jessie last night, wait until you hear her song Shutter Island. Then, after that, if you want to get to know her more, she was interviewed by Jezebel last month about sexism in the music industry. Watch the short film for Gatekeeper next. She’s amazing. And it’s just beginning, continuing the Toronto streak.
Photos from last night are attached. Please click through to see them all.
Yours in gossip,
Lainey
