MOBO’s Are A Joke

In their continued lurch towards mainstream pop, and pandering to the demands of established music businesses the MOBO's have become a very poor representation of what they were originally meant to represent. There is really nothing for a serious black music fan on offer here.

Just a load of celebrities bling blinging and rubbing the noses of the struggling real practitioners of black black music in the overtness of their sell outs. At least Michael didn't hide the fact he was turning white, where as the MOBO's use the same lame excuse that it is just music of black origin, and therefore they don't need to open the door to those lower down. Apparently this years awards are the biggest yet, but this expansion is coming at a price for true music fans. Hosted by LL Cool J, once everyone favourite rapper, the image the awards are trying to promote seems to be way off kilter. There were obvious business decisions in having LL do his thing, but with the preponderance of US music in the UK and its strangle hold on distribution, this would have been an ideal opportunity to give the gauntlet to some UK talent and give them the chance to shine as well.

On the good side, the Lifetime Achievement award went to Chaka Kahn and Jimmy Cliff received the Contribution to Urban Music award. Two truly worthy winners if there were any, but even this was tinted with rumours. Namely, that Jimmy was all set to receive the Lifetime Achievement gong, until Chaka turned up that is. Then the organisers had to quickly cobble together some other made up category so that he wouldn't be left with nothing, but he was relegated never the less. Seeing Ja Rule win best Hip Hop act just killed the occasion. Within the nominations there was only a smattering of acts I really thought were worthy on their own merits and not because of the push they got from their labels. It is a shame that the winners seemed to correlate with sales and not necessarily with talent. The Neptunes are undoubtedly good producers, and could have been the right choice out of the nominees, but that is part of the problem. What people have been selecting here is the least bad from a poor list, rather than the best of their kind. I suppose awards are meant to recognise what is popular at a particular point in time and so it was no surprise that the hotly tipped Ms Dynamite swept up a load of awards, and due to fashion other winners like Angelique Kidjo and Mis-Teeq could have been pre-determined. 

There is still time for the organisers to turn this back around and give us what we want, but unfortunately that will never happen as they are now well on the way to creating a facsimile of the Brits or any other large awards ceremony that only exist for self gratification and self perpetuation.

The full list of winners is below: 
Best R&B Act – Ashanti 
Also nominated: Tweet, Usher, Ms Dynamite, Alicia Keys 
Best Video – Aaliyah for More Than A Woman 
Also nominated: Eminem – Without Me, Busta Rhymes featuring P Diddy – Pass The Courvoisier, Ja Rule featuring Ashanti – Always On Time, Ms Dynamite – It Takes More 
Best Hip Hop Act – Ja Rule
Also nominated: Busta Rhymes featuring P Diddy, Nelly, Ludacris, Blak Twang featuring Est'elle 
UK Act Of The Year – Ms Dynamite 
Also nominated: Mis-Teeq, Daniel Bedingfield, Beverley Knight, So Solid Crew, Sugababes 
Best Album – Alicia Keys for Songs In A Minor 
Also nominated: Ashanti – Ashanti, The Streets – Original Pirate Material, Ja Rule – Pain Is Love, Ms Dynamite – A Little Deeper 
Best Single – Ms Dynamite for It Takes More 
Also nominated: Ja Rule featuring Ashanti – Always On Time, Nelly – Hot In Here, Alicia Keys – Fallin', Fat Joe featuring Ashanti – What's Luv? 
Best Newcomer – Ms Dynamite 
Also nominated: Ashanti, The Streets, Alicia Keys, Daniel Bedingfield 
Best Producer – Neptunes 
Also nominated: Irv Gotti, Dr Dre, Missy Elliott, Timbaland 
Best Garage Act – Mis-Teeq 
Also nominated: Daniel Bedingfield, Heartless Crew, More Fire Crew, So Solid Crew 
Best Reggae Act – Sean Paul 
Also nominated: Elephant Man, TOK, Beres Hammond, Capleton 
Best UK DJ – Steve Sutherland 
Also nominated: DJ 279, Tim Westwood, Dreem Teem, Trevor Nelson, Matt White, Shortee Blitz, EZ, Simon "Schoolboy" Phillips, Semtex 
Best Jazz Act – Norah Jones 
Also nominated: Joe Sample, Hugh Masekela, Peter White 
Best Gospel Act – Michelle Williams 
Also nominated: Mary Mary, Trin-I-Tee 5-7, Yolanda Adams 
Best World Music Act – Angelique Kidjo 
Also nominated: Femi Kuti, Gilberto Gil, Papa Noel & Papa Oviedo 
Mobo Unsung Award – Street Politiks 
Mobo lifetime achievement award – Chaka Khan 
Mobo contribution to urban music – Jimmy Cliff 
Mobo outstanding achievement award – Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes

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