MTV VMAs 2010: Grading the Performers

NICKI MINAJ FEAT. WILL.I.AM
The intergalactic raptress, in a pink bouffant and grape-colored lamé bodysuit, brought her singular kook to the night's performance on the pre-show's ''white carpet,'' teasing with the chorus of her Annie Lennox-sampling hit ''Your Love'' before segueing into will.i.am collaboration ''Check It Out.'' Coincidence that the song samples ''Video Killed the Radio Star,'' famously the first video to air on MTV 29 years ago? At this relentlessly cross-branded fandango, unlikely. Will.i.am's scuba gimp gear is vaguely creepy, but it's Nicki's freak-flag waving that feels genuinely fresh, if a little rushed and manic in this odd setting. Grade: B

EMINEM
Who put Marshall in the basement? Hip-hop's hoodied commandant began his show-launching performance from what looked like a high school boiler room, but soon opened up to the awards' main stage. And he is both ''Not Afraid'' and not alone: Suddenly, there is Rihanna, in SJP tutu, combat boots, and Kool-Aid red hair, to help him segue into their domestic-violence duet ''Love the Way You Lie.'' She is intensely pensive, he is just...very intense. They're ostensibly sharing the stage, though hardly interacting at all until the final moments, which end with an uncharacteristic (and actually pretty sweet) hug. Grade: B

JUSTIN BIEBER
Rushing to the stage in a letterman's jacket — he really is the most popular boy in school, isn't he? — le Biebs unleashes his sweet ''Baby'' ode and equally sugared ''Somebody to Love.'' Many tween-melting coos and a few high-energy dance moves possibly jocked from his mentor, Usher, and then — he bangs! To ecstatic screams, Justin ends his two-song medley with a pounding outro on the drum kit, as a flurry of ribbon streamers rain down.If only the singing had seemed as live as the drum breakdown. Grade: B-

USHER
Following young charge Justin Bieber, Usher gets his ''OMG'' on with a cadre of glamazonian, ''Single Ladies''-esque dancers, until male backup (ninjas? International diamond thieves?) arrives, rappelling in on wires to roll the choreography in a more overtly athletic direction. It's a little America's Best Dance Crew — and hark, more lip-synching? — but the eight-Red-Bulls-and-counting energy goes a long way. Grade: B

FLORENCE & THE MACHINE
An aerial cam, a breakout British chanteuse on a spinning Lazy Susan of a stage set, and the first genuinely arresting performance of the night begins. The charging, joyful ballad ''Dog Days Are Over,'' recently nudged from cult status thanks to its Eat Pray Love-trailer-soundtracking ubiquity, is delivered in spectacular full voice by the nymph-like Florence, who is assisted by a masked gospel choir while vaguely tribal dancers spin and stomp ecstatically. Once and future lip-synchers, you've been served. Grade: A

TAYLOR SWIFT
Oh yes, the promised Kanye song. A barefoot, marcelle-waved Swift, looking like a '40s film heroine, turns last year's ''Imma let you finish'' incident heard 'round the world into a sober, reflective (and occasionally, alas, extremely off-key) ballad. The previously unreleased song sounds, surprisingly, a whole lot like pure forgiveness for 'Ye: ''Time turns flame to embers / You'll have new Septembers / Every one one of us has messed up too.'' (From any other source, words like ''32 and still growing up now'' would sound like a burn; from Swift, it's more like a gentle head-bonk from a kitten). Rage might have been more compelling, but her thoughtfulness — and seemingly endless ability to turn lemons into ''instant no. 1 on iTunes'' lemonade — remains pretty much unparalleled. Grade: B

DRAKE
Swizz Beatz mans the piano, Mary J. Blige (wo)mans the mic, and The Artist Formerly Known as Monsieur Degrassi descends a staircase to unleash their ode to high-maintenance ladies, ''Fancy.'' The Canadian rapper is in fine form, nimble and James Bond suave in his white dinner jacket. It?s not, unfortunately, his strongest song melodically; a little bit of ''Over'' or ''Find Your Love'' would have gone a long way. Grade: B+

B.O.B. FEAT. BRUNO MARS AND HAYLEY WILLIAMS
Bruno Mars and his sparkly bouffant begin the performance with almost dinner-cabaret-like decorum at the piano to intro the Atlanta hip-pop phenom, who gives the crowd a moment of his early-summer smash ''Nothin? On You'' until Paramore's pint-sized powerhouse Hayley Williams emerges for their atmospheric duet ''Airplanes.'' Williams stands alone next for a torch-y take on her band?s affecting ''Only Exception''; a shame the backing band seems not quite in synch, and that the pair opted for so little visual spectacle; visually, it?s all a little drab (Williams? Pebbles Flintstone hair excluded). Grade: C+

LINKIN PARK
So many dueling vocals! So many synths! So much fog machine! Linkin echoes mid-?90s Ministry with their industrial, grinding single ''Catalyst.'' Excellent throat-flaying angst on display here, though points subtracted for wearing your sunglasses at night, Chester Bennington. You, sir, are no Corey Hart. Grade: A-

KANYE WEST
Taylor may forgive him, but Mr. West would still like to flagellate his own self a little while longer, thank you very much. One tiny keyboard/sample box, several break-dancing ballerinas, and 'Ye in a tomato-red suit: the stage is set for the night?s climactic performance, ''a toast for the a--holes''...and scumbags, and d-----bags, and jerk-offs. (His words! Not ours.) It's nice to see him actualize, live and onstage with the epically self-aware shame spiral ''Runaway,'' though musically, perhaps, not quite the spine-shivering finale some may have hoped for. Grade: B+