GuruAs the BET Awards talk winds down, the one complaint critics have made is the notable absence of a tribute to fallen rap legend Guru of Gang Starr. Blogger J-Smooth went as far as noting, "What I learned watching the BET Awards: apparently Chris Brown is completely redeemed, and Guru is completely forgotten."

According to BET VP of Entertainment and Music Programming Stephen Hill, the failure to pay respects to Guru was due to a technical glitch, rather than human error.

"In a show that had every few technical glitches, it was nothing more than a technical glitch," Hill told AllHipHop. "It was the same reason you didn't see anything about Naomi Sims (the first African American supermodel) a Black model who passed, and Marvin Isley of the Isley Brothers. So, Guru, Naomi Sims and Marvin Isley were all tied to this one [video] package that didn't fire off the way it was supposed to. What was supposed to happen is you see this package and Naomi and Guru and and Marvin end up on Gary Coleman. For some reason, we couldn't get it to fire and it kept Gary Coleman up there a freeze [frame]. That's why we kept Gary up there as a freeze."

Hill also explained another glaring absence in the 2010 awards, the presence of hip-hop's reigning couple, Jay-Z and Beyonce, who were said to have skipped the awards in protest of Chris Brown's performance. "They missed the awards, because ... we have this conversation almost every year," Hill explained. "And, some years we are really fortunate when Jay-Z and Beyonce are in the house and other times, they go on vacation. But I can absolutely say without reservation that there was no conversation at all around, 'If Chris Brown's coming, I'm not coming.' That's just false."

Watch the video of the missing dedication to Guru et al here.

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