So we got news that Katt Williams wasn’t hosting the Awards about an hour into the the show and needless to say, we didn’t believe it. The skits, the Jay Leno appearance, the history, the unmitigated anticipation… we just figured it was unnecessary drama. Well, unfortunately we were mistaken.

After confirming T Pain did indeed take his place – and performed very well according to Mistah Fab and Damani of Dubb Union – there are three different reasons looming as to why he either skipped it voluntarily or was forced to against his will.

The first is the chief reason why we weren’t exactly compelled to post the news last night. In this scenario, he, T Pain and BET’s Stephen Hill were together when Williams challenged the vocoder King to a break dancing contest over who would host the event – which Williams has held the rights to since its inception in 2006.

“So we were all hanging out last night and Katt bets T-Pain couldn’t beat him in a break dance battle,” Hill allegedly reported. “Not knowing T-Pain was an extremely DOPE break dancer, Katt thought it was an easy win. T-Pain said ‘If I wins, I get to host the Hip Hop Awards.’”

The second analysis is the one that makes the most cents sense. With $50,000 on the table to do the show with a prepared script at his disposal, a reportedly “disgruntled” Williams balked at the last minute. With eight kids to feed, it stands to reason the dude would want to make all the money he could, but damn… 50 Gs is more than a lot of people and ten more movie theater employed teenagers make in a year. Do a couple more gigs, get some solid sales on It’s Pimpin’ Pimpin’ - which has plenty momentum and looks hellllla funny – and that’s a pretty good year. Go figure…

Finally, the third scenario finds Williams in jail, which wouldn’t be terribly surprising considering his legal troubles (he was arrested on a gun charge) prior to the November 2006 show. However, what are the chances he gets tossed in jail right before the show AGAIN?

In news not related to Katt Williams Ludacris was said to have one of the strongest performances of the night, teaming up with long time nemesis turned album collaborator T.I. The two performed “On Top Of The World,” a track off of Tip’s recently released Paper Trail. Ice Cube, who N. Ali Early believes delivered the album of the year, was the special performer of the night and also provided a well received, highly energetic show.

The Lady of Rage, Yo Yo, Salt n Pepa and MC Lyte were a hit and Lil Bow Wow? Well, he apparently wasn’t. Oddly enough he closed the show with “Marco Polo,” which didn’t go over too well with the crowd according to our sources and gave T Pain even more reason to clown… apparently they got funk, or Pain doesn’t like him so much right now. Guess we can look forward to some youtube clips of the two talking shit about each other in the days to come. Maybe not. If you care raise your hand…