As you probably all know, the MTV Video Music Awards happened this weekend and Suge Knight got shot at Kanye’s party. Since the shooting didn’t happen at the event, unlike the chaos at the Vibe Awards late last year, they didn’t overshadow the VMA’s quite so much.

Nevertheless, though I think of this more as a Suge Knight thing than a hip hop thing, the fact that nobody’s describing the shooter seems kind of weird. Code of silence? Fear of retribution? Or did they want the shooter to escape?

Obviously, the fact that the Miami PD were some of the more visible proponents of surveilling rappers didn’t help. Derrick Parker, who founded NY’s hip hop cops, stated:
“Miami joins the list of cities that have a rapper shot in their city . . . You guys were neutral ground. But when you have the VMAs down there, everybody and their mother is coming.”

Speaking of the VMAs, I didn’t see them but Westside did and he was mighty disappointed. Maybe he’d have felt better if he’d gotten one of the $27k giftbags that contained all sorts of stuff from folks pushing merch.

And if the gift bags weren’t enough, marketers also had a Style Villa where stars could drop by over the weekend and pick up free gear. For example, Jadakiss scored a “$200 Bratz backpack _ complete with doll, MP3 player and videogame _ for his children” and “named his Sidekick mobile device as the most prized gift of the day.”

You can mosey on over to Hip Hop Press for a list of winners including the people who actually made the videos, you know, like directors and stuff.

Update: MJ speculates on Who Shot Suge? and has a fashion moment, while both cops and unnamed journalists consider the possibility that Suge may have accidentally shot himself.

Of course, someone may have been showing off a new toy. “Hey, Suge, look what I just . . . oops, sorry dude!”