Last night's MTV Video Music Awards served up a whole lot of strange moments—what was Jay Pharoah doing on stage for such a long time, for instance?—and a slew of memorable ones as well. But despite the nominations being full of rappers, only a few actually made it to the stage. XXL took a look at some of the best hip-hop related moments from last night's 2014 VMAs.

Related: The 2014 VMAs Complete Hip-Hop Winners List
Hottest Women At The 2014 MTV VMAs
Jay Z And Blue Ivy Loved Beyonce’s VMAs Performance
Which Hip-Hop Music Videos Have Won Video Of The Year At The MTV VMAs?

Nicki Minaj's performances

Nicki has basically never failed us at this point, and her three performances last night all brought something new to the table. She twerked, she rapped, she crooned, she nearly had a wardrobe malfunction. She wore all gold, all black, all white, and barely anything. She performed her new single "Anaconda," but left the snake at home (punishment for biting). She ran the gamut from pop to rap to R&B. What else can she do? Feels like everything sometimes.

Iggy Azalea's performance

Iggy got shut out in the awards category, even though Ariana Grande's "Problem," a song she's featured on, won Best Pop Video (Iggy didn't go on stage to accept). But her performance still resonated, as she performed her new song with Rita Ora called "Black Widow" and generally got everyone all excited by actually rapping pretty well. Their matching body suits also went over pretty well, though no one was gonna top Nicki Minaj's "Anaconda" outfit for first place in that category.

riff raff vmas best moments
loading...

RiFF RAFF in his entirety

So RiFF RAFF showed up, and not only did he show up he pulled it off in pretty much the most memorable way possible—rolling up in a gold Lamborghini alongside one of the biggest pop stars on the planet. But not only did he do that, he also wore a denim suit—matching Katy Perry—that was a direct callback to the Britney Spears/Justin Timberlake denim disaster from a decade ago. Somehow it made sense for RiFF, of course, because somehow everything makes sense for him that doesn't seem to make sense for anyone else. But then he got totally curved by Ariana Grande, which set him back a bit. You win some, you lose some. 

Common's tribute to Ferguson

Common was an unexpected but welcome presenter last night, and he used his platform to call for a moment of silence "for Mike Brown and for peace in this country and in the world." It was a serious moment and an important one in the midst of a show that otherwise was all over the place.

common drake vmas best moments
loading...

Common accepting Best Hip-Hop Video on behalf of Drake

But immediately after the moment of silence, a moment of irony broke through as Common was set to present the award for Best Hip-Hop Video. The nod went to Drake, with whom Common has had beef in the past—the two traded diss tracks two years ago—and the moment was made even more hilarious because Drake wasn't there to accept the award, forcing Common to accept it for him. Ah, how things change in such a short amount of time.

Jay Z and Blue Ivy reacting to Beyonce


Juicy J accepting Best Female Video with Katy Perry

Someone on Twitter last night made a joke about Juicy J only needing a Tony Award to complete his EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony), which made me laugh a lot and start thinking up all kinds of Juicy J-related names for musicals like "The Sizzurp Of The Opera" and "A Chorus Lean" before I realized he's not even close to that. But imagine? That would be the greatest trick the Mafia ever pulled. Regardless, Juicy J was great last night when he went on stage to accept the award for Best Female Video alongside Katy Perry for "Dark Horse," and he even had time to thank Dr. Luke for crafting the song. It proved that, once again, no matter where Juicy J pops up he's always in the right place at the right time.

More From XXL