THE 2009 BET AWARDS/A Black On Black Crying Shame Conclusion (sheesh)
Okay, I get it. I totally get that when you expect something that claims to be BLACK ENTERTAINMENT on TELEVISION, you shouldn’t expect the highest in quality, the upmost in respect, for someone to actually give a flying f*ck off a high dive about the best interest of the BLACK COMMUNITY, because all that s*it cost, money, nigger.
What was I thinking?
If it’s cheaper to have some dude named Terrance and that man-jacking a Bunk Moreland stunt double looking, Third World discount country Prime Minister from a glorified video ho (Lisa-Raye) Rocsi kiss rappers and dime-a-dozen R&B ‘diva’ arse all day from “106th & Park”, why should they pay for more professional deejays like they once did for their VIDEO SOUL show?
If it’s cheaper to purchase the syndication rights to defunct shows like SOUL FOOD, THE GAME and a edited-to-death THE WIRE, why should they bother putting out authentic programming that would actually cost more than sending a camera crew out to watch Keyshia Cole’s mother and sister cuss at each other in the aisles of Sally’s, while picking out an appropriate weave for Fish N’ Grits Nite @ The Elks Lounge?
Cheap, cheap as hell. I lived in Arizona for almost 14 years and watch the Arizona Cardinals play, I know cheap when I see it and B.E.T. makes Bill Bidwell look like he’s making it rain up in the Champaigne Room of The TNA Lounge with 100 dollar bills.
I could go on all day with this. This is the thing that we’ve come to expect from B.E.T. and they know it. They know us like a book. They know that FRANKIE & NEFFI, TINY & TOYA and any other modern day Watermelon & Chicken Minstrel Show will pull in ad dollars and ratings without them doing no more than getting somebody to film it.
But THIS TIME, B.E.T., you could have done better than what you did this past Sunday night with your “tribute”. You could have found a number of artist out there who would have done Michael Jackson proud, that would have done the Black community proud and, for once B.E.T., you could have shut cynical bastards like me up, if only for one night and made us, begrudingly, give your chickenheaded ass network some respect.
Like we did, back in early 1980s, when you saw that MTV wasn’t about to play video with a black person in it and you created VIDEO SOUL. When you put on shows like TEEN SUMMIT, had a News department with folks like Ed Gordon, Michelle Miller and Jacque Reid and not somebody named “Cousin Jeff” (not a diss on Jeff Johnson, who’s a great reporter, too good for B.E.T., that’s for damn sure)…
We would have shown you some real love, B.E.T. All you had to do is
- Tell most of those fools to act like they do when they are on the Grammys, when the Grammys will even let them in the building…
- Show some damn respect
- Pull up your pants
- Stop cussing
- Don’t bring Dixie cups, pimp chalices and bottles filled with questionable and flammable fluids to the awards show, please?
- Pick another week to pay homage to the most shown movie on BET BLACKBUSTER MOVIES, BABY BOY:
"I hate you, B.E.T.!!!"
Hell, that that turned out to be a better tribute than the one that MJ got.
Just ONE night, you could have suspended the stupidity, reined in the act-a-foolishness and showed the world how much you and, by proxy, the Black community felt about the man. But, you reverted to type and those of us who sat thru the whole damn thing are still trying to wash the new “funk of 40,000 years ” that it left off of us days later.
And, now, we’ll all have to wait until the “new” King Of Pop
comes back from vacay and shows us how to tribute, motherfu*kers!
As for you, B.E.T., I hope you’re happy, you should be. You got those big numbers your “tribute’ was assured of getting. Hope that was all worth it. Enjoy it.
Rembember this feeling, because you’re dead to me. I’m done with youse. That s*it, on Sunday night, was a dealbreaker, b*tch. Take your lame excuses, your depressing shows, your BLACKBUSTER MOVIES and, seriously, you and Viacom can take your “oh look, there are black people over the age of 35 who we can milk for more easy money” new network for the old Negroes and moonwalk it off a cliff.
You’ve played this fool for the last time.
T. Troy Stewart
Big Ty
Before you completely throw BET to the dogs, you do have to remember that BET is a product of VIACOM. Most of the music/entertainment stations associated with VIACOM (Including MTV) have the same format nowadays, mindless reality shows based on the lives of celebrities and ordinary people alike. MTV is famous for its badly scripted reality dating shows, stupid movies, a show that focuses on how athletes decorate their houses, played out real world-road rules challenges, Spring Break shows, and ‘documentaries’ featuring silly girls trying to decide whether or not they want breast implants. Why get mad at BET if MTV, VH1, E Entertainment and several other ENTERTAINMENT channels produce the same type of shows. It’s an ENTERTAINMENT channel. What do you expect? As far as the Michael Jackson tribute, you have to take into account that Michael died just 3 days before the show was going to air. A lot of the more seasoned and talented musicians who knew him and could have given him more justice were probably unavailable or emotionally not ready to pay tribute at such a time. The awards was not originally planned to be a tribute to Michael, so I can’t get mad at it for not being the polished tribute that we would have liked it to be. It would not be fair to compare any other tribute given to Michael to the BET Awards tribute, because they would have the advantage of time and preparation to produce the caliber of show you were seeking. It takes more than 3 days to do that. The fact that BET would completely change the entire premise of a show that has been planned months ahead in 3 days to focus on Mike speaks a lot about how much BET truly loved and respected him. They are still one of the few channels still featuring tributes and specials on him on a daily basis. I admit, BET should produce more quality programming to create a balance, however, I think you are being harsh and unfair of your treatment of BET in relation to other entertainment channels.
I don’t care who they’re owned by. They get no pass for that mess. I’ve already stated why I felt that the whole event was a disaster and had they not got greedy at the thought of the extra viewership they would knowingly receive from saying that they would be the first to broadcast a tribute instead of doing it at a later date when they had more than THREE days to prep for it, they wouldn’t received any ire from anyone.
BET, Viacom, whomever, brought this all upon themselves.