Brainwashed Entertainment Television.

I don't really have a problem with television networks at all. The republicans have taken over the media spotlight so virtually every newscast is biased to the views of a conservative audience. It irks me, but, I don't really sweat it because my TV isn't even on too often.

For a while, I was hatin' hard on MTV for their lack of all around good programming. Nevermind my Real World and Room Raiders addiction, they just seem to play the same garbage music that has the American youth fitting stereotypes based on what they think is 'cool.'

Man, I was so wrong. My discontent was focused at the wrong network. After reading up on BET's banning of the Little Brother "Loving It" vid, De La Soul's "Shopping Bag" vid, and the last 3 vids released by The Beatnuts, I'm pretty much through.

The jist of it is this; BET is trying to keep up their ratings by their own hypocrisy. During the day, you'll find an overflow of music videos. You'll definitely get your fix on A. Keys, Kelly Price, Jill Scott and other neo-soul artists, and BET isn't shy about reppin' the past but the problem is their twist on hiphop.

Rap City is f**king garbage. Before this new wack-ass, instigating host, before Big Tigga's "everybody's madd tight" friendly attitude, rap city was the new school "Yo! MTV Raps." Not only did you get a fill of what was relevant to a mainstream audience, but the needs of the underground were satisfied as well.

Now this isn't one of my "f**k mainstream music" rants, because I like mainstream music. I'm a Kanye West fan, remember? My issue with BET is their promotion of bad music advocating everything the late-night televangelists preach against. As a network, they uphold a common mission and goal to uplift the black community and enlighten, not only the community, but the world on black music, culture and history.

At 6am, Creflo "Imma Steal Yo" Dollar preached a damn good sermon about the resurgence of materialism, mysogyny and blatant violence in hiphop. C. Dolores Tucker isn't an activist that I'm fond of, but I felt what she was saying when she talked about some of these rappers inadvertently destroying the minds of the black youth. Well, its a new day, and BET is mainstream.

Before, I could turn on BET and catch a music video that made me laugh at some decent humor, made me smile at a good moral or made me support the artist based on a damn good song (like I would if I saw Little Brother's video on rotation). Now, all I see is the same thing. Studio gangstas talking about what they have (or what their advance allows them to have as long as they have a hot single and they don't breach their contract agreements), what they've done (studio gangstas imply that they're only thugs on the track and that the majority of these rappers commit nothing more than petty crimes) or hoes (love and sex) songs that degrade women.

What's really starting to bother me is that we, as a youth, not just a black youth, but as American youths (in general), don't take personal responsibility on the matter and say, "This is some bullshit," and turn it off, or stop the downloads. Its sad that there's a 10 billion dollar/year business being fueled by the garbage of false representation. I can guarantee that if I asked 10 random people on my friends page (male or female; city or suburb) what the difference between hiphop and rap is and they wouldn't know.

Delving deeper into the matter, I know my tastes may differ from the tastes of someone else's. But anytime the bass on the Mike Jones album can cloud your judgement on him being trash, then there's a huge problem. He's not garbage because of his lack of talent or chronic narcissism, he's garbage because he's a studio gangsta contributing to the problem. Since when was beating your girl and acting like a damn fool an attractive quality in a man? Shit, I must have it all wrong with chivalry and respect.

This begins to add to this social issue of acting a certain color. Yes, there are certain cultural differences that you must embrace in order to take pride in your own heritage. But when someone black tells me, "You might as well dress like us (pseudo-thugs) 'cause to err'body else, you still a nuttin' but a nigga," then I know a new day of "in the closet" racism is dawning. This isn't the racism of the past where white people dominated an entire country with fear and intimidation, but this racism is self induced.

Acting/dressing like a thug isn't cool. Reppin' a hood that you aren't from will get you killed dealing with the wrong/right people. Trying to imitate the theatrics of these <i>actors</i> in music videos will do nothing but make you look like an idiot. Before this becomes overkill to another degree, I'll wrap it up with a quick line from Murs.. "My culture's not a trend/being black is not in/ but for you its just a trend you're gonna have to transcend."

Hip-hop music isn't something that you should be quick to turn off if your parents get in the car with you. It shouldn't be something to embarrass you if your (insert race here) friends hear you listening to something other than the genre your race is expected to listen to. If thats where we are as a musical culture, we have a lot of progress to make. Turn down the noise, turn up the music.

I hope not, but if it does, I'll regulate it.

Ok first off, major props for mentioning how shitty Rap City is now. Granted that the new host was from Tampa and sold his old car to my best friend's uncle.....but damn its not the same. I rather watch old school Rap City reruns than that crap they showing now.

Another kudos for mentioning Yo! Mtv Raps.

All of the points that were mentioned here I agree, I cant put stuff into words to describe the state of current mainstream "hip hop [ummm...no]" music and BET" but you did it perfectly for me.

..........maybe they should just change their name to Entertainment Television.


Now to email this to my best friend.

My favorite music channel is FuseTV, because they play everything at a balanced angle.

Yeah, I agree... fuse rocks!!! I would much rather watch fuse than bet anyday.... i am not a big bet fan!

ps... brandon... nice sigg!!!

Brandon, you should just give up TV. With the exception of Degrassi: The Next Generation, I haven't watched TV since ninth grade.

Now, if I could drastically reduce my use of the Internet, I'd be home-free. Media immersion? People should immerse themselves in books, I say!

TV is evil. Kill your TV.

^
man, that post was great..especially the last paragraph.
lol and i agree with Micheal, "people should immerse themselves in books."
:)
But awesome, awesome post.
I haven't turned on BET for 3 years. seriously.

I call it Black Exploition Television. For those that aren't up to date, BET banned Little Brother's "Lovin` It", because they deemed it to be "too intelligent". This is the same channel that has BET Uncut at 3-5 AM, and then BET Gospel and Inspiration right after it.

Everything they do is a rip-off of another television program on another channel. Let's play a matching game. Match these BET shows with a show from another channel that they copied off of.



Another thing that bothered me - When MTV and VH1 were doing Live 8 Concert to raise awareness for Africa, BET was showing the 50 Top Southern Videos. When MTV and VH1 were doing concerts for Katrina Relief, BET showed "Blackbuster Movies" - a collection of mediocre movies starring second rate actors.

SMH.

I usually watch WET.

No actually, I don't even watch TV. I immerse in books.

*claps*


Good to you posting Steven I wanna play the match game...umm lets see


College Hill - Real World
106 n Park - TRL
The Ultimate Hustler - The Apprentice ??
How I'm Livin - MTV Cribs
Access Granted - Making the viedo
Fatty Koo - Making the Band ??
Top 5 Countdown - Direct Effect ??

Three of those I dont know about because I dont watch enough BET...that was fun

But that Nelly - TipDrill was a classic video on BET Uncut.

Anywho, the only original show on BET is probably Comic view, but I agree Hip Hop is spiraling out of control which explains why I don't listen to it as much as I use to , and also explains why I have transcended over into Rap when its mixed with R&B, like Pretty Ricky. I joke I joke I kid I kid

Seriously though, I think there should be some balance or some equilibrium of certain type of music displayed to the youth, as Eddy said Fuse does, but apparently thats not going to happen because all BET is concerned with is ratings. Its just how the world works, kind of makes me sad that there are a lot of intelligent hip hop artist being overshadowed by the majority of the mainstream artist with banal lyrics.

Edit//
I loved that De la Soul - shopping bags song, and all of a sudden days past and they stop showing it. =[

I actually disagree with some of what you wrote. I dont really watch much of any channel anymore, but I did grow up on BET, and I do not see any reason for me not to watch it. I appreciate all types of music, and love them all the same. What I dont understand, is what is so wrong with "studio gangsters"? I mean they're making their money the same way any other artist would. You say it's bad music, but to the millions of people who support them it's good music. Everyone's entitled to their own opinion right? So to say they are promoting bad music. I don't really understand. To be honest though with some of their un-cut videos I sometimes wonder, what were they thinking? With those videos aring so early in the morning they would be better off playing underground bay area artists. And about them not airing Little Brother and De La Soul's videos, the only reason I can think of why they wont let them run, is because maybe their ratings will go down. (I know that may sound inchoherent, but it could be true). I like soul artists like Dwele, Amel Larrieux, Conya Doss, Lizz Fields, Rhianne Benson, etc. Artists that never get any acknowledgement on BET, but the fact is people arent ready to accept that kind of music yet. Please dont hate me for disagreeing.

Disagreement is a good thing. I didn't expect everyone to see it my way, I'm just pointing out what I see.

But as a female, do you not have a problem with hearing, "Finger f**k your P**sy..." to open a song? Or does, "suck a nigga d**k," seem like a tasteful thing to say. Granted music is going to be music and it will be risque, but there's a difference between saying, "Wait til you see my d**k," and, "We're playing Lovers Rock I had the folded fingers on her waist."

And when it comes to the Studio Gangstas debate, the problem lies here...
Do you have a younger brother? If you don't, think of a younger cousin or another lil' knucklehead that you know from some place or another. The kid is impressionable and finds ways around his parent's restrictions. He catches a 50 Cent video at the age of 12 and buys into the image and portrayal of being a thug. ONce at 16, he's running with the wrong crowd because he's so immersed in the idea of toting gats and being tough. All it takes is running with the wrong people to end up in a bodybag. I've buried family before because of this, I know firsthand.

Moral decency should never be put on the backburner. Anytime a Ying Yang Twinz video is on constant rotation over Littler Brother, there's a problem. Have you ever thought about the conditioning factor? At first, you'll catch a wack video and you're quick to turn it off, but when its shoved down your throat day in and day out on every countdown, you start to tolerate it. Of course people won't recognize good music, because they never hear it and most of it isn't exposed because the ratings of BET/MTV are based on what the target demographic demands... but the demand changes from day to day due to artist exposure. If an "On My Block," or some other documentary was done on the Beatnuts like the one MTV did for Mike Jones, kids would want to bboy again.

Its that serious. Just look at the bigger picture, thats all I'm saying.

Yeah of course I am a female. So of course I want to be respected. But you were making it seem like all BET was about is the "Wait" song by Ying Yang Twins or "Play" by David Banner. Yeah it may seem disrespectful to most adults, but havent you realized that is what our generation wants to hear. I mean seriously I hear just as many females at school or whatever singing along to those songs, as guys. Those songs, though very explicit were top of the charts this summer. I dont think BET was forcing it on anyone. MTV plays those videos too, and dont forget radio stations. People listen to what they want. Of course media plays a big role, but the overall desicion is up to you. Now I heard that Little Brother song, and to me it wasn't all that (IMO of course). And I think the majority of BET's viewers feel that way too. There's a song called "Propaganda" by Dead Prez that kind or reminds me of what you're saying.

Yes in fact I do have a younger brother, and I do admit that music does have an affect on him and his peers. But society as a whole is always throwing things at young viewers/consumers or whatever. It's all in marketing and advertising. So it is not just BET. The only thing that I think BET does, is expose young kids to things that they arent ready to see yet. Like with their Un-Cut show. But thats something their parents should control.

Not sure if I answered your questions precisely, but oh well. Gosh I wasnt trying to turn this into a debate. Oops.

Degrassi FTW!

You're right. BET wasn't forcing those songs on anybody, proving his point, in a sense. It just goes to show you how dumb and ignorant the youth of America is.

I'm a master debator.

(ok, that was lame, but I love innuendos)

Just as parents need to take personal responsibility for the shit their kids are exposed to, we need to do the same. Thats my point.

Jin is one BET....

I don't know I felt like saying that..

For some odd reason, battle rappers don't do well as recording artists unless they have a gimmick.

Jin, Canibus and Jae Millz are all irrelevant nowadays. But artists like Eminem and Cassidy (before he went to jail) achieved success. Em is white. And Cass was attractive. There are your gimmicks.

Back to the matter at hand...

I'm not against every minute of programming on BET. Thats not the case at all, I'm just not feeling the hypocrisy and portrayal of young black males in urban settings.

it also contributes in black stereotyping alot. who says what they play is
"Black entertainment". the only music BET plays is either rap/hip hop, r&b, and even gospel/soul at times. as if thats all black people like and will listen too. then you got our african american youth thinking, if thats not what you watch or listen too, your not "black" it does make me laugh when they have asses shakin' on saturday and T.D. jakes on Sunday. BET sucks, and also is boring as hell in my opinion.

wow. i read 1/2 of it... lots o ranting, but i agree.

rap city is crap. no offence to others who like it...

Any time you have to present something in a stoic manner to prove a point without sounding like an idiot (and to avoid an elongated debate), its going to be a rant. Kind of a pain in the ass, though