• » Name: Anthony Springer, Jr
• » Age: 24
• » Location: Sigma Land/The City of Sin
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Mr. Springer's Neighborhood

The Revolution Continues

I've got a couple of blogs ready to go, but in between cussing out your favorite DX blogger, take a moment to let the folks over at BET/Viacom know  what you think of their programming:

BET@viacom.com
nonmanagementdirectors@viacom.com
press@viacom.com
Schwartz@viacom.com
support@bet.com

And an extra special shout out to Latrice Janine, who was one of very few to speak out against BET's newest abomination, Hot Ghetto Mess.
While you're giving the suits at BET a piece of your mind, sign her petition too...

17 Comments             

BET is MTV's Bastard Child

As much as I rail against Black Exploitation Television, my remote occasionally pauses on the network (if for nothing else, to find something to talk about).

Such was the occasion yesterday when I stopped to watch what turned out to be three painful minutes of one of BET's new shows "Baldwin Hills."

180 seconds was about all I could take. The characters are dull and this seems like bad acting moreso than cameras following the lives of some upper middle class Negros.

Sadly, Baldwin Hills is yet another reflection of what BET has become.

Bob Johnson's sale of the company to Viacom (also home to VH1 and MTV, how's that for a music monopoly?) was supposed to bring BET to new heights. Being backed  by an industry powerhouse should've given BET more options in regards to programming, because, like it or not, money, or the lack of can effect quality.

Alas, this is definitely not the case. Most of BET's original programming are cheap knock offs of current MTV hits.
College Hill= Black Real World
Baldwin Hills= Black Laguna Beach
SOB= Boiling Points

While I think that many of MTV's shows play up the same negative and damaging stereotypes about Blacks that BET does (Hollyhood anyone?), the production value on MTV is leaps and bounds better than what we see on BET. The most glaring example of this have been the numerous techical mishaps that plague the BET Awards EVERY year.

What makes BET's fall even worse is that even when playing up to the LOWEST common denominator of Black Entertainment, they fail to even do that with a quality show, production wise.

Clearly, they are not a priority for Viacom.

Or we, the consumer do not have high standards for what we watch... even when we're taking in nonsense.

35 Comments             

Cowards in High Places

So Bun B's blog got me thinking. Fam is absolutely right, but the people demanding better need to go a step further  than just harassing your favorite rapper. Demanding that an emcee do better is only going to invoke the cry of the super played "I'm just writing about what I see" or the extra bitchy "I'm doin what I gotta do to get a deal" (word to the masses: an artist does what he/she feels, not what they think will generate a quick buck, too many business men, not enough artists in the game to day).

The next time you feel the need to verbally smack your favorite rapper... repeatedly for making shitty music[1], take it a step further and do the following:

BET is a virtual pinata for us all (yours truly included). How many of you all have written to BET's head, Debra Lee(who should, without a doubt be ashamed of herself for allowing the station to portray Black women as they do)? Or Stephen Hill, who's in charge of music programming? While the 50's and *insert other whack rapper here* also deserve some criticism, we also need to be putting a foot in the ass (not literally, who wants to go to jail?) of the gate keepers, who are oftentimes GROWN people with young children of their own (I wonder if they let their kids consume the toxic programming they give to ours... hmmm).

You don't like what's on your local radio station, CALL the program or music director. If they don't listen, GO to the radio station and if they still don't listen, assemble a group of your friends and protest outside the station (be sure to do this on public property, or you may find yourself in cuffs). If you send out a press release before hand, the media will come.

Write or call the advertisers that support BET or that advertise on the radio station that plays all the bullshit and tell them you won't be supporting their products (put together a petition and have as many people you know sign it... even if they don't listen to said station).

It's time to hold the gatekeepers responsible for what Hip Hop has become.

[1] shitty rappers still make for good blogs and editorials, but they don't share ALL of the blame

20 Comments             

What Killed Hip Hop...

1.THE MUSIC VIDEO:

 I remember a time when I had no cable and the only outlet to get music was through the RADIO (some of you all are too young to remember such a time, the older readers know exactly what I'm talking about). Of course, there was The Box, and if you were lucky enough to have cable, BET had decent programming and unless you fucked with rock, MTV wasn't fucking with you outside of Yo! MTV Raps. Back when radio ruled, one could go weeks or even months without seeing the face(es) of the artist(s) on the other end of your speakers. This meant that a song actually had to be GOOD to be liked. Imagine the time that an artist had to stand only on the merits of his/her music to make it big. It didn't matter how you looked, a hit song was a hit song, which leads me to...

2. DUMB ASS HIP HOP DANCES

I said this back in Callin Out Names: Stop All the Got Damn Dancing and I'll say it again here: If your break out song has an accompanying dance move, (in the words of Craig Mack) you won't be around next year! Let history serve as our best reminder, The Tootsie Roll, The Dip, The Step Daddy, The Cha Cha Slide and so on and so on (and with the exception of the first, how many of these songs do you still here at the club?). Maybe it's a curse, maybe it's not... either way, MC 2stepSnapyafangasWalkitoutLeanwitit didn't pay attention. Dropping a dance record firmly cements you in people's minds as a gimmick, and we all know that gimmicks don't last. At one point, The Running Man and the Cabbage Patch were the hotness, NOBODY does them now unless they're reminiscing on the old school.

3. THE RAP GAME=THE DRUG GAME

The infiltration of the drug game lifestyle on rap is probably the biggest culprit. A SMART hustler gets in and gets out. Music is not a business, it's an art. Getting in and getting out means you've taken from, rather than giving to the game. However, what most of you average fans don't know is that the game will rape you before you rape the game. The emcees who claim to be getting in and getting out, are usually escorted out by the record labels and driven back to regional success.

4. DISPOSABLE MUSIC
   
There's a reason that artists like Cube, Rakim, Tribe, De La etc. still have songs that people know to this day. The game is plagued by what I call disposable music (see #2). Disposable music is that flavor of the month music, that you won't remember in another 6. Often times these  artists have one hit single, or an album full of singles instead of an album that's going to stand the test of time. Once again, Walk it Out (DJ UNK), decent song, but when the dance fades, his career is likely to go with it. Songs like Ain't No Fun... those stand the test of time (that is, unless Hip Hop gets a conscious and women start respecting themselves)

5. FREESTYLE FRIDAY

There is no single entity responsible for the decline of Black culture like BET (with the exception of shitty parenting and a lack of supervision). Somehow, BET was able to bastardize 106th and Park's Freestyle Friday. Have y'all watched that shit lately? I've seen rappers spit straight writtens (and shitty ones at that), the ones that do manage to freestyle fail to ride the beat and struggle to rhyme and the pre-teen crowd eats it up like it was Jigga on stage. My God, somebody bring the Fight Klub cats down there.

48 Comments             

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