Black Star Power???

Yes…I watched it too.

Watched what you ask?? The BET 25 Strong show on BET, sponsored by BET full of accollades for Bob Johnson and BET featuring tributes to most of the BET shows in some miniscule fashion…though Uncut was mysteriously missing from the shows that were discussed. Or maybe I missed it. I fell asleep during the Gospel segment as not to disturb the balance of normalcy that usually occurs on BET during regular viewings of gospel programming. You know, NOBODY watches BET on Sunday during the Gospel shows/spankings/cleansings anyway, so why should I?

Actually the damn show was just too long for me but who’s counting?!

I know, this type of thing usually goes against my very being but it was impossible for me not to watch when I was promised a performance by New Edition AND Bobby Brown. I mean, it’s New Edition. How can you just not watch a New Edition performance? In my life there are certain things I just look forward to…performances by New Edition, being age 67 ( I originally had 85 here but I realized that despite genetic mixings, I’m still a black man so reaching 85 seems outside of the realm of my possibility…hell I think I deserve a parade for making it to 26, you know with all the crime, drugs, and education out there killing off young black men at astronomical rates…honestly, I don’t even know what I’m talking about anymore) so I can pretend to be a senile dirty old man and be excused because I’m an old fogey, and Texas sized Frozen Margarita’s from Dallas BBQ in New York.

With that said, I owe BET an apology. Now don’t misunderstand what I’m about to say, I’m not extending an olive branch to Big Bubba Bob Johnson or the most ignant network on television, I’m just able to recognize times when I’m unable to objectively and fairly (similar to Fox News or peoples reaction to Ashanti ) participate or observe something. Therefore, on this day, I apologize to BET for the fact that I can’t watch anything on that station without expecting it to be the most bootleg, horribly presented, asstastic melage of dumbfuckery. That is just not fair of me. Even on the BET Awards, which was much better than I expected it to be, I spent the whole show waiting for the other shoe to drop. Hell, I’m STILL waiting for the rumors to surface that MTV Networks put the whole show together with a guy named Ylsi and one of the Teletubbies.

Either way, a muhfucka apologize.

On a more random note, how funny would it be to see this t-shirt: BET doesn’t care about black people? Really…

Seeing this show was somewhat eye opening for me, and that’s not in a good way either. This special show put on blast the way that BET has devolved over its history. In it’s infancy, the 1980-1985 years, they were building and attempting to get themsevles off of the ground so of course it wasn’t so easy to become this network where Black issues and needs were totally met. But then again, they had Video Soul, and Donnie Simpson is still one of the coolest cats out there, though his radio show on WPGC in Washington, DC, is about the second most boring morning show in America, right after The Broccoli and Cauliflower Show…and I made that one up.

Hmm…isn’t that cruel and unusal punishment…to put both broccoli AND cauliflower on a kids plate? I stand by this and will until the day I die. Vegetables should not be white. Is it discrimination? Damn straight, but this is just another way that imperialism and colonialism rears its ugly head. Standard veggies are green, yellow, or orange…white isn’t even a color that matches those well. When I have children, if they say they don’t want cauliflower and they make mention that it’s because it’s white, I’m taking them to Disney land AND doing their homework for a year.

Down with Cauliflower!

Back to the show…at one point, BET really hit a stride with postive, necessary, and thought provoking programming. It seems that between having Lead Story with Ed Gordon, Teen Summit, anything Tavis Smiley was on, and various other notable educational programming, BET was really a place where black folks could go to essentially find out how the black community was doing….and even better, find varying opinions on where we needed to go. And I’m not even including the actual REGULAR news programs that actually broadcasted news, on time. Which spawned this convo amongst me and one of my friends.

Panama: Dude, they were even late on September 11th!!

The Great: Hell yeah, they were just straight showing videos all day long like nothing was going on.

Panama: Then showing up on September 12th Nighlly News talkin’ bout, y’all niggas hear about what happened yesterday?? Oh you did…cool…cue up some more videos!!

It even dawned on me why this years Millions More Movement wasn’t 1/10th of the success of the original Million Man March…it lacked the vehicle to truly get the message out that this was necessary and bring on the leaders to speak to the multitudes of people and create the sense of urgency that exited in 1995. In 1995, BET was that vehicle and it reflected the times and allowed different leaders and voices on to speak. Currently, there isn’t even a show on BET that would fit that format. Further evidenced by the fact that in attempts to bring on somebody of (questionable) educational merit…

…they put Michael Eric Dyson on Rap City.

I guess 106&Park was packed that day.

It also warrants mentioning somewhere that I’m with Jay-Z on this one, Rachel was like the number one BET crush from back in the day.

So yes, I am blaming BET for dropping the ball on the Millions More Movement. Actually, they didn’t drop the ball, I don’t think they cared.

It really is a shame how far BET has fallen. Being apart of this show should have woken up the numerous executives and writers and producers and made them realize, “Damn, we really used to be the vehicle for the black community and for disseminating positive information…now the only shit people think of when they think of BET is UnCut. Maybe we should do something about that!” I quit watching BET a while ago because truthfully, there wasn’t anything I could get on BET that I couldn’t get from MTV or vh1 or talking to 4 year olds. But like I’ve said before, I still kind of think BET can turn it around if they just take a look at what they used to be and compare it to what they are now. Big business can be a bitch I suppose because if I’m not mistaken, they dropped Ed Gordon’s show because it costed too much to produce…which is a shame because the set was horrible.

Which brings me to why I watched the show, New Edition…and I won’t say shit about Earth, Wind, and Fire…mostly because, there just isn’t any need. New Edition on the other hand…well that was the saddest and happiest shit ever. Watching them get up there and dance like in the good ole days was great. Shit just made me happy. Until…

…they started singing. Good got damn. Them niggas were straaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaining something awful. Even Johnny Gill, the one nigga that could REALLY sing sounded like pure d shit. And yes, I know Ricky could sing too…but Johnny was one of them church boy sangers. Not last night…God was upset. I appreciated seeing them though but nobody could honestly say they sounded good, they just lookeded good. Except for Bobby Brown who could never really sing in the first place….so he sounded just fine. However, I was just happy to see them all up there together, so long live New Edition.

What can I say about R. Kelly?? Except that I’m amazed the pass he’s received and how much folks love him…but I’ll be damned if he doesn’t put on a good show. Shit had me singing along too.

I’m a sheep. Baaaah.

What didn’t amaze me was George Clinton looking like a homeless Santat Claus reject who just received some clean clothes. I will admit, Bob Johnson and BET’s earlier formats did a lot for black entertainment and the community and it was good to see folks get up there and thank him for that, even Usher’s dumb talking about how folks saw his money, then his respect…then saw his money and respect…lots of people did. Talk about fuckin’ up…I almost think he and Kanye need to do an album together entitled, “We Bigger Than You…Enjoy Us While We Here…Cuz One Day We’ll Be Gone…Then What Niggas?? You Love Us…Yes You Do…Worship Us…”

Or something slighly shorter.

Overall, it was an alright show up until I fell asleep. Nothing about the show offended me except seeing the past and how far we’ve gotten away from it.

And oh yeah, them niggas taking credit for In Living Color somehow…that I just didn’t get.

All in all, BET had a good run, up until about 2000, but I still think it can turn it around, if they just remember…

…the way we were.

Honestly, was that not the corniest ending closing statement ever??

****

Make sure you continue voting in the October Madness Tournament, at the Pam Grier, Tamara Dobson, Jayne Kennedy, and Vanity brackets.

Vote or die, niggas…vote or die!