Commentary
I love Hip-hop. I eat, sleep, and breathe it. But I am logical enough to know that there’s something wrong with it.
It’s not the degradation of women.
It isn’t the promotion of guns and violence.
It also isn’t the amount of profanity in the lyrics.
These are some negatives that critics use to bash Hip-Hop when Hip-Hop is just as well rounded as any other genre of music.
What’s wrong with Hip-Hop is Black Entertainment Television more commonly known as BET. BET promotes the hell out of the smallest part of Hip-Hop, which is swagger, or “swag” for short. Hip-Hop isn’t all about swag, it’s about the music, it’s about the culture, it’s about the nostalgia and BET could care less about those things.
I have been watching BET for what seems like forever, and since about 2003, if not earlier, I’ve noticed the quality of it go down dramatically. I can honestly say that BET has run its course.
Now you may say it’s the only television network that represents African-American people. This is somewhat true. They do have African-American people on BET but that’s where it pretty much ends.
I remember when they use to have the show, Teen Summit, which if I remember correctly, was fairly informative and a quality show. I loved Rap City: The Bassment and I watched it about every day when it would come on at 4 p.m. I had high hopes for a Big Tigger album to see the light of day. Then there was 106 & Park with A.J. and Free. A.J. had dredlocks and always tried to flirt with Free and Free was, as Kool & the Gang would say, a “brickhouse.” On the occasions where I would be up at 3 a.m. I would watch BET Uncut which was for “mature audiences” – Mama, if you’re reading I just couldn’t help myself – and see every video with any hint of T and A, including the classic Nelly video “Tip Drill.”
That was how it was in the good ole days. But I finally saw the light when I came upon a comic strip called “The Boondocks” that exposed to the truth of BET. If you look at the programming of BET now you’ll see a TV network that recycles shows and makes “Black version” of shows on other networks (See: Baldwin Hills).
BET reminds me of the lame dude with money who tried his best to fit in with the cool kids at school and they would tolerate him because he tried hard and he provided them with amusement.
So that’s is why Hip-Hop isn’t whole. The only network that represents it is a lame dude who has money and lacks something it promotes so heavily.
Swag.