The Problem with the BET Awards
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Lil’ Wayne on stage at the 9th Annual BET Awards (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
I write this article at the risk of offending my daughters, who are all in the "We think Lil Wayne and Chris Brown were sent by God" age group. It doesn’t matter if you’ve admitted to beating your girlfriend, or if you use every word other than "woman" to describe females. If you are rich and famous, you’re suddenly sexy, cool and dateable. That’s just the way things work for some teenagers (and some grown folks too).
As I rode in the car for 16 hours listening to the radio with my daughters, I noticed that Lil Wayne seemed to feature in every song. I think I upset the girls when I said, "Yeah, Lil Wayne’s song about wanting to have sex with every girl in the world reminds me of Eazy-E…Oh by the way, he eventually died of AIDS."
Yes, I had just puked on my daughters’ parade, but I had to say it. Kids don’t want to hear that kind of stuff, it disrupts their celebrity buzz. So, the same way my daughters grimaced when I compared Lil Wayne to Eazy-E, some execs at BET might grimace when they read this article. I hope they will take comfort in the fact that I am not into blanket indictments. But that never seems to matter in a dichotomous world, where you are either a critic or a supporter. I’m just a man with a brain and two eyeballs, and I try to use them both.
I’ve done a great deal of work with BET, and I’ve always loved it. The staff is courteous, respectful and professional. Many of their specials have been informative, progressive and provocative. I do not, however, consider the most recent BET Awards to be one of these shows.
I am 46 years old and I have been watching BET since its inception. I watch the awards from year to year and I was particulary struck negatively by the language of the most recent show. I realize that it is a “show”, however, everything has its place. I really don’t want to be too critical but if we are supposed to be honoring an Icon such as Michael Jackson, couldn’t we ensure that the “show” have taste, class and be something that everyone could remember? Basically it all boils down to most people remembering Lil Wayne. All the good things that were done were just weighted down to nothing. Has your staff looked at the awards show and reviewed it to be something that could of had a little more thought to the content? Did anybody realize that the audience aged ranged from young to old. My mother watched the show, I had colleagues that watched the show and I had friends that watched the show and everyone had the same feeling that it was a great show until a certain artist made it classless. BET is better than that!