What The Hell is Wrong with BET!!

Whut it Dew Hip-Hop fans!?! Your favorite black sheep political misfit(Huey Freeman holla back!) is back and I'm here to give you a piece of my mind again. I know I had more album reviews coming for you good people, but today is all about getting something off my mind that has been on it for a few years now.

Okay know that this is a blog dedicated to Hip-Hop, I know most of the people that read this have watched BET at some point in their lives. Being as much as a Hip-Hop fan as I am I only watched BET for one reason....Rap City. Now I was not big into music when the show first started, but I came along when the Rap City: Tha Basement era started and I was a big fan of the show. I fell in love with the booth, where visiting rappers/MCs would freestyle over some of the best beats. To top it off Big Tigga(the host during this era)would get in the booth with them and freestyle his butt off! The show had such a great theme, it was filmed in Mama Tigga's basement and was covered in Hip-Hop posters from all eras, there was a space for the DJ, and a bathroom/booth next to the DJ setup. Everything was going great until BET got the bright idea to reformat their most popular show.

This is where the show started going down hill. The show being redone was mostly due to the fact that Tigga was not happy with BET towards the end of the show. So when Tigga left(which I was not to happy about)the network decided to make changes,by this time Bob Johnson, the founder of BET,had already sold the network to Viacom who all so owns MTV and all its sister stations, Nickelodeon and all its sister stations, an d other television networks. Their solution to this was to drop the basement idea and give the show a more modern look and changing the host. The first host they got was Mad Linx. Linx was cool, but he lacked the charisma that Big Tigga had. In my option he seemed kind of scared to host the show he always sounded read. Well, Linx was later moved to a new show(The Road Show) and was replaced with J-Nicks. J is okay, but yet again Tigga one ups the man by a landslide. By this time the show was still two hours strong, but not for long.

BET then got the brilliant idea to cut the show down an hour making it for me 3-4, instead of 3-5. At this point I was pretty ticked. How in the hell are you goin to cut one of your longest running shows, and one of the most popular down to an hour(this was done to make room for the Road Show). Nice job, I don't hit the crib until three in the afternoon during the school year so that means after I get home unload all my stuff, and sit down to watch it I only have thirty minutes worth of watch time, not even that if you count the fifteen minutes worth of damn commercials. Nice!

Now another show that I watch on and off was 106 and Park. I watched that show from the very beginnning when Free(Sexy) and AJ(Predator)were the host. Even though they pretty much played the same videos everyday, I still watched it for the artists interviews and Freestyle Fridays. Everything was all fine and dandy until that fateful day when Free left.

Well Free, one of my main reasons for watching the show, was gone and they tried to cover it up by sticking AJ on there by himself and saying Free was on vacation (eventhough she was done she still came back every once and a while). By this time word got around that BET was not was not doing Free or AJ right and was not paying them. AJ still stuck in there, but Free was done and fought her way out. Then to every fans surprise a big bomb went off.

AJ finally jumped on board with Free and left the show that they had built together. Put into a tight spot BET had to replace them. Julissa(from the Student Center) was put there to replace Free(which I was not to happy about)and they would get celebs to host along side her, Juelz Santana was on there numerous times. Then came that day when they brought Big Tigga back to fill in for AJ. Tigga was back on a two hour format, but not on the show he would like to be on, but I am pretty sure he is doing it for the paycheck. They are no Free and AJ, but BET said they would do.

So in a span of about maybe one and a half maybe two years BET has torn apart two of their best shows and crazy glued them back together. What the hell is wrong with BET!?! Most of the shows on there are all put together the same way and it is boring. The place that I relied on for Hip-Hop and the celebration of black music has lost th e sharp edge it once had and turned in to a plastic sword prop used in school plays. A warning to the younger generation, don't even start watching BET go straight to MTV2 they are more Hip-Hop now. BET is now a shadow of its former self trying to regain glory like a phoenix from the ashes, but they are more like a fish out of water.

This is my ranting and I am sticking to it and I am not going to change my mind. Also R.I.P Tookie Williams and the Terminator is a B****. I'll have a album review for you later. Holla back.