Has BET fallen off... Or are we just gettin OLD?!

Jrome:

To answer my own question... NAAAAAHHHHH

I know i aint that old... but then again.......... well lets see whats changed?

Still play music videos? yea, only not the 6-16hrs it used to be.... still got up to date news? yea, only when its breaking news or sumbody just died.... still got relevant music playing? yea,........ wait.... nah, fuck dat, when music can be "too intelligent"(shouts out to Little Brother) for the audience you have failed at LIFE... are the hosts entertaining? ok i gotta say AJ wasnt the "coolest" host but 106th n park NOW?! on that "Shawt Bus Shawty" swag(<---i hate that word but... its relevant right now).

To take one from the late MJ "do you remember the time..." when you fell in love with all BET had to offer... even the news show if you didnt watch it... BET was the MOST relevant black network on TV hands down... if there was something going on and you didnt know how you felt, if you could read between the lissssssssssssssp of Tavis Smiley you were GOOD. If there was a hot new up and coming artist rock with Tigga (my niiiiiggaaaaa) in the Basement. wanna see a fine n natural chick check out FREE on 106th..... o yea forgot her sidekick AJ....... but on to bigger and better names. I can remeber when i got my 1st taste of Kast via the Basement, i was on em before then but to see them ackin a fool was great... i remember when Roc-A-Fella came through to announce Beanie being part of the crew and that began a HUGE NY movement... or how bout when the RUFF RYYYYYYDAAAAAZ came thru you just knew X was gonna kill tha mic... you got introduced to new videos as well as old all in the same 1-2hr and it was perfect... remember Cita the digital VJ... nigga WHAT!?! cant tell me you aint love watchin that BOOTLEG animation intro the hottest of the week, month, year, and past... the tributes that station put on after the deaths of Pac, Biggie, Left Eye, Aaliyah and more... o and i cant forget............... the one show that got dudes in trouble and introduced some to the true fakeness of the female body......... UNCUT VIDEOS!!! that was the one thing you would watch and hear music u aint not never(yea i said it) heard in LIFE... and you got to see a booty shake like never before... you know PRE-SKRIP CLUB age lol.....

With all that said the thing i remember most is the balance... got to hear sum crunk wit lil john and the cash money movement, yet got to hear some street intelligence with mos def and common, intro'd me to the crack game viz Jay-Z, and kept me Gangsta and throwin up WEEESTSIIIIIIIIIIIDE with Ice Cube, Mack 10 and WC, kept it funky with krazy joints from the Dungeon Family(OutKast, Goodie MoB, and many more) and kept it soulful with Dru Hill, Boys II Men, Jodice, and SOOOOOOO many more, gave the women a voice with Queen La, Lil Kim, Foxy B, Charlie Baltimore and the "youn know nann" trina... i just miss the Good about ya but i guess every dog has its day.... unfortunately its Waka Flocka Lame..... sigh..... i jus want the one who made me fall in love wit music


GB:

Call me an oldhead if you want, I'll take that. But BET has fallen off AND we're getting old. I remember being about 8 and my cousin asking me if I had seen this new station that was catered to just "us" and apparently had just been added to Charter's lineup. lol...It was channel 84 I think at the time. I turned to it immediately and saw (I think it was ) "Slam" by Onyx.



"B-B-B-BUT WAIT IT GETS WORSE!!!!!" ......Still gets me hype til this day lol

I remember days when I could spend my whole day watching BET and actually still feel good (if not better) about myself at the end of it all. There was something for everybody. Let's run through the lineup from back when it was more of a COMPLETE network:

• Video Soul - Played all the slow jams and R&B joints. With THE man as the host.....Donnie Simpson. Enough said.

• Caribbean Rhythms - straight reggae music. Hosted by one of my first crushes....the beautiful Rachel. 
• Teen Summit - I loved this show because it dealt mainly with issues that young black kids were facing which I could relate to being well........young and black.
• Rap City - My favorite show on the network. Everyday I was glued to the tv from 4:30-6:00. It's not even important to mention a host because honestly all of them were good. What I liked about Rap City was the balance it had. You could tell that the show was truly about hip hop and not about the latest trend or fad. They gave EVERYBODY shine.
• BET News.....most people turned their tv's off by the time this came on but I appreciated that they cared enough to not only entertain the viewers but also inform them. Plus Ed Gordon is the man.
• BET Jazz - Probably my 2nd favorite show on the network. It came on after BET News and I would stay up just for it....sometimes just so I could fall asleep to it. I loved jazz even before I loved hip hop so I was a huge fan of the show

These days, BET has reduced itself to Black Embarrassment TV.....it's terrible. They don't even show music anymore besides 106 and 70% of the time that is a joke. No shows to uplift and enlighten the people other than the specials that they have every now and then....for special occasions. I think the last program I actually looked forward to seeing on BET was "Hip Hop Vs. America". The network as a whole is dead to me ever since they sold out to keep up with the Jones'. I remember walking into my sister's room everyday and seeing this poster on her closet door and feeling proud to have a network that catered to me:

Those days are long gone though I suppose. Now the network is saturated with "reality" shows with no purpose, bad movies, and lame attempts to recapture the rapport that they once had. Everything runs its course and nothing lasts forever, but I'm glad I was able to experience the network in it's heyday.

R.I.P. BET

(1980 - 2000something)