2009 BET Hip-Hop Awards: Atlanta’s albatross
October 28th, 2009 by Rodney Carmichael in Music newsWhich came first, the BET Hip-Hop Awards or Atlanta’s steady flow of garbage-ass rap music?
The chicken-or-the-egg question occurred to me as I watched last night’s broadcast of the awards show, which should’ve been renamed the Gucci Mane Awards for the number of performances (3?) featuring the East Atlanta-bred MC.
It typified a night in which the show took every possible opportunity to reference Atlanta — which is odd considering the crowd is made up entirely of industry fucks (artists, publicists, label reps, promoters, radio heads, etc.) and almost zero fans.
West Coast don Snoop Dogg’s performance of his new single “Gangsta Luv” wouldn’t have been complete without Atlanta-based R&B songwriter the Dream on stage with him singing the rap-like hook. And R&B singer Mario’s performance of his new hit, “Break Up,” was just an excuse to haul featured artist Gucci Mane out on stage for the umpteenth time.
Soulja Boy’s performance of “Gucci Bandanna,” with collaborators Gucci Mane and Shawty Lo, provided the perfect trifecta of rap’s most loathed MCs — all reppin’ the A to the fullest.
OJ da Juiceman of East Atlanta took the stage during some random performance during the night, which only served as a reminder that he was just booed off the stage at the CMJ Music Marathon in New York last week.
For better or worse, Atlanta runs this rap ish right now like never before — or, actually, like every year before for damn near the past decade. But, does that mean BET should go so far as to sacrifice quality performances just to highlight Atlanta-based artists? When Jay-Z decides to grace your lowly awards show with his presence (which was a first for the BET Hip-Hop Awards this year), why have him perform one of the most lackluster songs (”As Real As It Gets”) from his new album Blueprint 3? Because Atlanta rapper Young Jeezy is featured on the track. Why else?
It’s that kind of short-sighted reasoning that’s stifled the show’s credibility, if it ever had any to begin with. And it may be partly to blame for prolonging Atlanta’s insufferable commercial rap output.
When BET Executive VP of Entertainment and Music Programming Stephen Hill held a press conference to announce that Atlanta would be the home of the network’s first hip-hop awards show back in 2006, it was a surprising but well-deserved honor for the undeniable rap capital. At the time, ambassador of crunk, Lil Jon, had already infected the world with his contagious beats, Young Jeezy was the new trap star on the block, Bankhead acts D4L and Dem Franchize Boyz had the clubs going snap crazy, and T.I.’s reign as the King had just kicked off.
It all seemed like the culmination of the decade-in-the-making foundation collectively laid by Dungeon Family/Organized Noize (OutKast, Goodie Mob, etc.), LaFace Records (L.A. Reid), producer Dallas Austin and Jermaine Dupri’s So So Def record label.
Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin was on-hand that day at the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce in Centennial Olympic Park to welcome BET’s Hill, who’d come with some of the award nominees to make the big announcement.
When Ice Cube stepped to the mic to accept his lifetime achievement award during last night’s airing of the show, he delivered his address directly to the younger generation of artists when he said, “We can’t be slaves to video programmers. We can’t be slaves to radio programmers…. Be a slave to your creativity.”
It was an implicit indictment against Hill and BET, which, under the leadership of CEO Debra Hill, has continued to receive the same kind of black-on-black criticism (recall the banned episode of “The Boondocks”) that started during network founder Bob Johnson’s tenure. But Ice Cube’s words were also an indictment against an industry that has long since gone astray by allowing the tail to wag the dog.
In effect, BET (along with commercial radio) is programming the next generation of artists to continue dumbing down the genre if they expect to get any airplay. And the more the same sort of typical trap-rap tripe is produced as a result, the less room their is for innovation to squeeze through the matrix. (Which is one of the reasons why the free-for-all rap circulating on the Internet sounds foreign compared to the music heard on mainstream outlets like BET, Radio One and Clear Channel radio.)
But maybe it’s too easy to be critical of BET and the younger generation of mainstream rap oozing out of Atlanta. As long as the genre is still giving people something to get in an uproar about, rap must be doing something right. Last night wasn’t as much of a cultural outrage as it was a melange of predictability, though. And if sheer boredom isn’t enough of a motivating factor for BET to switch things up next year, Atlanta could be stuck with this albatross of an awards show for more years than it’s worth.
Highlights of the night:
- Snoop Dogg’s performance of his classic “Gin and Juice”
- Ice Cube’s acceptance speech for his lifetime achievement award
- Freestyle cypher segments, especially the one featuring Eminem
- Goodie Mob’s closing performance of “Cell Therapy
If the producers of VH1’s “Hip-Hop Honors” were watching, Goodie Mob (and the rest of Dungeon Family) are a shoo-in for next year’s show. Maybe it’ll take BET’s sister network to show them how to truly pay homage to Southern hip-hop.
October 28th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
I agree that most of the featured Atlanta rap talent leaves a lot to be desired but I do have a rebuke. Atlanta has few things it can hang it’s hat on. It’s the home of the Cyclorama, Turner, Coke, Clermont Lounge, Civil War battles, and finally and most notably it’s rap stars. My point? Take what you can get because this city has little to offer. Be thankful anyone recognizes this city at all.