Pisstivity

Last night, I watched the BET Awards. And what I was hoping was going to be a show built around honoring Michael Jackson was filled with nothing but the same madness that BET is known for. I realize that the argument here is that we are talking about BET, and they simply do not know any better than exhibiting coonery and foolishness. I guess it goes to the naivete in my heart that I was hoping that someone over there would be in their right mind and do the right thing by Michael…

Silly me.

I thought that Jamie Foxx was a good host. I like Jamie, but there are times when I think he speaks before he thinks and the things that come out of his mouth at times make me cringe. I can’t think of anyone else that I would have liked to be at the helm of this…”show”. He seemed to be the glue that kept it from completely falling apart, and when the time came for him to be serious, he was.

There are some major things that I take issue with from this awards “show”. First of all, they billed it as a tribute show and it simply was not. Injecting New Edition opening up (good idea; looked last minute, but good idea nonetheless), Ne-Yo singing Lady of My Life (wonderful and simple…beautifully done), and Ciara singing Heal the World (someone please tell this girl not to go on stage and try to sing without some dancers and heavy music to drown her out…she CANNOT hold a tune to save her life) were nice, but not enough. One of my Twitter buddies asked me should the living have put aside the awards for the dead…and I answered quickly and resoundingly yes…in this situation, for this person…yes. Because not ‘nare one of those folks would have been sitting in that audience, making music, being on that stage if it weren’t for Michael Jackson.

But hey…I’m biased.

I hate the state of music today. When you can make a song about “Turning Your Swag On,” that is a testament to the fact that this is not about the music any more. When you parade preteens on stage with you while performing a song about sleeping with every girl in the world, there is something categorically wrong with thinking this is all right and settling for the bullshit BET is peddling to us. I hate the fact that we offer to put these people up on pedestals who don’t commit themselves to the music…isn’t that what Michael Jackson stood for? Most (and I say most, because some of the people in that audience last night are true) of the folks there last night, like Jamie said, couldn’t sell out a bathroom at Carl, Jr’s. And you know why? Because they don’t have the talent to.

They are frauds. And the world continually buys into this bullshit because of the clothes they wear, or because the beat to the song sounds nice in the car…I’m tired. I’m tired of searching through the car radio for something to listen to, and I’m tired of sifting through the can’t-rhyme-worth-a-damn-but-they-look-good hype when brilliant lyricists are constantly looked over. Haven’t we moved past this shit?

It is easy to sit and offer complaints with no solutions…I wish I had solutions, but I’m at a loss. The only thing I can do is continue to support the real musicians, the ones that are committed to the art. The ones that sing, play their drums and keyboards and guitars and other instruments simply because they can’t see their days commencing without doing so. The spirit of the gift they were given travels through their bodies like the blood that flows through their veins…that shit is like air to them. Those are the artists that I will continue to support, those are the artists that will get my money.

BET can kiss my ass for trying to pass off their awards show as a tribute. I will bet money that when the MTV awards show comes up, you will see what a true tribute looks like. And no, I’m not giving them any credit for having to pull this together at the last minute. Fuck them.