BET's 'The Mo'Nique Show' Embraces Hip Hop, Young Money Visits with Lil' Wayne

On Dec. 16, 2009, BET's "The Mo'Nique Show" aired with Young Money, the music label owned by Lil' Wayne and run by president Mack Maine. Lil' Wayne is not known for doing interviews often, so to see him live speaking about business, music, fatherhood and Hurricane Katrina was a big deal. But a bigger deal was the fact that he had the opportunity to do this on a talk show.

By now we all know that Oprah has a distaste for rappers, although after over two decades of being on the air, she finally let Ludacris and Jay-Z on her show. The only problem was that she picked on Ludacris a little bit. Skeptics wondered whether Jay-Z made it to the show to prove that Oprah doesn't hate all rappers.

Other late night talk shows and daytime talk shows have had occasional rappers, but they were usually more mainstream rappers-not the rappers who speak to the streets. Although Tyra Banks tried to eliminate this anti-rapper talk show reputation and had 50 Cent and T.I. on her show, it was just plain weird. She rubbed 50 Cent's butt, distributed his cash and asked him to go on a speed date. With T.I., Tyra Banks asked naïve questions that only someone who is not street smart would ask-"What did it feel like to have [Philant Johnson] there?" when he died in T.I.'s arms. "Why not go to the police or is that an ignorant question?" "Are you afraid to go to jail?"

What rapper do you know that would run to the police or admit it openly? What person in the hip hop industry would admit that they went to the police? She meant well, but it was just painful to watch.

George Lopez was slightly better with 50 Cent on "Lopez Tonight," but he immediately tried to bond with the man by saying he was a lot like him because he didn't grow up with a father. That's where the similarities begin and end. Then he made a tasteless joke about how Power by 50 is a cologne that is "strong enough for a man, but the bitches like it too." As much as I love "Lopez Tonight," the latter joke was tasteless.

And then here comes Mo'Nique who just flat out acted like the party-starting auntie at the family BBQ. She openly joked with Young Money's first female rapper that she'd whoop her ass after a comment Nicky Minaj made about being territorial. She poked fun at Young Money rap artist Short Dawg for looking her up and down "like I'm short." Mo'Nique rubbed the side of Lil' Wayne's face to encourage him to speak on fatherhood.

Now although she didn't directly mention any person or company who tends to shy away from hardcore rappers, Mo'Nique did say this at the end of her show:

"You've heard me say before that 'The Mo'Nique Show' is about supporting us. We do it with love and without judgment. We love it when our entertainers come on the show to perform, but what we really enjoy is giving you the chance to hear from the person themselves and get to know who they are so that they're not judged solely by their work or their song lyrics. Now when you think of Lil' Wayne, you'll think of someone who is the C.E.O. of his own company, who gives back to his community and helps bring up other up-and-coming artists along the way."

Now the speech was great, but all I was wondering was whether Young Money would participate in the "wrap your arms around yourselves" part of the show when everybody hugs themselves and Mo'Nique says, "We love you for free, sugahs." But they did it. And afterwards, Mo'Nique walked around and gave a big, warm hug to all 11 Young Money members plus R&B singer Lloyd. And hugs must be contagious because then members of the group started hugging each other.

Lil' Wayne's professionalism and the Young Money crew being so polite onstage went against every single stereotype you hear about rappers. This is why "The Mo'Nique Show" is so important. She's consistently bringing artists to her show who either don't feel comfortable going on talk shows because they won't connect or aren't asked to come on because executives don't think the audience or talk show host could get a successful interview out of them.

And even when other media personalities dog her show, Mo'Nique tackled that on the opening of her show in which the cast of CW's "The Game" dropped by. Mo'Nique stated that no matter how negative a person speaks about her, she "ain't got nothing but love for you." But right after she said it, she pulled a Jay-Z move, which President Barack Obama humorously copied during his presidential campaign too, and brushed her shoulders off.

Some may say Mo'Nique is loud, funny and sometimes a little too casual, but I say her personality is absolutely necessary. Not only does she always look naturally pretty and fashionable, but Mo'Nique fills the wide gap that the youth need in order to connect with talk shows, and she does it with open arms "for free, sugahs."