MTV vs BET: Who Better Represents Hip-Hop and Rap Music?
The reason for that may be because MTV is music based network that represents all genres of music, rap, r & b, rock, punk, alternative etc. and BET is black entertainment as a whole that includes music, television shows and movies. Still MTV still seems to have more original shows geared toward the hip-hop genre than BET does. BET has a line-up of music based shows such as, 106th & Park, The Center, Beef: The series Rap City and their own awards show called The BET Awards. Now MTV has shows like, Pimp My Ride, My Block, Fight Klub, Sucker Free Sundays, Wild N Out, Yo Momma and The Shop. MTV is also responsible for creating the 1st Hip Hop Honors Awards show (which should have been BET) and the 1st Hip Hopera "Carmen" which starred an all-star musical cast that included, Rah Digga, Mos Def, Lil Bow Wow, Jermaine Dupri and Beyonce'. Seems to me MTV is representing hip hop better than BET. Is that a bad thing? No, of course not. I applaud MTV for their representation of hip-hop and hope they continue on the path they are on.
Besides MTV was the first music network to air a rap video by hip-hop legends Run DMC. Now the problem that I have is with BET because of the content of their shows, not just music but their shows in general. BET's show line-up is a weak one consisting of The Jamie Foxx Show, The Waynes Brothers, The Parkers, In Living Color and the original series of Soul Food. Most of these shows have been canceled for years and play twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening when people are either at work or asleep. I can understand BET's reason for airing cancelled black shows because most black shows are cancelled after a few seasons on regular networks and it gives those actors a chance to earn money every time a show is aired. Personally I think the network should let old dogs die and created new shows and series. Two years ago that was attempted with their College Hill series, which is a spin off of MTV's Real World.
The show filmed seven students in one house who all went to a HBCU (Historically Black College or University) unfortunately the show was cancelled only after two seasons probably due to the poor camera quality and embarrassing (I was embarrassed) behavior by the casts on both seasons. I find myself tuning into the MTV network a lot more than I do BET because of their representation and appreciation they show for rap and hip-hop. The rap and hip-hop segments shown on MTV are more current with what is "in" right now, cutting edge and entertaining. They don't display African Americans in a bad light like I fee BET's show, Beef: The series does. I feel that the programs on MTV aim at the culture of rap and hip-hop and everything that is good about hip-hop, which is a concept I don't think BET has grasped yet. Growing up around an Afro-Centric aunt and grandmother I was taught to support everything black. Black film, black books, black created products; you know support everything black owned and operated. While the idea is a genuine one, networks like BET don't take that into consideration, show the good in our work.
For instance, on some Friday nights BET has Blackbuster Cinema which shows a film written, directed, produced and stars black people, however the movies only show the ignorance, violent and bad side of hip-hop. Some of the movies played I am offended that they would put something like that on their network. If BET is Black Entertainment Television and they show movies like "South Central" & "Menace to Society" it tells young black and non-black viewers that this is what all black people do. MTV however shows the pure and talented side of rap and hip-hop. So in my opinion does MTV represent rap and hip-hop better? Yes, definitely. Am I offended or pissed off at BET, a little but it's more of a disappointment. But take my word for it, watch some of the shows listed above and compare between the networks. Being the African American male that I am I would love to see a network created by my people prosper and represent us well then again on the other hand I will take that representation of our culture, our youth and of our life wherever I can. So MTV keep up the good work and BET...step your game up.
Published by Shaun M Mathis
I am 26 from Connecticut that enjoys thinking and writing about articles "outside the box" I am a bit argumenative but I also shed new light to previous & existing topics/situations that are going on all ar... View profile
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21 Comments
Post a CommentThsts not true at all because like you said BET stands for black entertainment television it dont say anything about music in that title. i do believe that some of the shows on MTV should be on BET because they are black entertained and they dont have anything to do with music.
It's kinda like going into a restaurant that used to be "Whites Only." While the food may be good, the history is bittersweet. Now BET right now is ridiculous. Did you ever watch that episode of "The Boondocks" that the BET corporation tried to sue Aaron McGruder over? It was an episode about how the female president was determined to hate Black people and make sure they showed the worse shows. The "Uncle Ruckus Show" had me on the floor! That's my favorite Boondocks episode. Anyway, if BET shows "Soul Plane" one more time, I'm going to scream. I'm dead tired of them showing "The Wire" and that reality show about crackheads that was close to "The Wire." Thank goodness "College Hill"s programming got better. Before it looked like the "Blair Witch Project," but now it's a pretty good show. I got all kinds of hits for talking about the fight on the island. I liked the 2-week internship they aired too.
Ignorant is correct. How does a black network portray us like that?
Bet has a lot of blak shows but it is just a blak version of MTV shows and VH1, Like College Hill and Baldwin Hills. MTV got mre whyte ppl shows and BET has just revamped White Shows in put soem flavor on it in a ignorant way
Too many White people liked those artists for them not to play them. But they never played that real s*, that stuff only Blacks listened to, for quite some time. Even with rap videos it was mainstream s* like Run DMC, and it took Yo MTV Raps! for them to even begin to consider it. Playing a bunch of wack s* just to fill up the time slot because there wasn't that much mainstream rap out there; these days 95% of the artists on Yo ... couldn't get any airtime. There's money in rap, and MTV is right there trying to fill in the gap, if BET really cared they would put their resources behind it and get rid of 106 and Park, an embarassment to mainstream Black music if I ever saw one, and do 2 hours of Rap City. What is Rap City like 5 videos now, with like 2 or 3 freestyles? Yeah MTV is better, but they're no more sincere than BET or anyone else.
Shaun keep it real. The only reason MTV is such a progenitor of rap music now is because rock died years ago and they bet the farm on MTV 2 to keep things going. MTV's cash cow is still reality programming and they're trying to find a way to fit that in with hip-hop culture. BET was bought by Viacom a while ago. They destroyed BET and rebuilt it to their liking. The network is probably more profitable now than it ever has been. MTV has it on BET when it comes to underground and hardcore hip-hop, because that is what they do best. BET has it on MTV when it comes to shows based on black culture by blacks for blacks, because that is what they were built on.
MTV had shows like 120 minutes where you could listen to heavy metal for 2 hours, so of course they are doing a serious service for hip-hop through MTV 2. But MTV did everything they could not to play Black music; they had to with Michael Jackson and Prince because they were such an integral part of American culture.
mtv has all kind of music
While mtv does have a nice variety of shows, although you may not be interested many viewers do still like to watch what you are calling old black shows or cancelled shows, like Jamie Foxx... and Soul Food.. shows like those portray family values.. And other shows that you complain about like menace to society are unfortunately shows that many people can relate to.. in case you didnt know many black people come from poverty and everyday is a struggle just putting food on the table.. these show relate to our suffering but shows us what not to do in those situations... and if you want to get down to it the truth about hip hop nowadays what is being played on both MTV and BET is garbage.. HipHop used to make people feel good.. this music today they arent even saying anything of iomportance and even worse these people are talking bad about women, treating them as sex objects and glorifying sex with multiple partners, and then the kids turn around and try to emulate that. Women are hori
new york queen
it is you