DanjLovesThe90s!

Alright, so… let’s say your name is Debra Lee, and you are the president and CEO of BET. The icon of icons has died three days prior to your channel’s award show. This artist is one whose music was not only once EXTRA-prevalent on your station, but has also influenced half of the people whose videos CURRENTLY air on your station. Although you only have three days to change things around, and no one expects you to perform miracles, you still have a chance to provide a fitting tribute (especially with more people probably tuning in than ever and all kinds of media outlets covering your event). Do you:

A) Deliver on your words, which were “this show is all about Michael“?

B) Include a tribute segment here, but opt to do a better-planned full-on tribute show at another time?

C) Put on an already half-assed show as planned, and add to its half-assedness by half-assing the tribute at that?

Two of those options would’ve been all good. But ultimately, Option C seems like the one they chose to run with. Good God Damn.

Don’t get me wrong, New Edition started things off right with the Jackson 5 medley. Jamie Foxx and Ne-Yo closed out on a high note with a performance of “I’ll Be There”. Even better than that, Janet Jackson herself came out and spoke briefly to the audience prior to the final performance. Everything between that was just a bunch of mambajahambo and WTF moments. I knew going in that it wasn’t gonna be a 100% MJ show… but I didn’t expect a 15% MJ show either, especially after it being specifically noted that it was now going to become a tribute to him. In fact, I wasn’t even gonna watch the shit under normal circumstances, and I’m sure half the people who did weren’t going to either.

The one thing about this, from a personal standpoint, that gets me is that it’s BET. It’s the station that always prides itself on the legacy of not only “Black Entertainment”, but especially “Black Music”. In fact, until recent years, all it really was (90% of the time) was a music video channel. If the people who work there are able to believe today that Michael’s legacy (as well as BET’s) was properly honored last night, then so be it. Closer to the truth, BET was a better station when they were in DC with a shoestring budget and the cheapest-looking shows ever than they are today with muhfukkin’ Viacom backing them. At least then, you could expect that they’d be on their A-game, even if it wasn’t so much as a got-damn tribute to Marlon Jackson.

Speaking of Viacom, the craziest part of this is that MTV and VH1 will probably top this shit without half-trying- the same way they do with the hip-hop retrospectives and even the damn reality shows. Because even with a heightened popularity, and better production value than they used to have, BET has been substandard-as-fuck for years. They have more TV shows, more viewers, more media coverage… and yet they still manage to be hot garbage in their presentation. They’ve had their moments, but they’ve been increasingly far-and-few between.

Again, my gripe is not with the fact that they didn’t give us an “OMG Michael Jackson All-Out Extravaganza Featuring Every Single Person You Can Think Of Doing A Stellar MJ Rendition!” given the time they had. It’s moreso with the fact that a semblance of that was advertised and they couldn’t even deliver that. What we did get was four mini-performances of MJ songs, a tribute to the O’Jays which was BETTER than the ones to Michael, and other things too random to remember. Worst of all, we got a (turrible) Drake/Lil’ Wayne/etc. performance that resembled four niggas rapping in a living room with their kids as the backup dancers. And THIS is the show dedicated to Michael Jackson.

BET can fix this… maybe. They can put together a well-planned show that properly pays respect to the man who made it possible for most of their current favorite stars to step on a stage. Given the time to do so, they could probably do it better than any other station would. Unfortunately, it’s probably not gonna happen that way. They’re likely fine with it how it was, especially since the ratings were great.

-D! (aight… back to business as usual tomorrah. The healing process has started, haha)