Comments on: Dr. Boyce Watkins; Lil Wayne & BET Music Channel – The New KKK…

By: Marcus

Marcus — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 06:56:10 +0000

I read the comments and I see people are becoming aware of Wayne, bet and rap game in general. But its coming from an older generations perspective so u don’t see the deeper issues. I, a 28 year old black man from Chicago(Englewood, the all around worst Hood in the city) see what goes on first hand and it is BEYOND ridiculous. All of these fools dress, walk, talk, and follow rappers like Wayne, Ross, wacka flocks, nikki minage, etc. What is most irritating is that these rappers are lying thru their teeth, fakers and promote fake gangbanging and cowardly acts as well as ignorant ones. I know, hear and see the things outsiders don’t see. Music is definitely playing a huge part in the destruction of our people in this country. I know this for a fact. I see how they follow these rappers, I see the drugs they take, I see the stupid trends they follow and how they find ANYTHING STUPID and try to make it cool, I see the pointless crimes they commit, I see the stupidity. They make it so much harder for real black men and women to make it out of poverty. That’s another thing outsiders don’t see. The actions of the idiots affect us real blacks. There is so much more I can say but I will leave it at that.

By: H.D

H.D — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 15:54:56 +0000

I agree with Dr. Watkins Argument, having worked at BET, I know people do care, but are not in a position to change things. In my opinion, we are at war with evil and the forces that be are programming our young with this crap, in order to enslave them later via prison, drug addiction and other spiritual killers. Some how good has to overcome all this madness and music is the best way to accomplish this. If you know someone who is a rapper, try to encourage them to put out something positive, fresh and meaningful. I think we as music lovers need to tell artist that their music is not valid when they talk about black on black crime, but reward them when they promote peace. It starts with the consumer, we have to vote with our dollars for what we want! Peace

By: Todd

Todd — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 10:33:45 +0000

Excellent article Dr. Watkins. Almost anything Viacom puts out degrades society IMO.

Corporate media is the anti-parent. Teens and children are seduced with messages that are antithetical to authority or the message of their parents. Its a false sense of empowerment. Capitalistic media of course thrives on this. BET (Viacom) is not the only culprit here but is a major one.

It is a very big problem. Rappers really define how a young black man thinks he should act. Other races see hip hop videos and it strengthens black stereotypes exponentially. Of course nobody cares about their fellow man over at Viacom as long as they are making money.

Watkins is dead on with his Manson reference. The only difference is Manson told his followers how to act explicitly, BET and gansta crap speaks implicitly.

By: bmo

bmo — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 19:46:01 +0000

Dr Boyce you are a breath of fresh air. I don’t know where to begin. You hit the nail on the head. These rappers all sound alike and there is no balance. I don’t know of any of their songs that actually talk about anything socially conscious and if they have music that addresses these things they sure don’t bring it out.

I think the rapper that can change people’s minds about what is cool would truly be different (I feel like Andre 3000 comes close to this).

Let me also say before I make my point when I was young I listened to three six mafia’s early music so I listened to some of the most dark ignorant music there is. So I’m by no means perfect and at one time supported this kind of music with my money and more importantly my ears and brain.

BUT there was balance i could take three six out and listen to tupac, tribe called quest, busta rhymes, common etc… There is no balance now even the r&b singers are just as raunchy and hardcore as the rappers. What I saw on the BET awards was a shame, pants below their asses, tattooed up, and profanity and wish ill treatment towards each other is what took up most of the night. Steve Harvey’s award portion was a brightspot but BET has to do better for black people. These people are selling their souls for money and these kids are getting that message and mocking what they see(faces with tattoos, pants hanging off their asses, profanity, etc..) thinking they can do the same.

I coach collegiate track and field and my kids seem to think BET is real life. Most are tatted up and think its going to be easy when they get out of college. I try talking to them in an honest way but all they see is the money they can get if they can duplicate what was on the BET awards show. It furiates me to know this is reality. I remember when dennis rodman was considered a bad boy because he had a hand full of tattoos,(if you go back and look he had nothing compared to todays bballers and rappers). I’m going off on a tangent because this subject is so diverse and it goes in soooo many different directions.

The point you made about Charles Manson was genius. ALso like you said between the kkk, fox news and BET if I had a choice to remove one, it would be BET without a doubt. They have our children’s eyes and ears and they are doing nothing but polluting them.

By: Tracy

Tracy — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 17:50:57 +0000

Dr. Watkins nails it again! I was terribly distressed by the amount of unedited profanity that made it to the airwaves as well as the MANY N-words (and other profanity) that people in the live audience were subjected to. Weren’t there children there? Older people? Has Debra Lee lost her mind? What happened to FAMILY programming? Lil’ Wayne is a joke but Rick Ross, Wiz Kalifah and countless other rappers offer nothing different or better. I am turning in my Black card. I’ve had enough of this profane, violent, disrespectful culture and community. I am hence becoming my own race – the race of ME!