(Akiit.com) For better or worse (some would say the latter), the BET Awards has become one of the premier events in entertainment, particularly for hip-hop and R&B. Throughout its nine-year existence, the star-studded annual celebration has provided viewers with ample fodder for debates about the state of music and popular culture. While one could accuse the organizers and participants of many sins, a failure of imagination certainly wouldn’t be among them.

Which brings us to 2010’s awards. Hosted by Queen Latifah, Sunday night’s ceremony was packed to the brim with performances by some of music’s biggest marquee names - a roster that included Kanye West, Alicia Keys, Usher and Eminem. The show was ostensibly dedicated as a tribute to two artists — the late Michael Jackson and the purple-clad rocker Prince — one performance in particular is bound to make its way into the annals of award-show excess. But more on that in a moment.

It should be noted that the choice of Queen Latifah as host was a somewhat odd selection. Musically speaking, she’s drifted away from hip-hop to such a dramatic extent that she rarely refers to her prior incarnation as one of the most dominant female MCs to ever grace the stage. Nowadays, she’s gone to great lengths to cultivate an image as a mainstream everywoman, a choice few would begrudge her given the natural artistic penchant for reinvention. Yet during the awards ceremony, she provided only mild comedy relief - her costume changes and affected attempts at laughs were thin and unsatisfying gruel for the viewers.
Read The Full Story…

(Akiit.com) Most decent, educated, hard working black Americans have their own particular reason for disliking the BET Awards. All the while, it must be acknowledged that there are some Americans who love the show. Finally, there are those who love to watch the show so they can talk about how much they hate it. BET appreciates these viewers as much as anyone else, since most networks value ratings, no matter how they are obtained.

My personal anti-love affair with the BET Awards began when the singer R. Kelly was accused of having sex with an underage girl and videotaping the act. This occurred during a time when people were under the mistaken assumption that most African-Americans actually care about young black girls. Of course, this silly notion was quickly dismissed by BET, who not only continued with the planned R. Kelly performance, but gave him the longest segment on the show. The segment was the only one to actually include video and even ended by honoring him with an award.

Sure, we know that R. Kelly had been technically acquitted of his crime, but I hold to the reality that being found not guilty is not the same as being found innocent. Also, my friends who’ve watched the video “for research purposes” (no, I didn’t watch that video, I have daughters the same age as the young girl allegedly involved in the incident) report that the man on the video has a striking resemblance to R. Kelly. Either way, BET had an opportunity to take a stand on principle, and they did: They proved that they are incredibly principled about the idea of making money at any cost. When BET founder Bob Johnson reminded us that the “E” in BET stands for “Entertainment, not education,” that is when the network officially became similar to the purely capitalist entities who exploit poor, black Americans for financial gain. The difference is that you can get away with an extraordinary amount of exploitation if you disguise it with a blackface.

The R. Kelly/anti-black girl trend of the BET Awards continued years later as Lil Wayne rapped about wishing he could “f*ck every girl in the world” all the while, having underage girls dancing on the stage behind him. Finally, along with every other person who grew up admiring Michael Jackson’s talent, I wasn’t happy to see BET’s botched and hastily-designed tribute to the singer last year. But of course the execs at BET could care less, since the show was one of their most highly rated in history. When it’s all said and done in black America, making money seems to justify any and every activity utilized to make that money. This, my friends, is wrong.
Read The Full Story…

(Akiit.com) His baby sister said it best via an old Joni Mitchell sample in one of her hits from the late ’90s: “You don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone.” Now, nine months after Michael Jackson’s sudden death at age 50, Sony, his longtime label, is ready to cash in on the music the superstar left behind. Of course, this move is nothing new. Several pop artists have sold more records and made more money dead than alive: Elvis, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin chief among them.

But Michael, whose record sales and business contracts set unprecedented benchmarks when he was here among us, continues to break records after his death. Sony just announced that the King of Pop’s estate has signed a $200 million guaranteed contract for 10 projects over seven years. The deal, good through 2017, could be worth up to $250 million if certain conditions are met. An album of previously unreleased material is supposed to hit stores in November, just in time for the holidays. Other future projects may include a DVD compilation of his classic videos, a video game and a reissue of perhaps his most satisfying album, 1979’s Off the Wall.

This new deal comes as no surprise, given that Michael has sold more than 31 million albums worldwide since his death in June. And it’s not a stretch to say that even after the man closed his eyes for the last time, he has helped to resuscitate an ailing industry. That was certainly the case in 1982 when Thriller, the biggest blockbuster album of all time, hit the streets and sold more than 20 million copies within the first year. The industry was in a sad state then, as record sales lagged and pop was undecided about where to go. Then came Michael, the former Motown prince, with a sound that braided together all the loose strands of the previous decade: disco, punk and funk. His pop amalgamation was fresh, vivacious, a sonic revolution. Also at the same time, he turned the music video into an art form just as MTV was born. And when the cable station threw shade at videos from people of color, it was Michael and mighty Sony (then known as CBS) who kicked down the door.
Read The Full Story…

(Akiit.com) A couple of days ago my colleagues at VIBE magazine were sharing their opinions in a webcast on the “We Are the World” remake, which both celebrates the song’s 25th anniversary and aims to raise money for Haiti. I decided to check out the video as I hadn’t seen it yet, and then sat with an influx of emotions as I wrapped my head around the newest incarnation of the pop classic penned by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, the original video of which I’d watched as a child.

The contemporary version of “We Are the World” features more artists and had the potential to feature more genres. Sure enough, a new hip-hop verse is thrown in towards the end, and it’s this portion of the song that stands out as being its own, grooving entity. Interestingly, even with the potential to use artists and sounds that could represent a wider palette of music, the song’s production speaks more to the commercial factory pop that’s currently de rigueur. It’s big and bombastic, befitting a song meant to unite billions.

Yet simplicity often has the greatest power when it comes to relaying connectedness. It’s one of the reasons why the original “We Are the World” holds more sway for me. That more straightforward tune placed seemingly disparate artists together to make something beautiful, taking us inside of ourselves. Some of the juxtapositions were jarring and humorous; Kenny Roger’s twang next to James Ingrams’ smoothness, or Cyndi Lauper wilding out on the bridge, the original’s biggest moment of bombast .
Read The Full Story…

(Akiit.com) Shirley Chisholm was born on November 30, 1924, in the city of Brooklyn, NY to the proud parents of Charles and Ruby St. Hill. As a child, she was an exceptionally brilliant student in school. While attending Girls High School, which was located in Brooklyn, NY, she excelled in a variety of subjects. She graduated in 1942, and enrolled at Brooklyn College, where she majored in sociology.

While attending Brooklyn College, Chisholm occasionally encountered hateful acts of racism, but she openly fought against them. On one occasion at Brooklyn College, all of the black students were denied admittance into a social club on campus, so Chisholm in turn, formed an alternative club. With academic honors, she graduated in 1946, but because it was so difficult for black college graduates to find employment, it would take her a little time to find a job. After being denied employment on several occasions, she would obtain employment at Mount Calvary Childcare Center, which was located in Harlem, NY.

In 1949, she married a Jamaican by name of Conrad Chisholm. They both participated in local politics, and would soon form the Bedford-Stuyvesant political league. Chisholm not only dealt with politics, but she also dealt with early childhood education. From 1959-1964, she worked with the New York City bureau of child welfare.

In 1964, she won a seat in the state assembly, and served in the New York General Assembly from 1964 to 1968. In 1968, after serving a term in the legislature, Chisholm campaigned in pursuit of representing New York’s Twelfth Congressional District. She would win the election and become the first African American woman to ever be elected to Congress. Chisholm was a strong believer in women rights, so she hired an all-female staff during her first term in Congress.
Read The Full Story…