BET recently broke many fans' hearts by announcing that they suspended their Hip-Hop and Soul Train Awards, and Fat Joe is not happy. On his Joe & Jada podcast alongside fellow rap veteran Jadakiss, he explained why this move is a result of gentrification and underfunding in his view.
"BET, this is a form of gentrification, what's going on right now," Joey Crack remarked, as caught by The Art Of Dialogue on Twitter. "So BET came up as a community station for Black people, right? And urban culture. Our man Bob Johnson took the check. He sold it, first Black billionaire, whatever the case may be. He sold it to Viacom and Paramount. MTV and them. VH1 and them.
"Little by little over the years, quietly, they've been firing a lot of people behind the scenes at BET and everybody who had something to say," Fat Joe continued his accusations. "They've been firing them, and this and this and that. And I know, 'cause I've been working on the BET Hip-Hop Awards for three years. The budget – not for me – but the budget just kept getting chopped and chopped and chopped. Last year, I debuted my single with DJ Khaled at the VMAs. And Katy Perry's still flying through the air at the VMAs. They still blowing out of the cannons, flying in the air, got all the tricks, they still got the budgets.
Fat Joe BET
"I think, in the entertainment world, I don't think I knew this was like a form of gentrification," the "All The Way Up" artist concluded. "They kept underfunding them, underfunding them, underfunding them, and you ain't got no money to be creative. That's why you was watching the ratchet awards and all that. They ain't have no bread!"
Amid Fat Joe and Jadakiss' other hot takes, this resonates particularly strongly with all different corners of hip-hop and Black culture. While BET said they will look for future ways to innovate with their content and endeavors, fans still don't know if this would keep those awards spirits alive. We will see if these accusations get a debunk or confirmation.
