Lenny Kravitz says he's not black enough for BET

[Knicksman20]

What other examples of black rock did bet play? What other Living Colour did they play besides Cult of Personality?

Truthfully, I don't know because I was just a little kid when that dropped & I saw it. I also didn't have cable growing up but some of my friends did which is how I saw that. Also, my musical taste expanded as I got older but when I was a kid, I was strictly hip hop & R&B

 

[Professor Emeritus]

High Key, its the result of cut music programs in school and the mass marketing of gangsta rap being the default genre for a lot of young black folks. What happened from 1991 to 1997, really fukked up black folks' innovation and being open to more than what was being promoted to us.

That's sad as fukk to say that way. And yeah, cutting music in school was a travesty.

 

[Professor Emeritus]

Never heard of them before

That's my point.

 

[Professor Emeritus]

The Letterman clip was a truncated version of the song that gives the feel but really cuts down the musicality. Studio version is fukking fire, though I wish I could find a good live version of the full song that wasn't chopped down for TV

 

[Sauce Dab]

One of my funniest BET memories is on 106 & Park when they just finished playing some generic Bow Wow song and the room was cheering like usual. Then they introduced this segment where they would try to play new and different music and get the audience's opinion.

They played a video from Gorillaz (who were new at the time) and after the song was over they put the camera on the audience and they were all dead silent looking like and .

I actually was a fan of Gorillaz but I couldn't stop laughing at how visibly heated everyone in the audience was. AJ and Free were trying to get some positive feedback but everyone followed the crowd. 106 & Park never tried nothing new after that.

Damn I wish there was a video of this somewhere

 

[Professor Emeritus]

One of my funniest BET memories is on 106 & Park when they just finished playing some generic Bow Wow song and the room was cheering like usual. Then they introduced this segment where they would try to play new and different music and get the audience's opinion.

They played a video from Gorillaz (who were new at the time) and after the song was over they put the camera on the audience and they were all dead silent looking like and .

I actually was a fan of Gorillaz but I couldn't stop laughing at how visibly heated everyone in the audience was. AJ and Free were trying to get some positive feedback but everyone followed the crowd. 106 & Park never tried nothing new after that.

Was that Clint Eastwood then?

I liked that song, the melody has a subtle jazz feel to it. I like Feel Good Inc. a lot too, those are the only two songs I fukked with of theirs but it's not like I ever spun any of their albums so I only know the hits. Their imagery was corny as fukk though, I'm not a fan of the cartoon shyt and can imagine an audience watching that shyt and not knowing what to do with it.

 

[Formerly known as...]

No lies told but look at the comments in this very thread trying to discredit him

This

 

[2 Up 2 Down]

Prince's heyday was the 80s and early 90s. That fits what was being said earlier, that a far more diverse group of artists were marketed to the Black community in the last century, but now everything is pigeonholed into a couple lanes.

Little Richard, Bo Diddley, The Isley Brothers, Chuck Berry, Tina Turner, Jimi Hendrix, Sly and the Family Stone, James Brown...what happened to that era?

High Key, its the result of cut music programs in school and the mass marketing of gangsta rap being the default genre for a lot of young black folks. What happened from 1991 to 1997, really fukked up black folks' innovation and being open to more than what was being promoted to us.

The 80s was also Go-Go at its peak performance
Look at all the young brehs on stage playing trumpets, saxophones, congos, drums, guitars and look at the young crowd dancing and sweating the whole way through.
Cutting music stopped at lot of black folks from learning how to play instruments and be creative with their free time.

Go Go Live at The Capital Centre (1987) | Go Go Live at The Capital Centre (1987) | By Super Q 97 FM | Facebook

Go Go Live at The Capital Centre (1987)

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Also well I'm on go-go
at 2:48

 

[Knicksman20]

They got play on BET because of the Arsenio Hall performance, and it was still early enough in BET as a station where they weren't only r&b/rap

Very true & Lenny was on Arsenio all through the 90's himself. It just goes to show if he really wanted to be marketed on BET, he could've made that happen but he was content with where he was at/going

 

[Danie84]

That 5 Album still goes HAM, tho

 

[Ethnic Vagina Finder]

The irony is the black community embraced little nas x when the country music community bushed him.

 

[Ethnic Vagina Finder]

BET invited him before Kravitz

 

[Space Cowboy]

Was that Clint Eastwood then?

I liked that song, the melody has a subtle jazz feel to it. I like Feel Good Inc. a lot too, those are the only two songs I fukked with of theirs but it's not like I ever spun any of their albums so I only know the hits. Their imagery was corny as fukk though, I'm not a fan of the cartoon shyt and can imagine an audience watching that shyt and not knowing what to do with it.

shyt had to be Clint Eastwood

The thought of 106 and Park playing that song to dead faces has me dying of laughter. I say this as a big Gorillaz fan too

 

[Space Cowboy]

I think the show Insecure does that really well.

I've wanted to get on it. I heard it was a show for broads so I never gave it a shot

 

[get these nets]

@Elim Garak



Here’s Kravitz’s statement in full:

“It is important to me to set the record straight on recent media reports based on an interview I did.
My black musical heritage means a lot to me, and I owe my success to my supporters who have taken this journey with me over the span of my career.
The comment I made was not about ‘black media’ or the ‘black community.’ I was specifically referring to black award shows in particular.
My comment was meant to express a concern about ensuring that black artists are being recognized for their work in what is now being called “non-traditional” black music, which it is not.
Rock and roll is the music we were instrumental in creating and is a part of our history. We must retain our heritage and celebrate that together.
BET and countless others have paved the way for this type of recognition. I hope that by sharing my concern a spotlight will be shone on this issue.
Love and peace.“