Why don’t we have pride in our own award shows?

[I love Latina women]

We devalue our own shyt when we hit a new peak of popularity

I always shake my head whenever an artist has reached a new level of popularity and when it comes to the Soul Train Awards, BET Hip Hop Awards or BET Awards, they don’t show up.


All too often the presenter gotta be like “MC IOU” or “Songstress Golden Voice” couldn’t be here tonight but we accept this award on his/her behalf”


I get wanting to be acknowledged among your peers from other cultures and backgrounds at other award shows, but damn, have some pride in your own shyt first. Especially because our culture is the one everybody bites, borrows and eats off of.

If black artists took more pride in our own award shows, the award shows would be a lot better and even bigger than other award shows.

 

[straightcash]

They're all owned by Paramount Global (previously Viacom).

They don't even award them to artists that deserve it on merit. They're a worse popularity contest than the mainstream award shows. I don't think they even have a real qualification and nomination criteria.

 

[Fiji Water]

Honestly, I might be making too hot of a take here but...

Every black person is a star. Our awards don't mean *that much* among ourselves because we naturally celebrate each other

The only awards that are historic is when we best whites and the white minded in genres they took from us. Basically it's an extension of our collective PTSD.

 

[⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐]

They're all owned by Paramount Global (previously Viacom).

They don't even award them to artists that deserve it on merit. They're a worse popularity contest than the mainstream award shows. I don't think they even have a real qualification and nomination criteria.

This

We as a people need to see beyond surface level

 

[Piff Perkins]

"We" don't own that shyt anyway. But I do think we need more black owned media awards and other shyt. Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Pac, Biggie, Jay, 50 Cent, etc all used to go to black awards shows regardless of whether they won or not. Now the only time you'll see Beyonce or Kendrick-type artists at a "black" show it's because they've been guaranteed a win.

The Country Music Awards are damn near more popular than the Grammys now. That entire industry has heavily leaned into that shyt and made it important. I definitely wish someone would put up the cash to make that happen for black shyt. Not just music, but film/tv too. And speaking of music...it shouldn't just be rap and r&b. Gospel, jazz....we need that shyt on stage.

 

[I love Latina women]

They're all owned by Paramount Global (previously Viacom).

They don't even award them to artists that deserve it on merit. They're a worse popularity contest than the mainstream award shows. I don't think they even have a real qualification and nomination criteria.

"We" don't own that shyt anyway. But I do think we need more black owned media awards and other shyt. Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Pac, Biggie, Jay, 50 Cent, etc all used to go to black awards shows regardless of whether they won or not. Now the only time you'll see Beyonce or Kendrick-type artists at a "black" show it's because they've been guaranteed a win.

The Country Music Awards are damn near more popular than the Grammys now. That entire industry has heavily leaned into that shyt and made it important. I definitely wish someone would put up the cash to make that happen for black shyt. Not just music, but film/tv too. And speaking of music...it shouldn't just be rap and r&b. Gospel, jazz....we need that shyt on stage.

We don’t own shyt but how can we own shyt we don’t even go to once we get super rich?

We get rich and then ditch our own award shows but we be furious as hell when we feel like we got snubbed at other awards

Our award shows would be better if we supported our own shyt and if nikkas really cared enough to own them

 

[straightcash]

We don’t own shyt but how can we own shyt we don’t even go to once we get super rich?

We get rich and then ditch our own award shows but we be furious as hell when we feel like we got snubbed at the AMAs

Our award shows would be better if we supported our own shyt and if nikkas really cared enough to own them

At the Grammys, Emmys, Golden Globes and Oscars, there's set criteria to qualify and then from that pool your industry peers vote who they want to nominate and win based on their own personal preferences and biases. So it's basically the peers snubbing you or picking wrong.

At these other televised award shows, it's a bunch of unknown randos seemingly including and excluding who gets nominated and wins. I imagine it's way more tiresome and insulting to not get selected and not knowing wtf going on.

Edit: At the Golden Globes, it's foreign press members that vote rather than peers.

 

[Piff Perkins]

At the Grammys, Emmys, Golden Globes and Oscars, there's set criteria to qualify and then from that pool your industry peers vote who they want to nominate and win based on their own personal preferences and biases. So it's basically the peers snubbing you or picking wrong.

At these other televised award shows, it's a bunch of unknown randos seemingly including and excluding who gets nominated and wins. I imagine it's way more tiresome and insulting to not get selected and not knowing wtf going on.

They should have a pool of qualified peers and legends voting. Songwriters, musicians, execs, artists, etc. And they should also have some type of dues system where these (primarily rich) people pay to help keep shyt going, like with the Grammys/Oscars/etc. But in order to do that you'd need something really high profile and snazzy, which will require up front money and a nice venue.

It would be so cool if we had something like the Lincoln Center or Kennedy Center - a really venue in a major city that serves as a concert hall, can host awards shows, events, nice restaurants, etc. That has a schedule all year that features black art and black artists. And also awards shows a couple times a year. I got to see Wayne Shorter at the Lincoln Center and it was magnificent. We def need something like this to preserve black art all year.


Downside of having super rich black people whose main interest is in funding casinos or selling you alcohol: the lack of people who just want to fund art.

 

[I love Latina women]

At the Grammys, Emmys, Golden Globes and Oscars, there's set criteria to qualify and then from that pool your industry peers vote who they want to nominate and win based on their own personal preferences and biases. So it's basically the peers snubbing you or picking wrong.

At these other televised award shows, it's a bunch of unknown randos seemingly including and excluding who gets nominated and wins. I imagine it's way more tiresome and insulting to not get selected and not knowing wtf going on.

Well of course the nominees selection for the award show needs fixing

I felt like that went without saying, we see how janky that shyt is

 

[straightcash]

They should have a pool of qualified peers and legends voting. Songwriters, musicians, execs, artists, etc. And they should also have some type of dues system where these (primarily rich) people pay to help keep shyt going, like with the Grammys/Oscars/etc. But in order to do that you'd need something really high profile and snazzy, which will require up front money and a nice venue.

It would be so cool if we had something like the Lincoln Center or Kennedy Center - a really venue in a major city that serves as a concert hall, can host awards shows, events, nice restaurants, etc. That has a schedule all year that features black art and black artists. And also awards shows a couple times a year. I got to see Wayne Shorter at the Lincoln Center and it was magnificent. We def need something like this to preserve black art all year.

Spoiler

Downside of having super rich black people whose main interest is in funding casinos or selling you alcohol: the lack of people who just want to fund art.

I think the most important part is the qualification process. It needs to be transparent and consistent. For the Oscars for example, any film that plays in LA theaters for like two weeks is eligible for nomination regardless of language and place of origin.

It's 2025 and there's still no real awards for stand-up comedy. The Golden Globes introduced a TV stand-up category in 2023 and the nominations for it are complete ass. The UK has one for their stand-up industry.

 

[Playaz Eyez]

This years BET Awards was nice. You could tell they put a lot behind it as far as production goes, and I’m gonna assume cause I think it was the 25th year celebration. A lot of big names were actually there.

But to be truthful, the best awards show for years has been the ESPYs. There’s not a single time where you’ll have the big names flake on it.

 

[Ethnic Vagina Finder]

The culture is too ratchet and doesn't appeal to every demographic and age group. The current iteration of hip hop is too disposable. Not enough mainstream substantive artistry to make it worth caring about. R&B is dead on the mainstream. Beyonce even gave up and decided to explore other genres. We sold out and have nothing left at this point.

 

[TrapHouse Rock]

When our people fronted on the soul train awards I couldn't get mad

The Award show started in 1987 and they didn't start REALLY embracing Hip-Hop until like 96.....Fresh Prince don't count lol

Don hated hip-hop and treated rappers and djs like shyt when they came on Soul Train

The older black generations dropped the bag fronting on rap in the 80s cause when rappers went to black labels to get signed they got laughed out the building(motown) or scammed(sugarhill) so they had to got to these OTHER labels and when Hip-Hop ended up going to billions our people owned basically none of it

The BET awards is a different story that shyt was ratchet from jump they doing a better job these days but it was half assed af back in the 2000s one year it looked like everybody was packed into a hs auditorium

 

[R=G]

What happened to RnB music?

 

[Rekkapryde]

The culture is too ratchet and doesn't appeal to every demographic and age group. The current iteration of hip hop is too disposable. Not enough mainstream substantive artistry to make it worth caring about. R&B is dead on the mainstream. Beyonce even gave up and decided to explore other genres. We sold out and have nothing left at this point.

Will never forget the Sexxy Redd & Bobby Jones fiasco