The truth of the matter is that I never wanted my M.T.V. I never had any use for them growing up in NYC. There was sufficient programming that featured people of color and pop music all in one place. There was a program called ‘Hot Tracks’ that played Hip-Hop music videos as well as 80’s pop tunes by PRINCE, SHEENA EASTON, M.J. and all the usual suspects.
Then there was RALPH McDANIEL’s ‘Video Music Box’ which might be the singular most important program for the Hip-Hop generation. V.M.B. was recorded on BetaMax then on VHS format tapes and the copies were passed around school and shipped out of state. V.M.B. tapes could be found along the early 80’s cocaine corridor that ran along the east coast. It was crack when crack was REALLY crack and not just rap. That’s not to say that V.M.B. was bad because it wasn’t bad at all. It was the most progressive programming on television. The show was produced by RALPH McDANIELS and LIONEL ‘VID KID’ MARTIN, both were college educated and true school Hip-Hop heads. The show was so sick because there was no where else you could see a video from JAZZY JEFF and FRESH PRINCE followed by a video from DEVO or BLONDIE. V.M.B. was the ONLY show giving P.E., POOR RIGHTEOUS TEACHERS or X-CLAN any shine.
Back in the day those acts were even too Black for Black Entertainment Television. Video Music Box was an underground social phenomenon that the T.I.’s tried to obfuscate with the creation of that pay per play video channel called ‘The Box’. V.M.B. was broadcast from WNYC-TV which had been the only network owned by a municipality until then NYC Mayor RUDOLPH GIULIANI sold the station to Dow Jones & Company. I believe that V.M.B. is still on the air some 22 years after it first debuted in 1984. I respect the architects.
Fast forward to the present: ViaCom is the top dog of cultural hustlers on the planet today. They use their multiple platforms to program adults, and more importantly, the youth into what the cultural norms for the future shall be. Hip-Hop music is one of their key tools. It is loved by working class kids from the center city all the way into the middle class enclaves in the suburbs and the exurbs. This is where ViaCom penetrates the deepest because there isn’t the presence of the ‘other’ to refute the images presented on the television screen.
Their cultural programming is just as effective in the center city because there is visual access to markers of wealth and opulence. The sight of a Bentley sportscar outside of a television set confirms its existence within the world described on television.
I thought that I would be upset with the network chiefs at ViaCom for allowing the program called ‘The Shop’ to air on M.T.V. instead of the sister station B.E.T. but after previewing trailers from the program I realize that the target demographic for this program are the kids in the suburbs and the exurbs. This program is supposed to be their indoctrination into the actual lives of people from the center city. I thought of this program as some sort of corporate media attempt at Black People 101.
What are the jigs saying? What are the jigs wearing? Why does that woman have a child and not a husband?!? Everything I wanted to know about Negroes but I was afraid to ask them because I was afraid. M.T.V. has struck suburban gold platinum again and I suspect that I will be seeing kids at the mall this spring with aluminum foil covering their teeth. I blame SUMNER REDSTONE.
Do you think DICK CHENEY is going quail hunting anytime soon? I wonder if I could get SUMNER an invite.
