An Open Love Letter to BET CEO Debra Lee (Dear Debra)

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Each week my man Jasiri X comes with heat. He’s covered almost every major topic impacting our community from the police shooting of Oscar Grant and the uprising in Oakland, Ca to the racist presidential campaign launched by Sarah Palin and John McCain to the Inauguration of Barack Obama to the brutal slaying of Chicago honor student Derion Albert. Name the topic and Jasiri X has covered it.. This time he out did himself.. Dear Debra is incredible  .. Please pass this along to Debra Lee of BET..

-Davey D-

JasiriX-copsThis Episode is dedicated to the BET and their CEO Debra Lee. ‘Dear Debra’ is a critical but loving letter exploring the possibilities of Black Entertainment Television. Episode 23 was produced by Kai Roberts and directed bu Paradise the Arkitech of X-Clan, No ducks were harmed in the makin of this video.

LYRICS
Verse 1

Dear Debra,
You’re giving me the blues mo betta
said that I can flow forever but I ain’t got no chedda
and we can’t got together cause I’m too controversial
plus you said ya time is money like a commercial
but my music’s universal
I didn’t mean to hurt you
but that’s what truth does
I did it with true love
see I gave you my heart and you said it was irrelevant
you said that I was smart but that I was too intelligent
I offered you my soul from the start but like the devil did
you said it would rank on ya chart unless I selling it
you said that your just playin ya part that of the ghetto chick
cause that’s what people what you to be
that sounds like frontin to me
see to me you’re more than something to see
baby you and me could set this whole country free
my queen you stepped out of a dream on to the screen
like a vision you was the only one I’ve ever seen

Verse 2
you had religion you was quick to tell em you was christian
but now you hang with gangstas so much you’ve been imprisoned
but you convinced yourself that that’s how we living
but life is so much more than champagne sippin
listen what this isn’t is a black male’s hate
give me one chance I promise it won’t be a hell’s date
we can go to college hill or 106 and park
make love from the sun up till when it get’s dark
I’ll sooth you no matter what level the stress
you are a righteous black queen not a hot ghetto mess
and yes I believe that you’ll switch one day
but now you’re so exposed that I wanna rip the runway
and I know they say that you should shake what ya mama gave you
but you are a reflection of how ya mama raised you
and you get what you give so don’t let karma enslave you
I’m willin to campaign like Obama to change you
for real

Verse 3
I’m so serious I’m so sincere
name the place where ever you wanna go I’m their
we can go to rap city I can get us a booth
cause the ones that’s there now they don’t be spittin the truth
you ask me how do I know the way they living is proof
claimin they freestylin what was ghostwritten for dudes
I wanna kick it with you
I’m on a mission to prove
that I’m a honest dude
this is not a comic view
see I wanna honor you and give you an award
but the ones that sponsor you I wanna give em the sword
they not fond of you they just wanna get you on board
and then they lie to you that’s just like pimpin a whore
see they don’t care what you mean to me or the community
how we can teach the seeds or promote unity
they just want coonery more and more buffoonery
so they can watch those videos like shake that booty b
but I’ll never call you out of your name
just consider this a lane to get you outta the game
cause I’ll take on all 50 states for you miss Debra
and you can call the battle Hip-Hop vs America

Debra-Lee-BET-225

I wonder if Debra Lee appreciates Jasiri X's love letter

Return to Davey D’s Hip Hop Corner

AJ Calloway Blasts BET Music Videos-tells Why he Really left

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AJ Calloway Blasts BET Music Videos
Former BET Star Says He Left Show Over Vulgar Music
original article: April 2 2006

ORANGEBURG, S.C. (April 1) – The former co-host of BET’s popular 106 & Park video countdown show blasted this week what he called the destructive messages of many of the show’s most popular music videos.

A.J. Calloway co-hosted the show for five years with Free, whose given name is Marie Wright. Both left the show in July.

“I couldn’t watch my own show with my niece on my lap,” Calloway told an audience Wednesday at South Carolina State University as part of the “Black Student Today” panel. The discussion focused on the impact of hip-hop music.

“Pick your five favorite songs,” Calloway said. “Write down every word that’s in your favorite songs. Read it back to yourself and think about what that has put into your head.

“Understand internally what you’re taking into your soul and into your system. Really look at it. You might say it doesn’t do anything, but I’m telling you it does.”

Calloway has said that he left because he was only offered a brief extension at the end of his contract. But BET executive Stephen Hill said then that he was surprised Calloway decided to leave the popular show.

Calloway told the university audience he had vowed that after facing racism growing up in New Jersey he would “never do anything against my race.”

“I felt like I was hurting us by doing what I was doing,” he said.

He said the messages in some hip-hop music serve as a distraction to the challenges facing blacks.

“We’re so lost in the music, we don’t understand the reality of what’s happening day-to-day in our lives,” he said. “All those institutions that are out to bring down (blacks) don’t have to work any more because we’re doing it to ourselves. … They’re laughing at us.”

Another panelist defended hip-hop music’s messages.

“Most of the lyrics, if you listen to the poetry of hip-hop, is about taking a devastating situation and making it better, coming up out of poverty,” said Ben Chavis, co-founder of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network.

Return to Davey D’s Hip Hop Corner