cmputrbluu: March 2015

First, let me start by saying that I realize how difficult it is to produce and execute an award show. Trust me, I know how hard it is to mobilize just ONE artist. Get them out of their room, get them in the car, get them to rehearsal, etc.

That said...

What the HELL was that on Sunday night??

This was truly a once in a GENERATION chance for BET to seize the moment. The biggest black music mega star, biggest American music icon, biggest GLOBAL entertainment phenomenon, pretty much the most famous man in the world! This man, Michael Jackson, passes away. He dies just days before the annual network flagship broadcast, The BET Awards. All the other award shows are hating the timing of this seismic event. Oscars, Grammy, MTV, AMA, they ALL have to sit this one out. BET gets the HONOR. Now, BET is one of the standard bearers of black entertainment, are they not? The world is looking to BET as an established black entertainment brand to set the tone for the first official forum to commemorate Michael Jackson. CNN and BBC are broadcasting live from the BET red carpet show for heaven's sake!!! Why?... because all the people who you want to hear from about MJ will be there. After all, this is a death at the HEART of our BET family.

So that's where I was at 7:55pm on Sunday night! Ready for the show!! Psyched to see how BET would salute our finest musical son! I even got over that uncomfortable cringe I had watching Joe Jackson on the red carpet promoting his new record label on CNN.

And then the show began...

New Edition performing at The 2009 BET Awards

New Edition!! Great instinct! I'm right there with you!! We want to sing along and see the heirs to the Jackson 5 legacy get up there and DO THE STEPS!! I Want You Back!! The Love You Save!! ABC!! We want to see them run through that whole J5 routine. We want to let go and get emotional on this night. YES!!

Ok, here comes the host. It's cool, Jamie Foxx in the Michael gear... cool, cool. I was ok with his opening remarks. Then he cues the instrumental music for "ROCK WITH YOU." He's dancing, doing the MJ moves, crowd is starting to vibe. Then Jamie counts the crowd in. I feel where you're going, SON!!! The crowd is starting to swing!! Count them in, Jamie! 1-2-3-4!!...

"Giiiiiiirl, close your eyes

Let that rhythm get iiiiiiiinto you

Dont try to fight it

There aint nothin that yooooou can do..."

The whole auditorium is swaying & singing!!... OH NO!!... Jamie stopped them!! WTF? what is Jamie saying?? "No no y'all, we got too much show!" Ummmm, as it turns out, NO, you don't have too much show. Why didn't you let the crowd sing?? That was the MOMENT! That was the shot that would get re-broadcast all over the world!! After all, these are Michael Jackson records. They are sacred recordings to us. They are like Christmas carols, EVERYBODY KNOWS THEM!! Just have the DJ cut the record in & out to make sure the crowd is keeping time but LET THE PEOPLE SING!! This is what they came for!! This is why we are watching!! We want to be corny!! We want to be sappy with this right now!! Let the camera pan across all the celebs, athletes, big-shots, managers, directors, producers and stars dancing in front of their seats as they SING!!...

"Relax your miiiiind

Lay back and groove with mine

You got to FEEL THE HEAT

And WE can ride the boogie

Share that beat of LOOOOOOOOVE"

You're totally singing right now, aren't you?? I KNOW! ME TOO!! He should have let the crowd keep singing and when they hit the chorus cut to wider shots of the upper levels of the venue and really capture the echo of everybody singing!!!...

"I wanna ROCK with you (all niiiiight)

Dance-you-into day (sun liiiiight)

I wanna ROCK with you (all niiiight)

We're gonna rock the night awaaaaay"

All I know is if they had a shot of Diddy or somebody singing with the whole crowd smiling while you see a tear or something coming from behind his shades, I would have started to lose it myself. Trust me, if you had let that crowd sing, the tears would have come. Me, I would have been reaching for those Kleenex I haven't used since President Obama's Inauguration. That sheer 100% honest moment would have been the purest expression of Michael's influence, our joy, our love for Michael and the UNIVERSAL appeal of his music. A wonderful way to open the show... BUT, you didn't do that.

Tell me this, though...

Where was everybody? Where was Stevie? Where was Diana?? Didn't BET just give Diana the lifetime achievement award last year or the year before?? CNN managed to get Berry Gordy, Smokey Robinson and Suzanne DePasse. Where was Lionel Richie?? Lionel ACTUALLY has a new album out right now that I'm sure he would LOVE to promote, just show his face. Where was Rodney Jerkins?

Where was QUINCY JONES??

Quincy Jones and MJ

Charlie Rose had Quincy Jones on the phone from Luxembourg on Friday night! Really, BET?? And ok, you can't get everybody to LA due to logistics, fair enough. Ummmm, what about via satellite?? Or pre-taped packages from these people you can't get to the show??? What about SKYPE?? I mean Oprah skyped to the astronauts in the space shuttle while they were ORBITING-THE-FRIGGIN-EARTH!!! Really, BET???

And where were all the pretenders to Michael's throne?? Where were all these young R&B/pop dudes?? For years I've had to suffer through these guys on award shows just JACKING Mike, riffing on his moves. This one's putting on a fedora, that one's got on a glove, the other one is dancing on a floor where the squares light up as he glides across them. All these "artists" coming in MJs wake do these things when they want to somehow signify or claim that they're the heir to his throne. It's like basketball players wearing #23. But where were these guys on Sunday night? The ONE night EVER where these guys can swing as hard as they want on Michael's nutz and NOBODY would say shit!! you guys think you're the next one??... Here it is!!... Come get it! Come claim it here tonight!! Somebody get the glove or it's getting buried with Michael!! Do YOU have a Motown 25 moment in you???? (Drake did not)... no? NONE of y'all??... (crickets)... THOUGHT so! I don't ever want to see NONE of yall moonwalking and shit on any award shows, or videos for the rest of my life!

Where were the music heavyweights? Didn't they call Russell, Clive, LA, Walter Yetnikoff?? anybody?? Did I mention CNN also got Celine Dion, Cher, Liza and Usher???

Jackson 5 appear on The Ed Sullivan Show • December 14, 1969

Where was Eddie Murphy? Where was Magic? Iman? Chris Tucker?? Heavy D?? Where the hell was Michael Jordan?? JAM!! Arsenio was sitting right there in the audience! Michael is one of the last of the Mohicans. He comes from the tradition of playing live every night. There were no dial in numbers to vote the Jackson 5 into the semi-finals. The phone lines were not open yet in 1969. They had to scrap for it. Work the circuit. They played the Apollo and the other great black theaters in DC, Detroit, Philly, etc. He played Ed Sullivan, American Bandstand, Soul Train, Johnny Carson, Arsenio Hall. All landmark televised institutions. Michael studied at the feet of Jackie Wilson, James Brown, Marvin, The Temptations, Sammy Davis Jr., Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly. Why not have the homies, Arsenio and Eddie, pay homage to this aspect of MJs showbiz legacy! His career draws a line through several generations of black/American entertainment. A showbiz pedigree like this we shall never see again.

Where were Dr. Cornel West, Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, Rev. Jesse Jackson or Rev. Al Sharpton to speak intelligently, eloquently and passionately on the historical and cultural significance of Brother Michael??

Bad Tour • Wembley July 16, 1988

The video packages were WEAK! They were so random! Pick a narrative for your show. Maybe go in chronological order with the video packages. Motown package, mid 70s/Wiz package, Off The Wall thru the 80s. Maybe have a montage of all the artists that dropped right from the MJ musical tree (boy bands, Justin, Usher, etc)? A montage of all the hip hop sampled from MJ. You could cut one montage ALONE on the songs that sampled "I Want You Back" and "ABC"!! Another one would show Michael touring globally and making GROWN ASS WHITE MEN in Budapest and Prague pass out at his feet! You could have done a video package of people recollecting about when they watched the original broadcast of the Motown 25. That was The Beatles on Ed Sullivan for my generation!! I watched it on the living room floor with my grandmother! Your mom ran to the living room to watch Jackson 5 and then Michael. You tried to moonwalk for the rest of the night. You talked about it at school the next day. Who's the one kid you know that has a VCR and taped it?? You pumped Michael all next day on your WALKMAN! You could have had another montage about Michael's fashion influence. Pull out the file footage of people rocking all the crazy MJ shit in the 70s & 80s.

Where was Mariah to sing "I'll Be There?" Why did Jamie and Ne-Yo have to perform that?? How many times did you have those guys perform??? Shit was starting to look like The Donny & Marie Show. I was about to start guessing which one would be a lil bit country and which one was a lil' bit rock-n-roll!! No diss on Jamie or Ne-Yo... the weight of the show was just dropped on their shoulders.

What was Beyonce singing? what was she wearing? is it Christmas? is it snowing outside? can anybody see??

Where was the brainstorming?? When did this show try to go for the gusto??

MJ and Whitney Houston

How about this? Call Clive Davis and ask him if Whitney's voice is really back... or at the very least if there is an MJ song that he feels she could CRUSH! Maaaaaan, you have Whitney come out there and BELT out an MJ song in tribute!!... Crowd on feet! MJs the King! No dry eyes! WHITNEY'S BACK! On Monday morning the WORLD would have been running that clip into dust!. New Whitney album in September!! BET happy, Clive happy, Whitney happy, WE happy!

Jackson 5 • Pepsi Generation Commercial

What about hitting up Pepsi to run the classic 80s TV commercials in tribute to Michael. Put new "in memoriam" tags at the end of them. (Joe Jackson is just salivating to sign that deal with Pepsi to release limited edition commemorative Michael cans this summer anyway!) I don't care if you go to commercial break on a shot of Alfonso Ribeiro wearing a "BEAT IT" jacket and moonwalking down the aisle with a can of Pepsi in his freaking hand!!! I dunno! something! Show some imagination!

Or get Bob Johnson to personally solicit some sort of statement or taped message from President Obama. After all, in the post Jackie Robinson and Joe Louis, civil rights America before there was Jordan and Tiger and Obama there was Michael. Just a little black kid from Indiana changing the world. Ain't that uniquely American?? Give your event and Michael some GRAVITAS!

What about the mainstream stars?? I would have had as many mainstream stars there as possible!! Jonas Bros, Gwen Stefani, Lady Gaga, Adam Lambert (who just KILLED "Black or White" on Idol this season). Whomever wants to come to our house and celebrate MJ with us!! Shiiiiit, let them bow down to Mike too. They owe MJ just as much as any of the urban acts in that room. Especially since so many of the young acts today didn't come up working on their chops. They can have a career based on being a compelling video artist without the live chops. So the way I figure it, Mike created this music video industry as we know it today, therefore Mike gave all those scooby-snackers a career. So yeah, invite them ALL. They should have had a couple of specific publicists/bookers working the phones to get mainstream stars there. It only adds to the scale of the tribute. It's all good. That footage would get re-broadcast all over the world.

Ving Rhames... do I really have to say anything about this?? I HAVE TO! ok, Taraji Henson is presenting two awards. During the first one Tyrese comes out as what's-his-face from Baby Boy. They do a spoof on the movie. ha ha, very drole. Then they move onto the second award. Here comes Ving Rhames... really?? really, BET?? You're really going to do this Baby Boy bit again?? I wanted to scream at my TV!!... I get it, these three were in a movie together but it's not like they were in THE GODFATHER or some shit to be doing all these skits and what not! They were in BABY BOY!!!! It's like my LEAST favorite John Singleton movie to boot!! And I really don't think I need to say anything about guns OR butter... only that y'all should have known that Ving's skit was hugely inappropriate. "MICHAEL IS GUNS!! SAY IT!!" Maaaaan, I thought Ving was gonna come through my TV screen and punch me in my face if I didn't repeat "MICHAEL IS GUNS!" Did you hear the audience reluctantly repeat it when it became clear Ving wouldn't drop it until they did?? They sounded like hostages reading a ransom note. By now I am CRINGING! My only hope was that all the white people, non-BET regulars who tuned in to see a tribute had already turned the channel to True Blood or Army Wives or Brothers & Sisters.... something, anything so they weren't watching us show our ass on BET.

Martin Scorsese & Michael Jackson • "BAD" video set

Speaking of John Singleton, why didn't BET do a video clip with the A-list directors that MJ has worked with since Mike DID revolutionize the music video industry and they ARE a video channel?? Interview Martin Scorcese, Spike Lee, John Singleton, Mark Romanek, Bob Giraldi... and did I mention that CNN got John Landis??

I get you guys not reading the nominees. Just announce the winner and keep the show moving. More time for tributes, right? WRONG! And why did they read the nominees that ONE time for female R&B singer?? Made no sense. Now truth be told, I didn't give a shit about hearing anybody's acceptance speech. Who the hell needs to hear ALL these people thank God, the label, BET, their fans and "the people up top." Now what I find perverse about cutting into MJ tribute time so a here-today/maybe-tomorrow artist can thank the people up top is that to my recollection, Michael was the first one to thank "the people up top." And when Mike thanked the girls up top it was because these chicks were ready to jump off the 3rd mezzanine balcony if Michael didn't take off his sunglasses when he won his 7th Thriller Grammy like he promised!!! REAL mania! The seat fillers these days, I dunno, they just seem happy to be out of the house.

Madame Tussauds • London, England

So if you have to bump somebody's speech, bump the speech, bump a performance. So they don't get to perform and promote their album. So they don't get camera time by accepting their award during broadcast. These are special circumstances. Just deal with the label, management, etc and make it up to them later in the year. Ummm, news flash...

MICHAEL IS SELLING MORE RECORDS THIS WEEK THAN ALL OF YOU ANYWAY!!

According to the Hits sales chart, Michael Jackson has the #1, #2 and #3 albums in the country. Michael has 8 albums in the Top 40 accounting for 408K units sold of MJ records. The guy died 5 days ago! The digital world is a whole other sales explosion story. I don't even have the iTunes/Amazon numbers in front of me but I see a steady stream of news blurbs about the huge sales surge.

TOP HITS ALBUMS

#1 - Thriller

#2 - Essentials

#3 - Number Ones

#14 - Off The Wall

#25 - BAD

#32 - Dangerous

#35 - Ultimate Collection

#39 - History, vol. 1

THE PROOF IS IN THE PUDDING, YO CHECK THE BILLBOARD!!! - (Michael Jackson Breaks Billboard Charts Records)

Motown 25: Yesterday Today Forever

Now on top of everything I already said here is something else to ponder... 2009 is the 50th anniversary of Motown Records. Vanity Fair did their story with Berry. Berry did Charlie Rose and a two part Tavis Smiley. Smokey was making the rounds. Was BET planning on saluting the Motown 50th at all?? I guess not. But I'm thinking if you were producing a segment to salute Motown 50th (like you should have) that you would have already been in communication with ALL the Motown legends and then when this MJ death hit... BAM, you guys are RIGHT THERE. Maybe they tried to get Berry, who knows? But this is what I do know. Motown 50th alone is reason enough to get Berry there. Michael dying, on its own, is reason enough to make sure Berry is there. The gods conspire such that these two historical events cross paths at the Nexxus which is your award show celebrating the best in black entertainment... and no Berry. Although it seems like he has been available to do press for CNN. As I proofread this post right now, Berry is on a NEW Tavis Smiley tonight that he just taped in special tribute to Michael!! Boy, Berry has been everywhere! It's like he has spent the last 5 days sitting in his office with his publicist working a call sheet... but alas, no Berry at BET.

Ok.. I'm beating this into the ground but... MOTOWN & MICHAEL. The two biggest, richest cultural brands our people ever had or can ever imagine having. This was a no brainer, a ground ball out but BET let it go right between their legs!

anyway...

New Edition, that was FUN! Tyrese, Johnny Gill & Trey Songz, I loved it!! O'Jays, yall still bring it, congrats!! Maxwell, you're a gentleman as always, thank you! Lady In My Life by Ne-Yo, BRAVO!!!

Janet Jackson & Jamie Foxx • 2009 BET Awards

Janet, it was so comforting to see you and we appreciate that you came out. Our prayers are with the whole Jackson family as they have been for 40 years...

and I did like a couple of the Michael memories!...

other than that...

BET screwed the pooch on making a fitting tribute to MJ. It's not even like they came up short for memorial tributes to Stevie or Prince and after the show people go, "I thought they would have done more for Prince." They screwed up on Michael!!!

Well BET, you can breathe easy now. Aaaaaaaahhhh... The pressure is off. You will never screw up this big ever again... because there will never ever be an occasion as big as this for you to memorialize. There is not an entertainer alive who even looks like they have a remote chance of ever being HALF as big or impactful as Michael. Even the New York Times knows it (After Jackson, Fame May Never Be the Same). By the time another artist emerges that can match Michael's achievements or worthiness of such praise, everybody who saw Sunday's skid-mark of a tribute will be long dead. It won't matter if you get it right the next time.

Paul McCartney & Michael Jackson

And BET, if you want to see what real Rock-Royalty pomp & circumstance looks like, just wait until Paul McCartney dies. (you want to impress me?? Get an MJ tribute statement from Paul for the show!)

I sound excitable when I talk about things but that's just in the moment. I'm cool. I don't have any picket signs on stand by. This aggravation I'm expressing is directly proportional to my love for Michael Jackson and my disappointment in what I saw on Sunday. I see negative reviews running by non-urban bloggers who specifically tuned into the show because it was supposed to be special. My mother called me and asked me to tape it. You have her generation that came up on Motown and automatically loved J5 and especially little Michael ("look at him go!" my mom used to shout). The guys of my generation trying to do the steps to all the early hits. Girls who had their favorite Jackson or kissed the TV whenever Michael was on. We watched the cartoons! The Jackson 5 Christmas album is the best Christmas album EVER and I'm NOT debating it with you!! We tried to robot to "Dancin' Machine"!! We thought the "Can You Feel it" video was the coolest shit we ever saw when it came out! can you feel it, Can You Feel It, CAN YOU FEEL IT!! In high school my mom and grandmother always tolerated me playing my Thriller album extra loud because they loved Michael too. We wondered how the hell Michael did that 50 degree lean in the "Smooth Criminal" video. There were young kids crying on TV who said the first Michael album they ever bought was Dangerous.

Here we are, GENERATIONS of us. We all know what this MJ story is. Liza Minnelli said it best on CNN, "when the autopsy results come back all hell is going to break loose." And she's right...

Autopsy results, toxicology reports, child custody, private doctors, private nurses, lawyers, the estate, personal assistants, personal property, is there a will? Fame, sex, music, money, marriages, scandal. This Michael story has it all! This crazy media frenzy is now getting to cruising altitude and the captain has just turned off the "fasten seatbelt" sign...

But before all that started, we thought we could tune into BET before the weekend ended and feel good! Sing the songs, see the moves, watch the footage, hear the testimonials... share the MAGIC. A Michael Love Zone! Michael said the music is the magic. Michael believed that 100% and made us feel it. It flowed through him like The Force. That is the Michael I will remember. The Michael that made me feel the MAGIC from the very beginning. My childhood, it's been my whole life with this guy. That's all we wanted for a few hours on Sunday... a last night of magic.

As for the doubters and haters, now they will ALL call you the King of Pop. And they will do so without snarkiness because only now do they TRULY understand that you really were the King of Pop all along.

But don't worry, Michael. It's not up to them, it's up to us.

We won't stop because we can never get enough. When the groove is dead and gone we know that LOVE survives so we can rock forever on.

Thank you, Michael.