Fat Joe Says BET’s Hip-Hop and Soul Train Awards Suspension Is “Gentrification” [Video]

BET’s decision to suspend the Hip-Hop Awards and Soul Train Awards has left many fans disappointed, and Fat Joe is voicing his frustration.

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Speaking on his “Joe & Jada” podcast with Jadakiss, the Bronx legend called the move “a form of gentrification” in the entertainment world.

“BET came up as a community station for Black people, right? And urban culture. Our man Bob Johnson took the check. He sold it, first Black billionaire, whatever the case may be. He sold it to Viacom and Paramount. MTV and them. VH1 and them.”

Fat Joe claimed the network slowly began firing key people.

“Little by little over the years, quietly, they’ve been firing a lot of people behind the scenes at BET and everybody who had something to say. I’ve been working on the BET Hip-Hop Awards for three years. The budget – not for me – but the budget just kept getting chopped and chopped and chopped.”

He contrasted BET’s shrinking resources with MTV’s big-budget shows.

“Last year, I debuted my single with DJ Khaled at the VMAs. And Katy Perry’s still flying through the air at the VMAs. They still blowing out of the cannons, flying in the air, got all the tricks, they still got the budgets.”

Joe summed it up by saying, “They kept underfunding them, underfunding them, underfunding them, and you ain’t got no money to be creative. That’s why you was watching the ratchet awards and all that. They ain’t have no bread!”

While BET says it’s exploring new ways to innovate, there’s no word on whether the award shows will return.