BET Catches More Heat Over Lil Wayne Set, Filmmaker Inks Open Letter

Award-winning filmmaker Byron Hurt has become the latest figure to address BET for their airing of Lil Wayne and Drake's "Every Girl" performance at the 2009 Awards ceremony. Directing an open letter to BET President Debra Lee, Hurt focused on Weezy's set and his reaction to the Michael Jackson tribute.

"BET failed to deliver a solid, quality show," he wrote. "Rather than 'raising the bar' and presenting African-Americans as a creative, proud, dignified people, BET lowered the bar for the entire world to see. The BET Awards drew a huge audience to watch a tribute to Michael Jackson, but left millions of viewers feeling disappointed, embarrassed, and reduced to classic stereotypes...Show executives watched, approved, and applauded as artists Lil Wayne, Drake, and Cash Money brought young, under-aged girls onto the stage to dance and serve as window dressing while they performed 'Every Girl,' a song that reduces girls and women to sex objects. In a culture where one out of four girls and women are either raped or sexually assaulted - and where manipulative men routinely traffic vulnerable women into the sex industry - it is not okay that BET allowed this to happen. BET owes its entire audience - particularly girls and women around the world - an apology for its failure to intervene." (The Urban Daily)

Journalists covering the event also expressed their reactions to the set.

Overrall, the show was a big downer because...many things just seemed out of place. For example, Drake's performance had Lil' Wayne and his pre-teen daughter with other young girls on stage rapping along to "Every Girl in the World," which is a song about having escapades with all the girls in the world. (Examiner)

Reports have also spread online which claim the young girls' on-stage appearance was unplanned.

According to my source, what happened was Wayne's daughter Reginae, 9, was upset that she didn't get the chance to accompany her father, Lil Wayne, to the stage to accept his award because she was sitting too far back in the audience. Once backstage, the youngster began to cry. And Wayne, who they say is a great dad, hated to see his little girl cry. So he told Reginae she could come out onstage during his performance with Drake. Reginae, being the team player that she is, asked the other members of her group to go out on stage with her. (Sandra Rose)

Byron Hurt is known for his documentaries including Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes.

Byron Hurt is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, a published writer, and an anti-sexist activist. His most recent documentary, Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. It was later broadcast nationally on the Emmy award-winning PBS series Independent Lens, drawing an audience of more than 1.3 million viewers. To date, Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes (BBR) has been selected to appear in more than 50 film festivals worldwide and The Chicago Tribune named it "one of the best documentary films in 2007." (Byron Hurt)

Comment by UPTOWN EMON on July 5, 2009 at 3:54am: WHY THE FUK MY NIGGA YOUNG DIDNT DO MY PRESIDEDNT FUK THEY HAD JAY SHOULDA HAD NAS KANYE AND MY NIGGA BUSTA AND PUFFY BUT THEM BITCHES HATIN AND BEING CHEAP

Comment by Ang13 on July 5, 2009 at 11:41am: everyone above Yung D re read what you wrote becasue you all sound as stupid as rap city bet uncut made us look. get out your moms basement and become black people because yall being niggas for so long is blowing me

Comment by plies#1fan on July 5, 2009 at 10:36pm: BET is wrong because its our ppl n we shouldnt do our own like that because others do...when r we going 2 grow up n realize alot of things we do is wrong...its no reason lil kids shouldve been on that stage if he's performing every girl...come on now ppl...but i guess every girl means kids 2 huh

Comment by Official_G on July 5, 2009 at 11:39pm: THE FUCK WUZ BET, WAYNE, AND DRAKE THINKN. WAYNE'S DAUGHTER IZ JUS A SPOILED LIL BRAT

Comment by PrettyGirl on July 7, 2009 at 12:58pm: The only thing not so good about that performance was the young girls coming out on stage while that particular song was playing. It wasn't a good look and BET should have been more careful with the airing of that scene or the kids not being able to come on stage because people from all kinds of network's were watching and waiting to find something negative to talk about.
I also agree with someone that 106& park has turned into an after school show and more adults are tunning out because of the videos and crowd BET is trying to attract.
With that said I love bet, I support them and they can do no wrong. They can make mistakes but, can be forgiving.
I love BET. That's all rap musicians have and no other network at the most.

Comment by Adore617 on July 7, 2009 at 9:51pm: BET has been on some bullshit and they need to get they shit back together. Now Lil Wayne has been one of my favs since the beginning, whether he's on some shit or not he keep putting out some hot shit, so I really don't care. But ya'll can't tell me that ya'll didn't look twice when dem little ass girls came out on stage when he singing about fucking every girl in the world, my dam mouth dropped open!! I thought he dam sure lost his mind now. After reading this, that Bryon guy kinda forced it, he didn't have to go that far with it but as a fan I am happy that I now know the whole story. I think it was a bad decision on Weezy's part given the song choice and the age of the girls but to each is own. I still love you Weezy!!