Soul Train's Last Stop...

Soul Train Music Awards derailed

Fri Apr 18, 9:29 AM ET

LOS ANGELES (Reuters Life!) - It's the end of the line for the Soul Train Music Awards, which have largely been ignored by the African-American stars the event aims to honor.  A spokeswoman said the show would not go ahead with its 22nd annual installment this year, but a reason was not specified.

At last year's event in Pasadena, most of the winners did not show up, including such A-listers as Beyonce Knowles, Mary J. Blige, John Legend and Gnarls Barkley.

The show takes place a few weeks after the Grammys, the music industry's top awards. Similarly themed ceremonies like the BET Awards have also provided some competition.

Perhaps more critically, the underlying syndicated dance show "Soul Train" ended its historic run in 2006. It was distributed by Tribune Entertainment, which exited the syndication business when billionaire Sam Zell took its Tribune Co. parent private late last year in a highly leveraged deal.

The "Soul Train" TV show has served as an important promotional springboard for black music's biggest stars since launching in national syndication in 1971. It claimed to be the longest-running show airing in first-run syndication.

The franchise is the brainchild of Don Cornelius, an ambitious Chicago DJ who decided in the late '60s that there was a need for a TV show featuring young black people dancing to recorded music. Few shared his view, and he self-funded a pilot in 1969. It aired on a Chicago TV station the following year, and quickly became a hit.

Cornelius, famed for an expansive afro in his younger days, hosted the show for the first 22 years. But he has kept a low public profile and rarely consents to interviews. He tearfully accepted a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement in 2005.

(Reporting by Dean Goodman; Editing by Patricia Reaney)

What do I think?  I think it's a shame when our own artists can't even support such a driving force in the music business.  Honestly speaking, a Soul Train Award or a Lady of Soul Award held more power in the Black community than the BET Awards ever could hope to, yet stars are flocking to that mess.  You win a BET Award for being all up and through BET, but a Soul Train Award meant that your record played on Black radio and you had a spot on the Soul Train weekly series.  And yes, the Grammys hold a lot more clout in mainstream America, but surely, that is pretty much whitewashed.  Our OWN artists can't even support those groundbreaking shows that WE created, WE funded, and WE hosted.

I've always been a fan of the Soul Train weekly series, and I always figured that when they showed more and more reruns that the show was doomed.  For the last two seasons, they have shown "Best of" type shows, which I did enjoy for the nostalgia.  That gave me the chance to see performances by Minnie Riperton, The Emotions, James Ingram, Marvin Gaye, etc.  Granted, with the onset of competing shows, and declining interest, I would expect it to end...

However, the fact that mainstream America can pick up on the fact that OUR OWN stars can't attend our OWN events bothers me.  I remember there being this furor with MTV/Soul Train a few years back, with MTV saying that if stars performed on the Soul Train Awards, or its sister award show, The Lady of Soul Awards, that they could not perform on the MTV Video Music Awards.  What fresh hell is that?  I remember there being a big stink about that, where the NAACP got involved and Alicia Keys, Destiny's Child and others boycotting the VMAs.  Fast forward a few years and we don't even have a Soul Train Awards, a Lady of Soul Awards, a Christmas Starfest, or even the Soul Train weekly series??

Something is blatantly WRONG here...

Mark my words:  Showtime At the Apollo is next...

Lord, Help Me Understand...

Whattup...

Random relationship drama/thoughts...

You want to know when are we going to be a couple, officially? When I ask you via text message (I know, tacky), you say, "I want you to say it to me." When I call you on the phone, and say it then, you want me to say it in person. When I say it to you in person, you basically tell me that you don't trust me? And yes, you telling me you are insecure about my friends is letting me know that you don't trust me.

You want me to be patient with your "trust issues", but you feel the need to throw every bit of sarcasm in every part of conversation regarding my friends. Yes, I am at my friend's house, but NO, we are not screwing or frolicking around. Yes, I am hanging out with my brother, but NO, we are not gallivanting around the city of Jacksonville, looking for our next conquest. Yes, I am at work, but NO, that does not mean that I am watching every a** that comes through the door.

Well...I am an a** man...

What is it about me being totally upfront and honest about everything that does not get respected? I tell you about my friends that I hang with and how I know them and why I hang with them, the FEW close friends that I have. I have practically neglected even those closest to me just so I can get the chance to know you, and yet, YET, that goes unanswered. I told you about my exes and lack of sexual activity these past six months (BY CHOICE), and yet, I just MUST be effing with my friends.

Do you want me to treat you like the others have treated you? Do you want me to cheat on you like the others have? Do you want me to neglect you and ignore your calls like those before me? Do you really want me to forget to call, text, email, etc. like those other ones?

Or do you just want me to be the best me that I can be?

I'm just saying...!

What Have You Done For Me Lately?

Whattup!

It amazes me that some of the people closest in your life tend to put a value on your friendship/relationship. What is that about?

People tend to think that friendships should be valued by how much you have spent on them, what you have done for them, what you have done with them, etc. Why is there such a materialistic value placed on those closest to us?

I have a "friend"/co-worker who recently challenged my level of friendship to her. She called me and said that she had taken inventory of our friendship over the past two years and that she couldn't think of anything that I had done for her, while she has given so much to me. Mind you, this is after she practically cussed me OUT at work in front of a couple of co-workers, and they ever felt I didn't do anything that should have garnered that. I digress; she has given me so much and I haven't given her a thing.

Lest she forgets about all those phone calls where I provided a listening ear for her and an unbiased opinion. Lest she forget about all the times I ever offered to pay for something for her to which she seemed to get offended, except for the couple times that she allowed me to pay for her food at Panera Bread or The Cheesecake Factory. Lest she forgets that I was one of the FEW people who have had her back at work and defend her whenever anyone else talks MADD SH*T about her behind her back. Lest she forgets about the couple of times I walked around with her just to make sure that she was home safely versus walking the mean streets of Arlington by herself.

But no, since I haven't spent $4,000 on her, or bought her a Movado watch, or paid for her college tuition, or a tennis bracelet from Kay Jewelers, or bought anything of any real concrete value, I'm not a good enough friend.

Damn, with friends like this, who really needs enemies??

I'm out...