To friends, colleagues and those that should know,

As of today (September 8, 2009) I am no longer the Executive Editor of Music at BET.com.

Upon entering the position at BET I said that I needed one year to see what really went on inside the belly of the beast. I needed 365 days to sleep with the enemy and infiltrate the system. One year to see if they REALLY wanted change at BET.

As someone who has been critical of BET for many years, it surprised many that I would leave my post at HipHopDX last year to take a position at BET. But it was an opportunity I absolutely had to take. I could no longer be critical of this company without accepting the opportunity to change it when given. Although I was hired to bring about change, I was systematically shut down. I wasn’t hired to make noise, I was hired to be silenced.

The truth of the matter is that everything that you thought was wrong with BET is true.

Over the past year I’ve seen a lot to reinforce my position that BET is too far gone in the negative to turn into a positive. We have all always thought the worst, but to actually see it in action is another thing in its entirety. The unprofessionalism, the tom foolery, the favors, the misappropriation of resources, the bad ideas that reinforce negative stereotypes, the emasculation of men, the meetings that break down in full fledged cursing battles, the unpaid overtime, the tears from employees scared for their underpaid and overworked positions and ultimately the unwillingness to change are all harsh realities that I’ve witnessed firsthand.

That is not to say that there aren’t some good people who have sat in the offices of BET. Unfortunately, the good people are not in positions of power to instill any change. Instead, they work their fingers to the bone just to keep their jobs in this harsh economic climate. The other good people ran out of the door as soon as an another employment opportunity presented itself. To say BET was a revolving door would be an understatement.

I came in with a plan to provide balance and to deliver good music to the masses and help make BET relevant again – at least in the dot com world. Those attempts were shut down by out of touch executives who run a dot com but could barely turn on a computer. By those who judge their metrics by page views over absolute unique visitors (that‘s ad sales talk). By those who simply don’t understand the internet.

They brought me in because of my track record but never once took a look at my body of work. If they did, they would have known that I was the pen behind editorials such as “BET’s Coon Picnic” or were aware of the many times I have been critical of their award shows and programming. All they knew is that I played a major role in making a once unknown website into a online media outlet that surpassed theirs and they wanted a piece of the action. Too bad they never researched who I really was.

During my tenure I worked long hours and sometimes succeeded at bringing in decent content to try to reflect the change I wanted to achieve. But it wasn’t without opposition. While some interviews and content initiatives were able to make it through, many others were either shut down or met with ridicule. I offered ideas to incorporate the blog world and to spotlight new talent before MTV did. Those ideas were met with comments such as “This isn’t HipHopDX” or “You don’t know what you are talking about.”

BET is not about the quality of your work. Rather, BET is about the relationships you have with powerful people within the company. BET is not about challenging. Instead, BET is about accepting and saying “yes.” If you have known or followed me over the years, you would know that these are things that simply are not in my character and ultimately resulted in my removal.

For the artists and labels that I have worked with for years, I tried. I did whatever I could to achieve that balance many of us wanted to see happen. To the writers who wanted to writer for BET, I made an attempt but was never given a budget to work with.

Upon my arrival, I was told I would be given a staff. Not true. I had a staff of one to carry out daily operations on a website. I fought tooth and nail to accomplish the minimum (an embeddable player and a site people could navigate) and was constantly brushed off. It was a position that was set up for failure. But I endured as long as I could.

Alas, I have been removed from my position after infiltrating the system and the timing was perfect. I wasn’t let go because the site’s numbers were down. Not because I didn’t work hard. Simply because of a personality clash with an individual whose proverbial ass I didn’t kiss enough. Again, not about the work you do but about the relationships you keep and the sides you take.

I’d like to thank BET for covering the cost of my relocation to bring me to the great city of New York/New Jersey. I’d also like to thank them for putting me in close quarters with people who think like me and will hopefully work with in the near future. I’d also like to thank them for providing me enough controversial content that I observed firsthand and will make for many tales to be told.

I said it and I meant in: One year to either make changes or move on. I left HipHopDX on September 16th 2008. Today is September 8, 2009. Eight days short of a year. Most thought I wouldn’t even last that long. But in that year I’ve had my greatest fears about Black Entertainment Television affirmed.

There is so much wrong with BET that I’d rather not break it down in a single email.

It is pretty good fodder for a book don’t you think?

As of today, Andreas Hale is a free agent.

Hi, I am writing to let models, dancers, and actresses know about a Music video director that has done videos for Busta, Styles P ft Swizz Beatz, Capone and others. This Dir. has a reputation of doing “favors” for models by calling them in to do a video, but there will be no pay. I did one video for this director for a Busta Rhymes Video. The craigslist ad said it was paying but then when the Dir contacted me they then said sorry we don’t have the budget for it even though the ad says there will be compensation. I let that one slide because it was good exposure. This Director then contacted me to do two videos in one day and since I live a while from where the video was the Director said that they would give me $300.00 for the shoot. I agreed, I showed up to the shoot did what I was asked to do and acted professional. At the end of the shoot the Director gave me $100.00 in cash and said that they would give me the rest later and they promised they would have it for me. I got a text the next morning on Sun Feb,22 2009 at 10:18am saying verbatim “Hey would you happen to be free tomorrow? I can give you the $200.00 in ur hand. I got that DJ Webstar ft Divine from the dey and Jim Jones video tomorrow.” I replied to the dir text but received no answer.
I kept checking in asking when would I have the money, always being polite. The dir would either ignore my texts or tell me “you gotta wait like everyone else”. Another time I texted the Dir and asked when they could send the money and they said they were going out of town, I thought what they don’t have a post office where you are going? After many ignored or blown off texts I sent a few messages on my space and eventually got a reply. This dir said that I did not come prepared which is not true, and they said that every other girl that showed up came prepared, signed contracts, and got paid which is also not true. That day of the shoot when I spoke to the other models they said that it was their first video, and that they were not getting paid for it. This is what I replied to him the second time.

“Oh also i do not care about the other girls, what I am concerned about is My money that I worked for. You told me you were paying me $300.00 for the City Haze and Pop Dukes video. You gave me $100.00 the day of the shoot and you told me you would have the other $200.00 for me soon. In a text that you sent me on Feb 22 at 10:18am you wrote verbatim (word for word) “Hey would you happen to be free tomorrow? I can give you the $200 in ur hand. I got that dj webstar ft divine from the dey and jim jones video tomorrow.” I wrote you back asking about the times and where it would be and you never responded. I also do not know how it was possible for you to text me telling me you could give me the money in my hand if I came to the shoot but you could not mail it to me after I had sent you my address both through a text and msgs on myspace. I asked you nicely over the next few weeks about the money and most of the time you ignored me or said things like I don’t know when I will have it, or next month, or im going out of town. Are you telling me that there was no post office where you went that you could send my money to me? I am not a stupid girl (directors name), I am a model and dancer, but I am also a college graduate who’s a diplomat and my family is important. I know what I was told I was getting and I would never try to get money that does not belong to me I am not dirty like that. Even from the short time you worked with me you could tell that I am a respectful, polite, educated, professional female, and I do not appreciate being blown off, taken advantage of, and lied to. I am just trying to collect what is legally mine since we had both an oral agreement and you sent me those texts. Please be professional and honest and contact me any way you can so we can handle business like educated professional adults. “

I want to make sure that this Director pays me my money and if they do not I will tell their name to everyone so Models, dancers, and actresses do not deal with someone like this. I have never been rude to this person still to this day, and I have always been respectful and polite but that money is legally mine. Also I am receiving my BA degree in Political Science and I am a diplomat so I am not some random chick that is not educated (not saying that models, dancer, and actresses are not educated I am just speaking about myself).
J.G.

Your site ran a story claiming that Keshia was involved with the recent Chris Brown/Rihanna incident. Keshia was in no way involved and we ask that you please run a correction or retraction. Below is the official statement from Miss Chante’s manager, Mona Scott-Young / Monami Entertainment:

“It has been reported that recording artist/actress Keshia Chante was involved with the alleged domestic dispute involving Chris Brown and Rihanna on Sunday morning 2/8 in Los Angeles. Management has definitively clarified that Keshia Chante was not involved in any way nor was she with Chris Brown or Rihanna at any point during the alleged incident.”

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.