Sunday’s BET Awards may have scored its largest audience for the network, but the event’s producers are coming under fire for a performance featuring Grammy winning rap star Lil Wayne.
The entertainer’s set, which featured fellow rapper Drake and a troupe of teenage dancers, was met with criticism from Columbia University clinical instructor Dr. Janet Taylor, who questioned BET CEO Debra Lee for green lighting Lil Wayne’s performance of his hit song “Every Girl” despite the risqué dance from the teens on stage.
“Perhaps, they are what our kids are used to. I have teenagers, girls no less, who have heard the song and like it,” Taylor told MomLogic.com while referencing the song’s lyrics. “My problem was with the preteens who were proudly onstage, shaking their groove thang to this misogynistic, disrespectful song. It was ridiculous. Debra Lee, the CEO of BET, also the mother of two children, should be asking herself who approved this and how these young girls were allowed to be a part of this ‘act.'”
Taylor’s comments come days after an emotional night at the BET Awards.
Nielsen Media Research shows the Jamie Foxx-hosted show, which was dedicated to the memory of music icon Michael Jackson, was a ratings success by drawing the cable channel’s largest audience on record with an average of 10.65 million viewers.
As a result, the viewership of this year’s BET Awards was more than any other cable broadcast this year and more than any prime-time show on the major networks.
Despite this, the scholar stated how her daughters thought the rapper’s performance “‘was strange’ and inappropriate.”
“They were embarrassed for the girls. I agree,” Taylor added.
Representatives have not responded to the criticism as of press time.
