
Benzino didn’t maintain again when he known as out Joe for speaking about BET’s behind-the-scenes strikes. In line with the previous editor-in-chief of The Supply, Fats Joe’s time as host didn’t assist enhance the model.
“Why Fats Joe mentioned it’s gentrification, after they let his ass host the awards two years earlier?” Benzino mentioned on Instagram Dwell. “The rankings have been the worst ever after he hosted it. Was it gentrification whenever you was internet hosting it, Joey? Cease, man. Joe, you’re placing out an excessive amount of misinformation on the web, bro. You gotta do higher, man.”
Fats Joe not too long ago claimed that BET’s points are tied to its shift away from Black possession and tradition, calling the cancellation of the reveals “a type of gentrification.” Joe additionally mentioned the community’s been slashing budgets and quietly firing workers.
“Little by little through the years, quietly, they’ve been firing lots of people behind the scenes in BET and all people who has one thing to say, they’ve been firing them,” Joe mentioned on his Joe and Jada podcast with Jadakiss. “The price range, not for me, however the price range simply stored getting chopped and chopped and chopped.”
Benzino Fats Joe BET Awards
The BET Hip-Hop Awards have seen a gradual drop in viewership over the past three years. Coincidentally, all three years function one fixed: Fats Joe because the host. In 2022, the present pulled in round 708,000 viewers.
The next yr, that quantity slipped to 657,000. In 2024, simply 333,000 folks tuned in, over half of what that they had in 2022. In fact, it could be unfair to pin such a dramatic drop on Joe alone, however Benzino is arguing that his presence on the present contributed to that, if nothing else.
The BET Hip-Hop Awards have been a cultural touchstone for over a decade. Nevertheless, an elevated lack of information of what is scorching and what is not, mixed with modifications to the community’s enterprise mannequin haven’t finished the present any favors lately. BET intends to “reimagine” each that ceremony and the Soul Prepare Awards, with them probably being again for 2026.