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July 29, 2007

Hot Ghetto Mess is a hot ghetto mess

Having been to hotghettomess.com from time to time over the past however many years of existence, I understood the conversation about the purpose of the show was hopeful that it would scratch the surface.

After the first segment, I was sure that they had failed. However, after the first "street walking" installment, I changed my mind a little. A street team, led by a guy who I actually thought was very good, asks passersby of all ages, colors and socio-economic appearances questions like:

"Who's richer? Jay-Z or Bill Gates?" and the follow-up if they said Gates - "what if Jay-Z made like, one more hit album and followed it up with a world tour?"

"How many blacks are on the Supreme Court and what are their names?"

"What does NAACP stand for?"

"When did slavery end?"

"What's the unemployment rate amongst African-Americans?"

"Who is Barack Obama?"

You can imagine some of the answers. Actually, some of them you probably can't. After three black men old enough to have at least been in their teens or 20s during the civil rights movement had no idea what NAACP stands for, I kinda wanted to cry.

By the end, I've decided that I think the show speaks to exactly who it's aimed at. For me personally, I wanted a little more finesse, some statistics, maybe some study results. But they producers probably (hopefully probably), left such things out by choice. The host is Charlie Murphy, he's dressed in "tasteful" hip-hop, as is his language. In the end he included a comment about how we all should be watching less TV a reading more books - making every effort at every moment to better ourselves. Then the show closes on him reading aloud from, wait for it... an adult novel (or a racy scene from some novel).

So yeah.

I will be tuning in, if only to catch more of the street walking segments.

Posted by nikl at July 29, 2007 03:28 PM

Comments

Just heard Charlie Murphy interviewed on Stern. Apparently they are changing the title of the show now to "We Need to do Better." Not as catchy, but more to the point.

Posted by: Beth at August 2, 2007 11:03 AM

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