Cancel Culture - When Culture Meets Business: The Evolution Beyond "Canceled"
image courtesy of NPR
I'm not saying what you think I mean. Cancel culture has cooled considerably, but when culture itself gets canceled, apparently it's just business.
"Suspended indefinitely" means "canceled" to discerning fans. While initial responses to the BET CEO's announcement ranged from cries of foul play to "good riddance" or accusations of gentrification, I think a more contemporary approach should celebrate the almost 20-year run. Bravo to the CEO and team who proved—alongside the BET Awards—that a sub-genre could move the cultural needle for two decades, ranking second only to the modern CMT Awards in live broadcast..
From a business perspective, the numbers didn't align. When it costs an estimated $3 million to produce the awards but generates only $1 million in ad revenue, that's a loss not worth absorbing. Factor in outside pressures—the disinvestment in CurlFest, the backlash against Essence Fest—and culture, at this moment, is experiencing a reckoning.
The CMT Awards, in their own 20-year journey, gained a boost from the cultural momentum and surgical execution of Cowboy Carter's entry into the genre. But consider this: is ShaBoozey and Beyonce appropriating country music with a Hip Hop twang? Absolutely not. You could argue the Compton Cowboys are appropriating because there are now cowboys in Compton. False too. History gets written by its observers. Yet uniquely, this culture—soul flowing with lineage through American and African history—returns us only to what was already within us and what was necessary adoption to the times and natural talents.
The BET Hip Hop Awards genuinely provided a finale celebrating the gifts of this generation's most prolific poet laureate, Kendrick Lamar. Coming off an unprecedented year, the show offered collective reckoning for Hip Hop's future, where celebrity isn't about who knows you, but who VIEWS you.
With music catalogs selling for astronomical sums, the rise of AI, and migration to mobile consumption, over-the-top awards shows—particularly for Hip Hop—this avenue is no longer the avenue to break style, drop records, or gain exposure. This generation of artists is aging out and being vaulted into their own media, investment, partnership and production empires.
Though you cannot cancel culture no matter the method, we're witnessing its evolution—becoming less monolithic and more reflective of global Black culture's collective ambition. CultureCon and InvestFest are leading empowerment gatherings with strategic partners. These budding institutions have built platforms for longevity, and I believe these businesses emerging from New York represent new cultural centers that will guide culture's future ambitions with hip-hop flowing through their veins.
We are the generation poised to change power dynamics as we usher a new generation into the YouTube and TikTok era. This generation dreams of creating content, not necessarily making hip-hop. The writing is on the wall, but for now, let's admire the graffiti we've developed, the movements we've led, the trends we've started, the careers we've launched—and applaud the two decades that honored the culture.
Now may be the calling to own the culture.
Mike A. W.
