The Soul Train Awards and the BET Hip-Hop Awards have been put on hold indefinitely due to disappointing ratings. The Soul Train Awards made their debut on Black Entertainment Television (BET) in 2009. The BET Awards started in 2001 on BET.
Both events have seen declining ratings in recent years as the public shows less interest in mumble rap and drill music.
The BET Hip-Hop Awards, however, remain unaffected by this suspension.
BET CEO Scott Mills verified the suspensions during a conversation with Billboard. He clarified that the events are not canceled; they are “put on hold indefinitely.” No timeline has been disclosed regarding their potential return.
“It’s not about them being over; rather, it’s about our team needing to rethink them for this ever-evolving media landscape,” Mills commented to Billboard.
Mills indicated that his team is exploring options for transitioning the awards shows to a new platform.
“So, pertaining to BET linear, we have paused the Soul Train and Hip-Hop award shows. However, we have a team actively considering where these awards could thrive as the media environment continues to change,” he stated.
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Bots and phony listeners on Spotify
Certain Hip-Hop journalists attribute rising issues to “bots” on music-streaming platforms like Spotify that artificially inflate songs’ popularity and create fake listener counts.
Bots are automated scripts functioning on Spotify and various music services that wrongfully amplify the number of streams, likes, and invented listeners.
Others hold record labels accountable for financially supporting influencers and podcasters to push songs and albums that wouldn’t typically receive radio play.
One member of a manosphere forum asserted: “They’re not backing the music because there are no remarkable tracks charting as there were seven years ago.”
Recently, Hip-Hop podcaster Akademiks revealed that hip-hop journalists had received compensation from a record label to promote the Clipse album.