Man, I really miss indepth interviews with recording artists. It wasn't just the music, but it was also about the artist themselves.

Donnie Simpson is a class act.

Basically todays artists have NOTHING TO SAY, cant get in depth with....."yeah i chose this beat because...." Jay Leno said this about doing the Tonight Show, when Johnny did the show it was 90minutes at one time and he had 3 segments with guests, for Jay he cut the guests down to about 9 minutes for the main guest and 4 for the secondary, BECAUSE THEY HAVE NOTHING TO SAY!

Those were the dayz...



..

ThreadBare said:

No doubt.

I always post this interview when someone mentions video soul.

Donnie was sooo corny..lol..growing up in DC,we'd clown him so much,hut the show was good..Sherrie Carter was just as corny too..lol

SavonOsco said:

God, I cannot stand that woman

This is funny video soul moment...


Vesta is such a damn fool
[Edited 12/25/09 3:00am]

BET was really strange in my area. I can remember it as far back as the early 1980s but it originally started out on channel 01. Not many people had channel 1 in those days unless they had a TV that had the push buttons with the digital channel where you could press 01 because most TVs had the rotary dial that started with channel 2. My grandmother had one though and I remember watching "Video Soul" one night, and one night only, way back in the early 1980s. They played Prince's "I Wanna Be Your Lover" and several videos from Third World. They didn't have many videos at all and they repeated the same show again afterwards. The next night, BET was no longer on channel 1 and I never saw it again until the late 1980s.

Then when the late 1980s came, it was on one of the upper channels, maybe channel 11 or something (in those days cable was only channels 2-13). This would have been around 1987 because I could hear the videos "Looking For A New Love" by Jody Watley and "Mia Bocca" by Jill Jones. I could only hear them, I couldn't see them because the channel was scrambled like a premium channel would be that you haven't paid extra for. The very next year, I was at my grandmother's house and spent the night. I worked at a convenience store up the street from her house and worked the night shift that night and had to turn around and work the morning shift the next day so I just spent the night over at her house rather than driving all the way home. BET was fully on the air and showing at her house by then. I remember staying up till all hours of the night watching it until she came in and cussed me out and forced me to go to bed. I didn't get BET at my house (well, my mother's house) until the early 1990s. By then, I could care less about it because music had changed for the worst. But I did enjoy watching a few house music videos during that era though.

I remember when that Mariah interview originally aired. She seemed so innocent and down-to-earth back then. I miss that part of her. Now, she seems so stiff and always posing during interviews.

SavonOsco said:

I wasn't a fan of Sherrie, but I wouldn't consider Donnie "corny". Are you speaking of him as a radio personality? or a television personality?

You must remember that Donnie had to appeal to the masses and NOT just DC. At the time, he was the perfect representative to appeal to the audience for Video Soul. He was young enough that kids would like it and he was wholesom enough to appeal to parents.

vainandy said:

Well, at least you got that! My parents got a satellite dish in about 84 or 85. At the time, it was one of the BIG dishes that you had to go and crank by hand. I rember adjusting to G5(I believe) to receive the signal. I would spend at least an hour screaming to my brother checking to see if we had a signal.

The big dishes were a pain in the butt, but you had more control over what you could watch. I remember watching television show feeds. I especially loved watching the feeds and commercials that would come down for shows like Soul Train, Arsenio Hall and more. I would watch Arsenio Hall 3 to 4 hours before it actually aired in my market.

I vividly remember seeing these interviews (especially the Jody Watley and Vesta interviews). BET actually had a few morals about themselves during that time. At one time, they didn't play videos or music they considered "degrading". Now, morals are out the window and the almighty dollar has taken over.

daPrettyman said:

We were kids..mass appeal wasn't our concern..lol..but of course I understand that now..hell, we used to wait for BET news,so we could drool over Madeline Woods..she was hot..I wonder what became of her

daPrettyman said:

Ironic how programming changed once Bob Johnson sold the channel to Viacom..Once Black Entertainment became run by white executives the programming went downhill..but that could be a whole other thread

I remember a year or two ago before BETJ changed to Centric they was playing old episodes of Video Soul


I saw this one with Tevin Campbell - won't embedded



http://www.youtube.com/wa...Tbi_aPtukQ

SavonOsco said:

It started going downhill before he sold it. It started going down right before they got rid of Donny. I watched the premiere of "The One" and Rachel interviewed Mayte. That was extremely hard to watch. Rachel was cute, but not a good interviewer.

daPrettyman said:

I was thinking the same thing. By the time Viacom bought BET, I thought what more could they do to it that wasn't already done. When I was in college in the mid 90's BET had already gone down hill.
[Edited 12/27/09 22:15pm]

Wow, I can't believe that Mariah Carey ever existed.

I loved both Donnie Simpson and fine Sherrie Carter.

Good times, good times...

AlexdeParis said:

I thought Sherrie was a good interviewer. The only host I really despised was Rachel. Even Madeline (who did Video Vibes and filled in on Video Soul) was decent.

daPrettyman said:

That I will agree on and Rachel was so fine..I never noticed how bad an interviewer she was..she was more in her element on carribean rhythms..half of the time she spoke..I truly wasn't listening ..lol

Yeah, I was OK with Rachel's fine ass being on Caribbean Rhythms, but she had no business being on the main stage... well, not interviewing people at least.

My favorite was The Unseen VJ. He used to have great Monday Music Marathons and when he had a Prince marathon, he went all the way back. He also played a lot of house music when no one else was.

I loved the Unseen VJ, too. I miss BET.

Jody looked hot but she's boring as hell in that video.

And Mariah, oh Mariah what happened? So beautiful, mysterious, so much cooler and credible then you think you are now!

Her story on how she got a record deal is truly like a movie...

mancabdriver said:

AlexdeParis said:

What was that guy's name that did that show (I think it was Video Vibes)?

daPrettyman said:

His name is Alvin Jones and it was indeed Video Vibrations. He'll always be the Unseen VJ to me.

AlexdeParis said:

That's it! I think he was a DC radio personality.

http://alvinjones.com/index.html



[Edited 12/30/09 8:11am]