Tomorrow will be seven years since the last episode of BET’s Un:Cut, the nightly hour long special that aired back-to-back hip-hop videos, focusing on the more explicit ones—Nelly's "Tip Drill" would eventually land the show under controversy, and eventually would lead to its cancellation.
To celebrate (rather, to mourn) the anniversary, The Village Voice’s Chaz Kangas caught up with a handful of artists who were featured on the show to discuss those golden days. Here are some highlights from MURS, Black Jesus and more:
Murs on discovering Un:Cut for the first time:
"I can't recall. There was just a group of us, we had one homeboy whose dad worked nights, so we would all be at his house every night playing Goldeneye, drinking and smoking. The first time I heard about it, I had passed out early and the next morning everybody was singing the "Zip-Loc Bag" song. I was like "I have to see this." We couldn't believe what we were seeing because some of the songs and videos were so bad, in a good way. I think the "Tip Drill" video is a national treasure. Me and Fashawn did a "Tribute to BET Un:Cut," but we used Monopoly money."
Murs on being recognized from the show:
"Being the regular average black male that I am, I finally started getting noticed at Roscoe's [Chicken and Waffles] by people who never paid attention to me before then. I think that was before the hood was on the Internet, which is why it was so successful. There was a mall I used to go to every Sunday, and now people were like "You're that guy." I'm extremely thankful for BET doing something like that. It was entertaining many a night and it was my first national video. I wish they would bring it back."
Crazy Al Cayne upon being asked whether UnCut inspired his “T&A” video:
"The whole concept of "T&A" was making fun of Un:Cut. It was like a parody of the videos they played on Un:Cut at the time. A lot of the videos had to have a dime piece girl with big breasts and big ass, so we made a parody of it like an audition for a video."
Read the whole tribute over at the Voice.
[via The Village Voice]
