Faith W: Thanks for giving me the opportunity to call you back.
MC Lyte: I’m appreciative to do the interview.
FW: I’m glad to do it. I’ve been following your work since the late ‘80’s, early ‘90’s. I’m kind of dating myself –
Lyte: You and me both, it’s all good (laughs).
FW: You’ve got a lot of positive things in the works now. I wanted to talk to you about your reality show, “Hollywood Treatment”, right?
Lyte: Yeah. Well, that’s a tentative name. I’m not sure if that will change.
FW: Okay, but that’s the working title. Can you tell me about that?
Lyte: The show itself is wrapped around the concept of being able to give back. What happens is that young adults write in and say, “This is what I’m facing right now. This is where I am; this is where I’m trying to get to, and I don’t really know how to get from that space to the next space.” And then, at that point we search out a foundation that has been formed by a celebrity that best suits the needs of that particular person. I think with the show we’ll just be able to get into the community, and change lives, one by one.
FW: It sounds like a big turnaround for BET. There are people who have felt like BET’s programming has fallen short of it’s responsibility to represent African-Americans in a positive light. Do you feel that this show will change people’s opinions?
Lyte: There’s a huge change that has to take place within the infrastructure of any business for it to catch up; for people to notice that things have changed. Things have been changing at BET for a long time.
FW: Really?
Lyte: Yeah. In order for you to even see something like an “Uncut” missing (from programming), there had to be a whole lot happening on the back-end to make it to go away. I think you’re going to see a lot more changes that I’m already aware of that the public will be aware of, once those shows hit.
I’m happy for BET; I’m happy to be a part of BET and quite frankly, back in the day I was disgruntled with BET. But, I think here and there they’ve implimented changes at a slow pace. Their market is the 18 to 20-something age. You and I've become older, and we’re not as satiated by what teenagers are satisfied with, and we’ve expected them to grow with us, because we started with BET.
FW: Right.
Lyte: In fact, it’s kind of hard to split that demographic ; to say, “How can we satisfy both demos?” And I think with Centric, it makes them able to satisfy both demands.
FW: I’m glad to see that there are changes coming.
Lyte: Me too. It’s just a matter of them trying it to see that it works, and see that people are watching. Because the bottom line is that it’s all about ratings. If they can’t get people to watch a particular show, then they can’t pay for it. They have to get money from sponsors, and sponsors want shows that bring it a certain amount of viewership. It’s not about BET, or any network saying we don’t want to give (the viewer) positive stuff. We want to give them stuff that people are gonna watch, that are gonna bring the dollars in here, that will have this business stay up.
FW: It sounds like there are good things on the horizon.
Lyte: I think Deborah Lee is really prepared to make the changes. She inherited a beautiful job, but at the time it was hard to implement changes because there was an infrastructure there that she inherited. Now that she’s brought Loretha Jones on, and I ‘ve known her for a very long time. You'll see a change over time.
FW: Let's talk about music.There’s some talk about the direction that hip-hop is headed lyrically with regard to the dumbing down of the lyrics. There are artists who say that they don’t want to put out this kind of work, but their record label insists. How do you feel about that statement, as an artist and executive?
Lyte: As an artist, I think it’s meant for all types of hip hop to exist to make everyone happy. I think the need for balance is what throws everything off; when we’re just seeing one type of music being played on the radio, when we see one type of video getting all the airtime. I think more of a balance needs to be created.
Many people find themselves in a position where major labels are actually picking the music that they want to come out. You can create all of these great works, but labels do have a motive, and that motive is to sell records. If they feel like something is going to sell more than something else, then they are certainly going to go that route. I mean you’re on a major label, so you’ve been hired to sell records for a major company. You’re making music, which is something that you love to do, but you’re also in the business of selling music, and when you can’t, and don’t, you’ll be dropped. Then you won’t have a major record deal.
FW: Okay.
Lyte: It’s a really interesting game, but in the end it’s about making the music that you can feel proud of, whether you’re signed to a major company, or not. I happen to think it’s not one, or the other. There is a merger of the two that can happen where you can make smart music with lyrics that hide a message.
FW: I think that often when you’re a young artist it takes time to resign yourself to the business aspect of your work.
Lyte: I think that they can do both. It seems like a complicated task, but I don’t really think it is. It’s actually playing the game.
