2642285, That was a different era... a very consciously conscious era.
Posted by AFKAP_of_Darkness, Thu Dec-22-11 11:34 AM
Sure, today the Soul Train Awards is just another meaningless celebrity soiree but it kinda meant something back in those days... It was only place that recognized "real" Black artists. And it usually seemed fishy when they would slip in more mainstream darlings.
If you want to get an idea of what the STA was like back then, see if you can find the footage from 1990 when Heavy D & the Boyz won (I just searched and couldn't find it on the 'Tube). Check out how the crowd cheered when Hev said "I'm glad to be Black... even though I'm a yellow Black!" and when he proclaimed "I got SOUL!!"
That was one of the most unapologetically Black things I remembered seeing on American broadcast television at that point.
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