MTV Base (MTV)

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Product:	MTV
Date:	07/08/02 (4394 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Exclusive Videos, Interesting Special, No Pop Music

Disadvantages: Music Videos Are Repeated At Nausea

MTV Base is the hip-hop channel phenomena, which has opened up a whole new world for hip-hop heads across the country. Traditionally, hip-hop was very rarely aired and apart from the Beastie Boys, the music style, which was played, was rock and roll. Since the emergence of Run DMC, MTV has opened up a whole new channel devoted to base music artists such as Usher, Mary J. Blige, Ja Rule and Jay-Z.

There are various shows, which are aired excluding the music videos. The Late Lick is a 1 hour show hosted by BBC radios Trevor Nelson and provides those in the UK with the latest hip hop news and advice when it comes to album buying. Because it is supported by MTV, this show often gets special interviews and live performances from the likes of Usher, Aaliyah (R.I.P) and other huge names in the industry.

Stripped is also a regular show, the most recent is the Mystique stripped show, but in general, the show just asks the artists personal questions so that the viewers can better understand their lives etc.

RAW, Fresh, Flashback and The Lick Chart are all shows which are based around music videos. Rather than playing the latest, Flashback plays the top videos from the past, whereas RAW plays basically Raw hip-hop, Fresh plays the latest videos and the Lick Chart plays the most played tunes on the channel.

The Base Request show allows viewers to text message request songs, unlike Kiss and the Box this doesn't cost a bomb and the text message is only 20p. In addition any song can be requested as long as it is hip-hop or R 'n' B, from 2Pac to Ms. Dynamite.

MTV Base is only available on cable and in order to have it you must update to the supreme package so in that respect it is expensive but the actual shows are very rarely repeated and the crew often endeavour to create new and exciting shows for hip-hop R 'n' B fanatics.

The television schedule is brilliant. Specials and New shows are aired during th
e evening, but they are also repeated the next day in case for some reason viewers were unable to watch them.

The actual channel very rarely airs any films even if they do contain artists. This would be a criticism of the channel. For instance, Training Day would never be aired on the channel despite the fact that it contains Dr Dre, one of the biggest stars in the hip-hop industry.

Apart from the Late Lick and Trevor Nelson dropping by occasional, there are no real series or soaps. In this respect it is in complete contrast with MTV UK, which has shows such as The Real World and now the new Stripped.

There is a variety of Sports programs. For instance, during the world cup, there was a football special in which football players such as Trevor Sinclair appeared and talked about how they became footballers and the type of music and background they grew up with. In addition, there was a How To Live Like A Baller special in which basketball players described their daily routines etc. The channel has actual aired a basketball match. It was an exclusive special in which Little Bow Wow, P. Diddy, Method Man and other major stars competed against each other for charity. It was interesting to see how the artists got on with each other.

There are a lot of repeats as you would expect from any music orientated channel, but shows are also repeated, for instance the 2Pac videography has been repeated over 4 times. In saying this, the channel brings exclusive videos that are never aired on any other channel, which is refreshing and reassuring to hear.

There is usually an advert break after 4 or 5 songs which is about fifteen minutes but I usually only watch the channel during breaks on other channels so it doesn't actually bother me that much and the breaks are relatively short, only 2 or 3 adverts.

There is also a News factor to this channel. For instance, MTV Base News recently reported on the arrest of R.Kelly for porn
ography. There is no doubt that the site keeps users up to date on hip-hop issues.

MTV Base is an excellent and introspective channel, which has helped me, appreciate and understand hip hop more than I ever could without it. Although the original may be immature and repetitive, the Base version endeavours to provide the latest and greatest in the hip hop world.

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