Jimmie Allen, one of the few Black singers in contemporary country music, has enjoyed a couple of hits at country radio and performed at the CMA Festival last week singing the National Anthem at the Nissan Stadium show on Sunday night (6/9).
Before he took the stage, Jimmie shared his thoughts with us about BET not including country music in their coverage of artists, “BET stands for ‘Black Entertainment Television,’ not hip-hop, not R&B, nothing… it’s black entertainment. So, if I’m a black entertainer it doesn’t matter if I’m singing gospel, rock, jazz, hip-hop, country… I feel like it should be represented on BET.”
He continued to explain, “The last thing I want my son to see, as a black man in America, is for him to see a network that’s supposed to represent us and pigeon hole him to just two genres of music. That’s not how I want my son to see us as black people. Like, ‘No son, we do all kinds of music.’ And I feel like as a black man it’s my responsibility to reach out to BET whether it’s run by black people, whether it’s run by whites or Mexicans, it doesn’t matter, it still stands for ‘Black Entertainment Television,’ so that channel is a representation of us and I feel like it’s my obligation to do anything I can to expand the exposure of music that is done by black people on BET.”
Allen took to the CMA Fest ball pit after speaking with us. He posted to Instagram, “B.A.L.L.S”
-Nancy Brooks