Stanley Crouch of the New York Daily News wrote a scathing commentary on MTV’s 25th Anniversary. He claims that it elevated the pimp culture to mainstream status in the black community, helping to stain the black contributions to American culture.
[MTV projected] the most dehumanizing images of black people since the dawn of minstrelsy in the 19th century. Pimps, whores, potheads, dope dealers, gangbangers, the crudest materialism and anarchic gang violence were broadcast around the world as "real" black culture.
At first, far too many black people were taken in by the cult of celebrity and the wealth that came to these gold- toothed knuckleheads and mindless hussies to realize what was happening. The lowest possible common denominator was seen as the norm. The illiteracy and rule-of-thumb stupidity was interpreted as a "cultural" rejection of white middle-class norms.