This Thursday, President Barack Obama will hold a town hall discussion with 250 young people in Washington D.C.  The discussion, called “A Conversation With President Obama,” will air on MTV, BET, CMT, Tf3s, mtvU and Centric, according to MTV.com.

Viacom President and CEO Philippe Dauman announced in a statement, "We know that America's youth hold strong views about the challenges our country faces as well as their own aspirations for the future. We are honored that the President has chosen to appear on our cable networks to continue his dialogue with the nation's young people."

The direct audience will be pre-selected to ensure that there are a wide range of political views and interests in the audience.  Some critics, including Sunlen Miller on ABC News, say this takes away the authenticity of the conversation.

However, the conversation is meant to reach a much larger audience.  The President will also be taking questions that he receives via Twitter.  You can submit questions by using the hashtag “#ask”. MTV.com explains, “If you'd like to ask President Obama about how he plans to create jobs, you'd tweet "#askjobs" and then your question. If it's a question about education, you'd tweet "#askeducation."

The show will air live at 4 p.m. ET/ 3 p.m. CT (and tape-delayed at 4 p.m. PT) on MTV, BET, CMT, mtvU, Centric and Tr3s. The show will also be made available on-demand 30 days after its initial airing.

MTV has a lively history with politics. The network has interviewed Bill Clinton, George Bush, Al Gore and others, always asking the untraditional questions.  A few remarks might ring familiar. "If you had it to do over again, would you inhale?" was posed to presidential candidate Bill Clinton.  According to MTV.com he replied, "Sure, if I could. I've tried before." 

Others might remember when Sway Calloway interviewed Barack Obama back when he was a senator. Obama told Calloway, "I think passing a law about people wearing sagging pants is a waste of time. We should be focused on creating jobs, improving schools, getting heath care, dealing with the war in Iraq. Having said that, brothers should pull up their pants."  This Thursday's discussion aims to continue MTV's tradition of engaging young people in politics.

Nicki Minaj has the most animated freestyle and holds it down for the ladies (what ever happened to Rah Digga? just asking), Joe Budden displays the coldest flow out of the bunch, Buckshot is the average o.g. rhymer and Crown Royyal deffinately has the sickest style in the first of the 2009 BET Hip-Hop Awards Cyphers.

MMMM. Now that's some good ol' RAPPING!

Does anybody outside of New York know who Crown Royyal is? Dude! step your visual game up.

Guess if you're not a part of the main hip hop blogosphere or on MTV then you're a on "underground status". Wait. This actually gives BET hella more hip hop credit! Read more...

By Venus Morris

This weekend the BET Hip Hop music Awards had a successful night without having any complications from Kanye West because he failed to show up.

The show went down in Atlanta, Georgia and will air on October 27th. With  a host of names including Jay-Z, Young Jeezy, Lil’ Wayne, Drake, Gucci Mane, and  Fabolous. Yet Kanye pulled a no show, even though he was leading the line up with 9 nominations.

So the big question is: Where are you Mr.West?

“Kanye might do some dumb things, but he’s smart. He knows he needs to come back from this break changed, and that isn’t going to happen at some rehab overlooking the ocean. He goes to India, he has a chance to come back seeming like he learned something from what happened.”

An MSNBC report offers up the "Spiritual Guidance in India" theory. Perhaps like The Beatles before him, Yeezy can hit the subcontinent,  step back, look at his reality and find inner peace.While this information has not been confirmed yet, we really hope he is get getting his mind right so he can kick off 2010 with a great start.

Our favorite TV-watching Youth Radio alum is at it again. 

Today The Latifah takes on BET and gives the network a scathingly funny dressing down. Your editor's personal favorites:

10. 106 & Park—Dumb, dumb, dumb. Besides the fact that Terrance & Rocsi are posers who change their “accents” depending upon who their guest is, the videos are just ridiculous. Let’s be real here.

8. Soul Plane—Does anyone want to tell me why the hell this movie is still allowed to see the light of day? Like seriously, this has to be against some law... I’mma search for it. 

Seriously, someone get this lady her own show. (via Latifah and the Boob Tube)

According to BET.com, an off-duty cop in Harlem was shot and killed by another cop who allegedly mistook the victim for a gun wielding man. Today, 25 year old Omar Edwards was chasing a man who was breaking into his car and pulled out his gun to scare the man away. Three police officers pulled up on Edwards’s car and saw that his gun was drawn. Police have yet to find out if Edwards told the other police officers that he was a cop and then they shot him, or did they shoot him before Edwards could let them know that he was a cop.