Radio - The Mouthpiece of the Foot On Your Neck

New York City was, is and always will be the Mecca of Hip-hop, and its radio stations desire to hold the much-sought after title of "The Arbiter of Pop Urban Black Culture for the Youth" -- that's a mouthful, but a better euphemism might the station that "keeps it the realist." As if that's something with any true weight in the context of the world.

But anyway, New York's Hot 97(WQHT-FM) has been the epicenter of controversy, as rappers are using the radio as their soapbox to take a piss on rival rappers. For instance (from 3/14/05 NYTimes):

Late last week the rapper Jadakiss had a personal message for his rival 50 Cent: "You should just sell clothes and sneakers cause out of your whole camp your flow's the weakest." He chose not to relay the message by fax or two-way pager, nor did he pick up the phone. Instead, Jadakiss turned to an outlet that has become an increasingly popular avenue for communication and conflict within the world of hip-hop: the radio station Hot 97.

Releasing "diss records" has been a mainstay in hip-hop, an extension of the problematic extreme Alpha Male syndrome that corrupts the way Black men conduct themselves in the ghettos and is spilling over to the suburbs.

Now Jadakiss could not have chosen a bigger megaphone. Hot 97, which is owned by the Indianapolis-based Emmis Communications Corporation, is the No. 2 station among listeners in New York City and has been No. 1 in the city's 18-34 demographic for nearly a decade. It earns an estimated $40 million annually in revenue, putting it in the top five of Emmis's 25 radio stations. That's a HEFTY as fuck sum, lets you what kind of real $$$$ hip-hop and its exploitation of nigga culture generates THAT THE ARTISTS SEE VERY LITTEL OF. But in recent months Hot 97 has been buried in bad publicity. Critics contend that Hot 97 has tilted from credible arbiter of rap trends to ratings-hungry promoter of violence and racism. This had to happen, because invariably the commercial exploitation of Blacks is going to invite charges of racism, racist behavior from Blacks and whites and some down-right fuckshit, aka "it's a black thang... you wouldn't undastand!"

If not marred by enough senseless and pointless violence, ...two weeks ago, gunfire erupted in front of Hot 97's Greenwich Village offices, shortly after 50 Cent announced on the air that he was booting his protégé, the Game, from his G-Unit clique. The incident, coincidentally, occurred on the first day of the rapper Lil' Kim's perjury trial, stemming from her account of a 2001 shoot-out in front of Hot 97. All of this follows the monthlong battering Hot 97 has endured for airing a song mocking victims of the tsunami tragedy. Did this, I wonder, make national news? It just shows the callousness that young Black people exude -- a callousness that is justified, because young Blacks are systematically just as disenfranchised as the tsunami victims... yet their plight ain't called a tradegy; it's called niggas being lazy... by those who keep a foot on the Black man's neck.

The effect has pointed up, at the very least, how commerce on the cutting edge of hip-hop culture can go awry. I just said it earlier, but if you thnk about it any kind of commercial exploitation of Black culture goes awry, because whites are stripmining and niggas are trippin' from their lack of even the basic knowledge of the tenants of U.S. capitalism. And the recent events may impose another real-world price on the station: the landlord of the building that houses Hot 97 has threatened to oust the station, citing a track record of shootings, fights and "severe verbal abuse of security and building management personnel."

Emmis executives say they are simply trying to maintain their balance.

"We don't want to do anything that provokes or encourages or escalates any kind of violent behavior between camps," said Rick Cummings, president of Emmis's radio division. "By the same token, I can't have the radio station being viewed as a sellout or less than genuine by the younger part of the audience."This, and this alone can go A LONG way in explaining the blighted existence of the American Negro, why he is still a slave, a hustler who's overhead is in EXACT accordance to what his hustle brings in, an ignorant free man who seeks the stabilty of working a wage-slave position and smoking up a good deal of his or her earnings to combat the effects of being in constanct survival mode. What kills me the muthafuckin' most is that

The stakes are high. While considered a kingpin of rap radio, the station is facing increased competition from upstart Power 105.1 (WWPR-FM), which is owned by the radio giant Clear Channel Communications. Though Hot 97 still has a comfortable lead over Power 105 in the 18-34 demographic - the "money demographic," according to radio analysts - Power 105, for the first time since its inception two years ago, managed to beat Hot 97 in overall ratings. Management may also be worried, industry observers say, because Star and Buc Wild, once wildly popular (and controversial) morning show D.J.'s at Hot 97, are now perched at Power 105.1.

Meanwhile, local activists are calling for an overhaul of the station. Rosa Clemente, a leading organizer of an anti-Hot 97 rally held earlier this month, accused the station of promoting music filled with misogynistic and violent content. "They call themselves the place where hip-hop lives," she said, "but hip-hop does not live there. A culture of greed and disrespect lives at Hot 97." The Rev. Al Sharpton and several state and local lawmakers recently asked Federal Communications Commission to turn its attention to the station. And along with every other major radio broadcaster in the area, Emmis has received a subpoena from Eliot Spitzer, New York's attorney general, for information on its promotional practices.

"We have run into a string of rotten luck here," Mr. Cummings said in an interview, "but if you look at us over the last 17 years, I think the record is pretty stellar."

But Hot 97 is not the only Emmis station that has landed in hot water. Only last summer, Emmis agreed to pay $300,000 to resolve complaints of indecency against a Chicago D.J. In settling the charges with a F.C.C. increasingly intolerant of indecency on the airwaves in the wake of last year's Super Bowl halftime show, Emmis committed itself to a plan to prevent future violations. (Emmis also owns 16 television stations and Los Angeles magazine and Texas Monthly.)