Rally 4 Hip Hop: Stop racist Hot97

With each passing day more and more people are getting fed up with the disrespect and exploitation of hip hop culture and Black, Latino and other communities of color by these large broadcast media outlets. For those who live in New York, Hot97 has come to epitomize everything wrong with commercial radio.

It’s more than just playing the same 10 songs everyday. It’s more than the deejays who come on the air and act irresponsibly each day by saying and doing silly things like using the N word and the B word or in the latest instance helping fuel a beef between rival rappers Game and 50 Cent, which led to yet another shoot-out in front of the radio station.

This is about holding the executives, who are the real shot callers, accountable. Nothing goes on the airwaves without their encouragement or approval. Hence you have executives like Jeff Smulyan, the CEO, Rick Cummings, head of the radio division, Barry Mayo, the general manger – the only Black executive at Hot97, he sadly and unfortunately greenlights all the nonsense you hear on the airwaves – or John Dimick, the program director, who up ‘til five months ago only programmed country music, who will sit back and approve their deejays doing parody songs that call people “chinks” and “bitches” or allow their esteemed deejays to go on the airwaves and use the word “nigga” day in and day out or grant a platform to rappers like 50 Cent so he can air and start beef with other rappers.

It’s sad to see that these Hot97 executives will seemingly bask in the worldwide controversy stirred up by Funkmaster Flex and 50 Cent which leads to a shoot out, but are likely NOT to allow that same Funkmaster Flex to open up his phone lines so listeners can talk about their beef with the police, the prison industry, George Bush or anything else impacting the community.

Know the facts and help stop racist Hot 97

The white executives at Emmis Broadcasting, which owns Hot 97:

l Undermine the values and positive work of the greater Hip-Hop culture, giving a bad name to Black and Latino people and encouraging ignorance on the airwaves.

l Exploit and misuse hip hop culture under the false pretense of doing good business, yet resurrecting nasty stereotypes about hip hop music and culture.

l Hire Black executives like Barry Mayo, who they use as a front, but who actually defend all actions listed above and the stereotypical caricatures that are heard daily on the airwaves.

l Encourage their deejays to use the N word on the air. Support their deejays to disrespect women so they can get ratings.

l Give confidence to their on-air personalities to stereotype under-represented communities like Southeast Asians and Asian Americans.

Hot97 is also responsible for the following outrageous, unethical and racist actions:

l February 1999: Refused to talk about the murder of Amadou Diallo despite an outcry from the community

l 2001: Called J-Lo a “rice and bean eater”

l Aug. 27, 2001: Made a tasteless joke out of Aaliyah’s death two days after the tragedy

l October 2002: DJ Funkmaster Flex physically attacked disc jockey Steph Lova over payola

l 2005: Called Russell Simmons a coon

l Week of Jan. 17, 2005: For four days, the Miss Jones in the Morning Show played a racist “parody” called “The Tsunami Song” despite public protests. They mocked the deaths of thousands of people, using racial slurs such as “chink” and “chinamen.” The song also made fun of “Africans drowning” and children being sold to child slavery.

l Jan. 22, 2005: Miss Info, a Korean-American co-host on the Miss Jones show, voiced her opposition to the song on air. Miss Jones and then co-host Todd Lynn reacted by verbally attacking her on public airwaves with hateful comments such as, “You feel superior, probably because you’re Asian” (Miss Jones) and “I’m gonna start shooting Asians” (Todd Lynn).

l March 1, 2005: Helped spark a beef between 50 Cent and Game by granting air time to these artists, which led to yet another shoot-out in front of the station and coast to coast speculation about another East-West Coast rap war. There was no talk of resolving the conflict.

For more information on Hot 97 and the radio industry and how it works, visit the following websites: http://www.hiphopliveshere.com and http://www.industryears.com, where you can file a complaint directly to the FCC.

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