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HIPHOP is DEAD… on “HipHop” RADIO stations [open letter to Clear Channel Radio]
by Quadeer MC Spice Shakur on Tuesday, November 1, 2011 at 8:54pm
I came into this arena [notice I didn't say 'game'... 'cuz it's NOT a game] to promote the four spiritual principles of our culture, utilizing the four physical ELEMENTS of our culture, and it’s evolutionary-extended elements. Don’t get it twisted, the deejay is now the program director, or the concert promoter or even the song producer; the rapper is now a radio personality, talk show host or even actor; the graffiti artist is quite possibly a fashion designer, engineer, graphics designer or web designer; and the break-dancer is somewhere teaching dance theory in a college or high school classroom, maybe even teaching a martial arts course or choreographing a music video. Our contributions to this culture run deeper than you could ever imagine, and we have not – nor are we now – contributing in vain. This is our way of life. No, scratch that. This is our LIFE.
God rest the soul of Sylvia Robinson who passed this life in October of 2011 and left behind a legacy for our culture. Thank God for Sylvia’s willingness to grab what we were doing, package it, market it, and place it alongside some of the world’s most recognized names in music right on the charts where we never thought we’d be. We used to do it out in the park. And we were fine with that. When mother Sylvia came in and showed the world our style, our finesse, our attitude and charisma; our soul – we were up for the challenge to show even more of what you came here for. And we did. We grabbed our crotch and screamed at the top of our lungs “Don’t push me ‘cuz I’m close to the edge… I’m tryin’ not to lose my head”. WE defined US. Nobody told us who we were. Nobody told us what to wear. And God knows, if you would bite [steal] a rhyme or a routine from anybody and word got out, you were pretty much done. We were BENT on being unique and original. Like our forefathers before us. Unmatched.
There is only one Melle Mel… only ONE DJ Flowers… only ONE Starsky Luv Bug and only ONE Spoonie Gee. No matter which way you try to slice it, or how you try to say it or convey it or play it, you could never be…Spoonie Gee. Your best bet was to be YOU and be the best dam YOU there ever was. But the soul inside of you told you at all times to avoid spiritual conflict at all costs. There was no selling out for the members of the Almighty Zulu Nation, or for the people of HipHop Culture. We have a mission. That mission is to use whatever means necessary and available to promote our founding principles: Peace, Unity, Love and Havin’ Fun. The Zulu Nation was created for the sole purpose of breaking down and eliminating gang culture and gang warfare in New York City. And if you’re too young to know and got this idea that it’s an L.A. thing, then you need to do some research.
New York was entrenched in gang culture and our Black and Latino youth basically imitated the mobs that came before them. This would prove to the detriment of our people, because young Black and Latino males were killing each other over nonsense. Thanks to an eye-opening experience on a trip to Afrika, the leader of the notorious Black Spades Crew, Afrika Bambaataa returned to spread the news and warn the young Black and Latino male: “it’s a setup”. November 12, 1974 is the OFFICIAL birth date of our beloved HipHop Culture. And my guess is that your average every day program director at your average run-of-the-mill radio station that professes to be “HipHop” wouldn’t know this if it were plastered on every Clear Channel billboard across the country. The way I see it, Sylvia Robinson found a way to take our culture and our message and give it a mainstream platform. Companies like Clear Channel came along and saw a way to capitalize off our hard work and choose the songs THEY thought would be a “hit”. While one song or a few songs may have “hit” the chart, radio stations everywhere have put a “hit” out on HipHop culture, with an evil plan to strip our culture and take it over.
Well, here’s the problem. We are NOT going AWAY. This culture will survive no matter what. It’s a CULTURE. It’s a CIVILIZED culture. We’re not American cavemen and women here. We are upstanding individuals with knowledge, wisdom and understanding and if you fight us – WE will WIN. HipHop Culture is under attack and has been hijacked by frauds strategically positioned in every corner of our country. Case in point: there was a time when Clear Channel Broadcasting would allow every program director to control the playlists and the music of their areas, solely because Clear Channel’s policy then was that “if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it”. And that policy trickled down to the late night and weekend mixshow deejay who also had total control over his playlist, so long as he handed in his playlist and kept the program director on board. This worked, because HipHop music is so vast that we could have a different “brand” or “style” of rap and beat syncopation in nearly every market where a radio station existed, yet each radio station would still hold the number one position. This was based on the listeners reached in their respective areas,, and the lifestyle and language of those listeners.
Then the snakes at Clear Channel decided to fire the real HipHoppers, and hire the out-of-work Rock, Soft Rock and Megadeth lovers to run their “Number one for HipHop” radio stations complete with the cookie-cutter. I will say this… out of all the radio deejays on the crumbling Jammin’ 945 in Boston, I have to give Hustle Simmons love. This brother worked hard to promote HipHop culture, and when I met him in at a small radio station called Rhythm 100.9 in South Carolina back in 1994, I knew the kid had promise. Just feel sorry he works for sorry Clear Channel Broadcasting. Now, some may say I have no right to be able to downplay a company that employed ME for nearly 17 years of my entire career. But in actuality, I do. As Creative Director, my job was to make sure the station did things within the community and in tune with our culture, and the overall sound HAD to invoke the spirit of the Culture. My contract with Clear Channel Philadelphia ran out at the end of 2004. Midway through the last half of the contract, the station decided to email me some “drop” scripts. One of the drops said: “The other station sucks _______”. They were going to play the curse word backward, but I refused to do the drop and told them my contract gave ME total control over the scripts for drops, bumpers and promos. Needless to say, they cried foul but paid me for the remainder of my contract and we parted ways. I knew then that Power 99FM had become SOUR 99FM. Frauds.
Don’t be fooled by Nas’ “HipHop is Dead” albuim. Listen to the lyrics of the title track where he says he would load is AK and kill all the deejays. It clearly means the deejays are a PART of the murder of HipHop on the AIRWAVES. The same mixshow deejays that fought to balance the airwaves, put on suits and ties and forgot who they were representing. They turned their backs on a while culture for a dollar. But when Clear Channel fires them, THEN they scream bloody murder. feel sorry for Clear Channel and hope they get their act together before it;s too late. I feel sorry for Stephen Hill, who has lost all sense of reality with respects to who we are and where we’re going. So long BET News. Guess I’ll just catch the “honors awards” on VH1 if I wanna see HipHop prominently displayed.
I urge you to take a look at what they have done to our culture. Listen to who they say we are. I am not knocking the way they do their business, I am concerned that Clear Channel and all of their so-called HipHop radio stations do NOTHING for HipHop Culture. Our children are dying in the streets daily, and gang life is eating at our neighborhoods like blood-sucking leeches. Boston Radio station “Jammin 94.5″ hasn’t shown their face where our people are. They haven’t participated in any of our community meetings to address the issues that concern and effect their “constituents” from the “HipHop” Community. Your constituents are dying daily, and you say you’re “number one for HipHop?” The time is up, Clear Channel. It;s been a long ride, and you’ve raked in BILLIONS of dollars selling death to our children with an unbalanced, unhealthy dose of the worst aspects of ghetto life. We, the community and the TRUE members of HipHop Culture; we, the Kings and Queens of the Universal Zulu Nation demand that Clear Channel Radio IMMEDIATELY cease and desist from using the phrase: “HipHop” as it degrades our culture and casts a negative light on the 38 years of service to our community so many HipHoppers around the world have worked tirelessly to bring together through Peace, Unity, Love…and Havin’ Fun.
Sincerely,
Quadeer “M.C. Spice” Shakur
Minister of Information / Universal Zulu Nation
