Thursday, December 7th, 2006...11:04 am
Maybe They Just Didn’t Believe the Hype?
Legendary hip hop group Public Enemy played at the Rialto Theater last night. Those of you who have followed the group know it’s pretty amazing that they would even play anywhere in our great state. I’m not always happy with their politics, but they express themselves with an anger and passion that has always gripped me. This is my political blog, so more about the music on my other blog when I get a chance to see what pictures came out.
I could write about the “F*ck George Bush” cheer that Messrs. D and Flav led the crowd in, but the most interesting political event for me came just before they took the stage.
The concert was sponsored by Hot 98.3, our local hip hop station (”#1 for Hip Hop and R&B” they say). A woman got up to introduce the band, and as soon as she gave her name and said that she was associated with CK and the Badboy Broadcast, that station’s morning show, she was booed. She wasn’t just booed, but she was jeered and even had water thrown at her. The woman was startled and even protested that they were the only station that plays hip hop. I had no idea that there was this level of hostility to the station or the program.
Well, I did some asking around among my students, most of whom listen to 98.3. Back last spring during the walkouts and pro-immigrant demonstrations, CK and his crew engaged in immigrant bashing and poked fun at the students that had walked out of class. Apparently, the folks at 98.3 forgot that most of their listeners are Hispanic, and that most of those kids who were walking out of class were their listeners. Looking at the reaction last night, this short-term memory problem was not shared by Public Enemy fans.
I remember the talk back in April when the immigrant bashing on the show was at it’s height. I thought it bizarre since the show was politics free. One friend of mine even wondered if it had something to do with the politics of Clear Channel, the network that runs the station. I asked a guy that worked at Hot 98.3’s sister station, KRQ, about this when I heard similar immigrant bashing from the predecessor to CK’s show and he said, “They don’t believe that, they are told to do that.”
No, couldn’t be, Clear Channel is part of that liberal media conspiracy, right?
NB - Mildy related political note: I met Chuck D at the 2004 Democratic Convention. We met, of all things, while listening to Willie Nelson’s soundcheck. We talked for ten minutes or so. Nice guy.
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