S. Samuel
Rap veteran LL Cool J recently shed light on the music industry and explained why he feels the radio business is ultimately hurting all genres.
In LL’s eyes, radio stations’ reliance on playing the same tunes over and over is turning music lovers away.
“The biggest problem to me in music right now is radio,” LL said in an interview. “I think that radio has gotten to the point where, you know, you hear the same thing over and over again, so much because you have a group of people controlling it, no disrespect, they’re doing their jobs, but you have a certain group of people that are controlling the airplay to the point where it makes you want to throw up. It’s crazy, the airplay situation. There used to be a time, and this is a good thing, where you would hear different kinds of music and different genres of music playing back-to-back. But what has happened is, now they’ve gotten to the point where the only audience they can hold on to is 14 and younger because everybody else is online, grabbing their music, creating their playlists, listening to what they want to work out to because the radio drives them crazy. I think at some point, some radio station some where is going to have to say, ‘You know what? It’s time for us to program a little differently and trust that the music’s great.'” (Forbes)
Last November, fellow hip-hop veteran Ice Cube aired out his issues with local radio stations.
“I’m not really happy with radio out in L.A.,” Cube said in an interview. “I think they turned their back on the hip-hop scene out there. Not stations like KDAY, they still play the hits. But some stations that got a little more wattage, they’re not bumping the hip-hop like they’re supposed to…I think if you really focus too much on radio, you’ll be lost as an artist anyway…I think radio is very deceptive. It’s kind of fool’s gold ’cause you always chasing your last radio hit instead of just going and doing hip-hop like you supposed to, you worrying about spins, stuff like that. To me, radio has messed up a lot of artists.” (MTV)
In 2010, West Coast rapper Game revealed frustrations toward his local radio station for their excess spins of Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind” hit.
“How come Power 106 plays ‘Empire State Of Mind’ more than New York?,” Game asked via Twitter.
“If I hear it 1 more time b4 I get home, I’m startin a full fledge protest (picket signs) & Im gettin dem women dat R against abortion 2 help They go HARD !!! & when I was in NEW YORK, aint hear “Empire State Of Mind” once… they only played ATL sh!t……… #whatsgoinon ?” (Game’s Twitter)
New York City rapper Donny Goines recently talked to SOHH about wanting Hot 97 radio veteran Funkmaster Flex to give his music a chance.
“It’s just this one particular that, like, you have so much power and say so within this realm,” Donny added. “And I ain’t talking about [just within the] deejay [crew.] I’m talking about New York City. F*ck the bullsh*t. I’m talking about my city. Regardless of where I live, I will always be a New Yorker and that kind of person. I grew up on Funkmaster Flex and it’s like, ‘Yo fam, just give me a shot.’ You know what I’m saying? I don’t want a handout from [Flex], I’m gonna be fine regardless. No disrespect to him but it’s like, come on, sh*t. Give my f*cking music a chance. Because you’re going to come to me later on and it’s going to be like, “Yo, this guy is the greatest and …’ and I’m just going to look at him like he’s retarded. Like, ‘Yo, what are you talking about? I’ve reached out to you so many times.’ He probably doesn’t know who the f*ck I am, I mean, who knows. But he’s the one person that I have not yet met, I have not communicated with and I know everyone in New York. He’s the one person I haven’t talked to. He’s the only person. Just give me a shot.” (SOHH)
Check out LL Cool J’s interview below:
