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Taken from HipHop DX (June 23, 2014)
KRS-One Bashes Hot 97, Funkmaster Flex & Angie Martinez
by Danielle Harling
KRS-One says Hip Hop has changed from a pastime to a worldwide profession, speaks on self-worth.
South Bronx rapper and Hip Hop pioneer KRS-One had a few choice words for a handful of current and former employees at the New York City-based radio station Hot 97. He recalled being banned from the radio station by former Hot 97 programmer Tracy Cloherty, being hung up on by Street Soldiers’ Lisa Evers, and more.
He also stated that Angie Martinez, who resigned from her position at Hot 97 last week, “forgot her roots” at one point.
“When Funkmaster Flex stopped playing my music for no reason,” KRS-One said. “And when Angie Martinez forgot her roots. And I don’t know if y’all know this woman, but her name is Tracy Cloherty. Well, she banned me from the station. And Lisa Evers, Street Soldiers, hung up on me live on air. Because I said they said—This is when Foxy Brown and Lil Kim had their little shootout in front of Hot 97 and they had us on the air. And I said ‘Y’all the ones that promoted that shit.’ All day long ‘Gun, gun, gun.’ All day long ‘Murder, murder, murder’…There’s something called a balance. In the morning when our kids are going to school that’s not the time to play ‘killing, shooting, nigga, bitch, and fuck.’”
After airing out his thoughts on Hot 97, KRS-One spoke on self-worth and the nature of today’s Hip Hop. He says the genre has gone from a pastime to a worldwide profession.
“When you know your self-worth,” he said. “And you read and you ask questions and you study and you travel. You become free. But the cost of freedom is that you’re not gonna be in the mainstream. You’re not gonna be on the cover of every magazine…Years ago they told us ‘Make sure you get a college degree in case your rap career don’t work out. You got something to fall back on.’ Today, ‘Make sure you can rap in case your degree don’t [work out]’…It’s been 25, 30 years. Rap is no longer a pastime, this is a worldwide profession.”
Last year, KRS-One offered a similar critique of mainstream radio stations and even threatened to sue any station that chose to play his music.
"If the radio ever played my music, I would sue them," he said during an interview with whomag.net last September. "And they know it, which is why they don’t play my music. If you play KRS, I’ll sue you. Straight up. I don’t even want my music on mainstream radio. They don’t deserve it. They destroy careers."
Video of KRS-One's rant can be found below (via IndieHipHop.net).
RELATED: KRS-One, Brother J & Ras Kass To Perform At "Hip Hop Speaks From Heaven"
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