New York Hip-hop hit a bit of a slump in the 2010s. There were certainly peaks (A$AP Mob, French Montana’s mixtape run, the underground Beast Coast wave). There were also blips on the radar in the forms of Bobby Shmurda and Young M.A. However, the power was firmly in the grasp of Atlanta, creating a vacuum in the mecca of rap. Naturally, people pointed fingers at who could be responsible for this decline. Where were the weaknesses in the infrastructure that neutralized a lot of potential superstars in New York? Radio immediately came to mind, challenging people like Funk Flex or former Hot 97 host Ebro Darden.
The latter was a prominent fixture on New York radio, hosting the hip-hop that New Yorkers heard every morning. However, fans often cited him as a major reason New York’s presence in rap waned during his tenure in the 2010s. Consequently, on December 12, when Ebro, Peter Rosenberg, and Laura Stylez were let go from Hot 97, some fans rejoiced. The supposed evil that suppressed hip-hop in New York was finally gone. Therein lies a pretty reasonable question: what’s the music going to be like with new hosts at Hot 97?
Recently, Darden spoke with Rosenberg on their new show with Stylez on YouTube. There, he staunchly defends himself against the idea that he’s the reason why New York rappers fell off during his tenure. On the contrary, he argues that his position as host didn’t often allow him to curate the show as he wanted.
Ebro Trashes Idea That He Helped Kill New York Hip-Hop
“Who are they gonna bring in that’s gonna start deciding the music, and start breaking records in the morning?” Rosenberg asked Ebro. However, the hip-hop personality insisted that that’s not really how it works. Outside of some opportunities in between, the songs were usually already regulated.
“First of all, people don’t know that people who host don’t decide what music they play,” Darden insisted. Then, he noted that he and Funk Flex were the only ones granted the rare chances to play something they strongly believe in. Consequently, Rosenberg noted that they took those opportunities very seriously and “played a lot of fun stuff, if you could catch it.”
Still, at the end of the day, to say Ebro was the death of hip-hop in New York was far-fetched in Rosenberg’s eyes. Darden added that he had not “been in charge of anything administratively, programming, music, research, marketing, nothing at that radio station in a decade.”
Now, Ebro just wants to move on from his Hot 97 tenure. He doesn’t seem to hold ill will towards the company and even admits he felt like the day was coming. But he does speculate what caused the firing in the first place. Darden believes the station’s owner made an executive decision to quell controversy.
“Bro’s a casino owner. You know the three licenses they got in New York for the casino? The guy that owns the s*** owns one of the casino licenses,” Ebro said in a separate online rant. “He gotta raise half a billion dollars. They need my s*** talking, anti-Netanyahu, anti-government, progressive s*** out of the way, bro. They need me out of the way.”
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