Thug Life Army

Well the media coverage surrounding Hot 97 had been consistent now for a couple of months. Since the Tsunami Song incident the station and its people have stayed in the news. With the most recent hot topics being the case concerning female rapper Lil Kim and the most recent gunplay involving hip-hop’s 50 Cent and rap artist Game.

Well First the good. The Notorious BIG was killed 8 years ago today. Hot 97 today is hosting a show all day long called pay for play Wednesday. All day today in remembrance of the Notorious BIG you can call in and have your favorite Biggie songs played for a donation to the Christopher Wallace Foundation. Everyone is calling to hear their favorites and make donations. From the little kids pledging $2 to hear a track to the friends of Biggie in the industry. Mariah Carey called in and made a donation for an undisclosed amount. Jay-Z called in and pretty much requested an album be played. Picking 11 songs and giving $1,000 dollars a track. I just want to shout out all those involved especially the people getting involved in the good cause. Also a Rest in Peace to Big Poppa.

Moving along to the bad, that some like myself may actually consider good as well. Hot 97’s landlord has had enough of the gunplay surrounding the building. With the Lil Kim case and the most recent shooting, the building and all its employees have been going through a lot and not just the employees of Hot 97. The owner of the building is the cities Contractors Union. The building also is home to many companies other than Hot 97. They have now laid down some rules that the station will have to follow if they don’t want to breech their lease contract.

From now on visitors will have to be cleared through the landlord, with enough time for the proper security to be put in place. The artist visiting will no longer be allowed to bring the whole camp through either, with each visitor being allowed to bring one other person with them. "We are deeply concerned about the safety of our tenants and their employees," said union lawyer Brian O''Dwyer. "We''ve received numerous complaints from other tenants that they fear for their safety." Although many of the tenants and their employees support the stand that the Union is taking they are skeptical of the real affect that it will have. "They can''t get rid of a rapper's entourage," said Marc Hsu, 30, of Manhattan, who works in human resources for a company in the same building. "It's part of the image, and they''re not going to come here without them." Well maybe that’s exactly what needs some changes, the image that everyone supports and glorifies so much!

Now for the most recent incident, which is the ugliest because of the way it quickly spiraled out of control. But some good news came to it this morning on the morning show. The Game called in to make his contribution saying right off the bat; “I’m back in New York City.” The Game said this to take the opportunity to announce that he was called to New York for a press conference that will be held today in New York City at 2pm. “This is going to be world news, and definitely a positive thing” Game told today’s morning show host Angie Martinez. When asked about the situation with 50 Game said, “I’m real unhappy with the twist this all took, I could have easily been the BIG or the Pac in this situation.”  Game also made mention that the fact that this big conference was being held today on March 9^tth the anniversary of BIG’s death was real big. When asked whether or not both him and 50 would be at the press conference Game replied, “yea to my knowledge.”

So we will have to see how this all plays out. Is the conference for a real peace talk and to announce something positive? To me it all just seems real shady that this all went down when it did. The shooting and now the press conference today on the 8^th anniversary of the Notorious BIG, we’ll have more on the conference later today.

With all that said I just want to say again Rest In Peace to BIG, and big up to all those involved in the positive. Hopefully the press conference is truly something positive today. Even if its just another stunt, it would be a big change for one of the stunts to be positive.