Voices from the hip-hop industry vowed yesterday to stop their infighting so the mainstream media has nothing more to complain about.
“All the beefs stop today, all the crap stops today,” said Ed Lover, popular DJ at Power 105 radio, during a Midtown summit sponsored by a hip-hop magazine and attended by a dozen industry leaders.
“We’ve got to [guard] each other’s back now. Any problems we have from now on will stay in-house,” he said.
Conferees from various corners of the hip-hop community, who met in private before facing the press, said they had been victimized by the mainstream press long enough and were going to begin grooving to another tune.
Source magazine, which sponsored the meeting, has an article in its March edition claiming the NYPD has formed a special “Hip-Hop Police” unit to infiltrate the industry.
“They’re building files on us and taking pictures of us, similar to gangs and organized crime,” said David Mays, the magazine’s publisher.
The NYPD flatly denied the allegation.
“This is totally, absolutely untrue,” said Detective Kevin Czartoryski, an NYPD spokesman. “Do we have members familiar with hip-hop who might be asked to step in if needed? Absolutely. But we don’t have a hip-hop squad.”
Conservative talk-show host Bill O’Reilly, of the Fox News Channel, was also taken to task for being instrumental in having hip-hop artist Ludacris booted off a Pepsi commercial – in favor of Ozzy Osbourne – because of alleged unsuitable lyrics in Ludacris’ songs.
Mays said O’Reilly and others were “playing to the racial fears of Middle America for their ratings.”
Pepsi and the Ludacris Foundation, in conjunction with the Hip Hop Summit Action Network, have since reached a deal calling for the bottlers to provide $1 million annually over three years to mutually agreed-upon children charities, Summit Action spokeswoman Jody Miller said. (p. 23 Metro)