The Death of Hyphy - interesting article about the behind the scenes at KMEL

[jae oh en]

i picked up a copy of the SF weekly last night and read this article that talked about the death of hyphy...while i didnt care much for the type of music, itwas interesting that they noted KMEL as the reason for its demise...the article talks about the inner workings of KMEL and the personal beefs the DJs andemployees have with certain artists and fellow DJs and how they have pretty much completely shut out hometown artists from their playlist...it was a prettyinteresting read...

its a pretty long article so i wont post it here in its entirety...heres an excerpt from it...

http://www.sfweekly.com/2008-02-20/news/the-demise-of-hyphy/

A year and a half ago, it wasn't uncommon to find at least four or five songs by locally based indie rap artists in rotation at the San Francisco-based station. These days, however, you won't find a current local rap release in KMEL's top 50, or its top 100 for that matter. In fact, the highest-ranking recent single by a Bay Area rap artist the week of February 4 was the Federation's "Happy I Met You," way back at number 187.

At present, KMEL is playing "a lot of Down South music ... anything but the Bay," according to Hannah Wagner, a publicist at SF indie digital music label INgrooves and a regular listener.

Author Jeff Chang, who has written extensively about commercial radio, feels the station has returned to standard programming: "You don't hear a lot of [new] music breaking. You didn't get a sense of excitement like you had a couple of years ago. It's gone back."

A closer look into the absence of hyphy from the airwaves found that while local artists bear a degree of responsibility for the decline of the homegrown art form, KMEL is far from blameless.

Specifically, the station

• yanked local rappers with buzzworthy records from rotation over petty personal beefs

• made it difficult, if not impossible, for artists not aligned with favored promoters to get access to station personnel

• ignored the advice of its own DJs on potential hit records by local artists

• put the kibosh on efforts to spread hyphy in other regions

• engaged in blatant favoritism toward certain artists, alongside other activities that contributed to the fragmentation of the local hip-hop community

• employed a two-tiered promotion system for major-label and independent acts

KMEL's provincial attitude toward local rap artists is perhaps best exemplified by the station's treatment of Mistah F.A.B., a charismatic Oaklander sometimes referred to as "hyphy's crown prince." According to F.A.B., a "personal situation" with current music director Big Von Johnson has existed for years. The rapper speculates that jealousy might be the cause: "Von wanted to be an artist." Still, "It's no bad blood, it's no hatred from me," he now emphasizes. (At press time, Johnson hadn't responded to several requests for an interview.)

 

[daprescription]

Hyphy has been dead. But yeah, Von is a $*#+$ for the way he's handling his "beef" with Fab.

 

[hollow point guard415]

Yeah I read the article yesterday and it seems that Big Von is a b&^$h, kind of makes me not want to tune in their station either....oh well........

 

[j j j jt t t t]

it's a shame...

 

[jcsellsf]

dam, kmel need to support the bay, i dont even feel like listing to them anymore, but i cant stand 94.9 and all that techo %@%$ they play

 

[metalmaned]

This kind of $hit happens all the time in the music biz. Back in the late 90's when freestyle and house music was in ful effect, I had a few friends thathad their own indie label and were producing some real dope music and had several of their songs on rotation on Wild. Jazzy Jim was the head mix show DJ at thetime and also owned a record distribution business. My boys decided to distribute the music themselves and not go through Jazzy's company and as soon asthat happened their songs were no longer played on Wild, had they gone with Jazzys company they had the chance to go nationwide. The music business is hellacrooked!!!

Bay Area radio really sucks right now!!! Kmel is CRAP and Wild has turned into another Z95 pop station, that's why I went out and got Sirius Satelliteradio, everything and anything you'll ever want. Well worth the money!!! Since I got it installed in Dec, I haven't listened to the local radio, I haveno need to. If you guys are sick of the Bay Area $HIT, I HIGHLY recommend stepping up to Sirius, you'll be glad you did!!!!

 

[nickle dime bay]

I read that on siccness, its crazy how they had a big part in it.

 

[aaronb1105]

Yeah I have Sirius too....everything Ed said I can agree with

 

[acekilla408]

damn thats sad they aint supporting their own soil....damn that was a good read...KMEL is pretty weak anyway.....sorta figured this becuase i havent a new baysong for like MONTHS...guess i gotta on wikipedia and see if artits got a new album out or something and download the songsand go from there

 

[strawberry milkshakes]

i was never really a fan of hyphy but 2005-2006 were some of the most poppin years the bay has ever seen

pure bedlum everywhere and anywhere because hyphy music never stopped playing, it was played on a continuous loop on anything with speakers here

r.i.p. hyphy

 

[suckafree85]

Vons a lil %$%#@. real talk. I didnt even know anything about all that. Dudes need to support the LOCAL stuff and they werent trying to do it. thats helladirty. I still listen to that Hyphy music. It gets me feelin myself at the club I aint gonna lie. But I also knock that Bay Mob sound.

E-40 still has his show on sundays. I always try and listen to see whats new. i agree that they been putting out some wack stuff lately but its all good. Illstill listen to Fab, 40, Quinn, Ya boy, keak, Turf Talk, Etc...... That !%*+ still slaps

 

[rico7jt]

HYPHY well be missed.... na but to be real Hyphy is always going to be hyphy. We may not always see it or hear it but its still there in the streets.

 

[touch money]

@!*+ it

 

[ady2glude707]

vons a %@%$!

 

[throwbacksinsf]

I don't know what goes on behind the scenes so most of that stuff might be true, but didn't the article seem ridiculously one-sided?

And when the writer said KMEL killed Hyphy by overplaying everything to death, his article pretty much lost all credibility to me. That's so lame.Everything we've heard/seen from radio, MTV, BET, etc over the past 5-6 years has been nothing but Southern sh*t. Why haven't they gotten played out??KMEL didn't kill Hyphy alone, they may have had a small hand in it, but It's all the weak %%% music that was coming out that killed it.

It also didn't help when square suburban kids suddenly started walking around w/ stunna shades and fake grills talkin "yadada this and yadadathat." Nobody really from the streets wanted to be that dude anymore. And once anything loses momentum in the hood, its a wrap.

 

[suckafree85]

It also didn't help when square suburban kids suddenly started walking around w/ stunna shades and fake grills talkin "yadada this and yadada that." Nobody really from the streets wanted to be that dude anymore. And once anything loses momentum in the hood, its a wrap.
Thats true right there. Everybody was doin that. for reals. Dudes started with their bay slang 101.

N's been sayin that slang in the streets for hella long.

 

[jae oh en]

Originally Posted by ThrowbacksInSF

And when the writer said KMEL killed Hyphy by overplaying everything to death, his article pretty much lost all credibility to me. That's so lame. Everything we've heard/seen from radio, MTV, BET, etc over the past 5-6 years has been nothing but Southern sh*t. Why haven't they gotten played out??

well it makes sense given the situation...most, if not all, the southern artists we hear on tv/radio are backed by major labels...all the bayartists that were trying to come up were on independents that didnt have the same kinda pull the majors have...

i believe the article when he said most major labels backed off from signing bay artists due to the fact they were getting no play on their biggest hometownstation...seems pretty realistic..

but yeah, i thought von was one of the better radio personalities til i read this...seems like a real salty dude...

 

[mag1c12783]

Tried to get into the hyphy movement but i was just fooling myself.

I realized how stupid i was lisltening to that garbage.

REAL HIP HOP ALL DAY

 

[throwbacksinsf]

Here's a story that ran 5/2007 in the SJ Mercury, basically telling the other side of why Hyphy died.

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_58698...rynews.com-www.mercurynews.com&nclick_check=1

In my opinion, it is better written and cites more credible sources. If you ask me, this article is probably more along the lines of what really happenedbecause it's pretty much the same problem as the mid 90s. I guess rappers never learned their lesson.

 

[sfgr415]

I read that article over at Siccness. I feel that KMEL did have a big part on the "death" of Hyphy but also, Hyphy had only so much in it. I wasnever expecting it to last forever.

In my opinion, let Clyde Carson and Fab both get quality albums out by the major labels with plenty of promotion and see how it goes.

 

[ohcoolitschris]

Good! KMEL, hip hop radio, and hyphy are all garbage... It was bringing the Bay Area down, making us all look ignorant. It's about time... They can allghost ride their +%$$* elsewhere. I stayed in school so I wouldn't "go dumb"....

 

[skips kicks]

good.

 

[bastitch]

What's with all the cursing?

Warned. All of you.

 

[ady2glude707]

^
isnt that what the censoring of curse words are for?

 

[in the line for viis]

There was a hip-hop station in the back called Power 92? Why did I never hear of it? Does it still exist?