Help Save Squeeze Radio (WKCR)

After watching the sale of Rice University’s college radio property KTRU be sold to neighbouring University of Houston, spelling the impending death of the college radio show that gave me my first opportunity to participate in this thing we call hip hop music in a capacity greater than simply telling my friends that what they listened to was wack, I think it’s important that people voice their opinion when it comes to the importance og independent radio; especially when it comes to independent Hip Hop radio.

If you’ve been coming to this site for for any amount of time, you know I’ll always be a ‘backpacker’ at heart. Not because I hate money, but because I love Hip Hop music and what i feel is it at its most purely inspired and creative, not necessarily at its shiniest, most flossy and financially motivated. When independent Hip Hop outlets whither and die off like they have been (whether they be legendary stores like Fatbeats, or once upon a time artists that pretended to stand for something other than lining their pockets or being accepted by all the rich, mainstream artists they used to rail against), and I am clearly stating the obvious here, that’s less places for you to get the hip hop we like to listen to, as the lines of what encompass this genre get blurrier and blurrier as some of hip hop’s biggest names choose to, well, sell out to Pop and Mainstream markets for the sake of “expanding Hip hop’s horizons”. Yes, Kanye West comes immediately. Or Black Eyed Peas.

On one hand, as a 30 year old, still crying about “keeping it real”, or “selling out”, or “purity in Hip Hop music”, or “not being Pop” is kind of corny, but on another hand I don’t want to see Hip Hop go the way of Jungle and Drum and Bass, and like, only be heard on Volkswagen commercials, or turned into a pretentious wank-fest genres like IDM (Intelligent Dance Music for those that don’t remember) until all the life and energy you (read: I) grew to love this music for in the first place is no longer present.

A lot of this gripe comes from having worked at the biggest, and most important mainstream Hip Hop radio station in the country (and therefore the world, and therefore the galaxy and so on) for 3 years and 9 months and saw a side of the industry that people will never know or be privy to. All the politics, the petty reasonings why certain songs did or did not get played, or the tastemakers with absolutely no taste calling shots on what artists blow up next, further warping the minds and desires of young black and brown children all across the Tri-state; and some of it comes from remembering and an amazing time I had while in college, showing up for the weekly Hip Hop show, listening to and spinning some of the best (and worst) of independent Hip Hop without any of the politics whatsoever, as well as meeting some of (whom I consider to be) Hip Hop’s most ardent activists and critics. Even if I don’t talk to many or any of those guys that helped me fine tune and shape the way I view this genre of music I love so much, if not my outlook on the world and life in general, if it wasn’t for the local watering hole that was (Hip Hop) college radio, I wouldn’t a) be who I am today or b) be where I am today (wherever that is).

Peace to D.L. of Vinyl Frontier, Damien Randle, DJ Cipher, Kevin Jackson, Frank Fellows, and DJ Lil Tiger; you’ve all changed my life in ways I will probably never fully appreciate or know.

Now that that emo moment (albeit sincere and poorly worded) is over, sign the petition below to at least make your voice heard that a independent Hip Hop institution, in the city that birthed Hip Hop, is in danger of being shut down.

Without further delay, Sucio Smash of Squeeze Radio’s letter to the people.