Say It Ain't So ...

... but it is true. I hosted my last hip hop show on WMCO last Saturday. How sad was that ... ? The show was not actually sad, but I don't know if the station will continue to play hip hop the way that it has in the past four years that I was there.

Now, I am not the hip hop maven ... well, maybe I am. But I don't think that they will continue to chart hip hop for WMCO. That is so crazy in my opinion. Their reasoning is that they don't know (hidden meaning: don't like) hip hop. Not liking hip hop is one thing, but when you work college radio, it is all about exploration and being open-minded. Not to mention that right now, hip hop is the fastest growing genre! And the hip hop that comes through WMCO is not the watered-down brand found in conglomerized radio; it's good music often w/a message.

About two years back, when WMCO went through music directors like athletes go through sneakers, what did I do? I manned up and got the alternative charts done. And what did that mean? It meant that I had to listen to a lot of music that I would not otherwise listen to. And that ended up being a good thing; again exposure to new and different things.

Does this seem like a vent? Well, it is. It is all too often that people associate that fact that since I am black, of course I would like hip hop. However, that is not always the case. I have way too many black friends who cringe at a mere uptempo beat on a song. Point is, it seems that since the resident black person has left the building, WMCO will revert to something that it should be embarassed about: strictly playing alternative music sans rap/hip hop and running the risk of sounding too commercial and lacking identity.