Great article, by Ben Mcgrath for the New Yorker, investigates the details surrounding some of the recent violent incidents that have taken place at the Hot97 building. He focuses on rapper Gravy who gained attention for getting shot then playing it off so he could continue with his scheduled radio appearance with Flex. This essay is much more than a regurgitation of events though, Ben raises a lot of probing questions regarding HipHop and it’s portrayal in popular media. Link (thanks Sahil!)
One way to view the situation at 395 Hudson is as a kind of tribal struggle: Irish union men of the Old Guard bristling at the presumptuous ascendance of black hip-hop culture, and a changing set of social norms. The result is that black dignitaries affiliated with the radio station, like Busta Rhymes, enter the building through the mailroom, on Clarkson Street, while white political dignitaries courting the union, like Senators Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer, arrive grandly through the glass doors on Hudson.
