Music Producer Carvin Haggins Calls Urban Radio 'Ratchet'
Because they've already heard it on YouTube or it's been shared on their phone through a tweet, a text, or somewhere else on social media. However 99% of the lyrics surrounding the hook are either hypers,exually suggestive, endorsing prison culture, or glorifying the usage of prescription drugs in unimaginable combinations. What radio does is legitimizes while promoting songs in a way it has never done before. This is where Carvin Haggins has a major problem.
Are the negative lyrical content in songs played on the Urban/Hip Hop radio stations the responsibility of the radio industry or the music industry? Carvin Haggins, the Grammy Award winning producer says it's urban radio's responsibility. He says when he turns in a song that he has produced to the label, he is told that it must be edgy in order to get played on the radio. Hot 107.9 personality Q Deezy (aka Quincy Harris) says the fault lies within the music industry that is producing the songs. When the music comes out-- it's the thing that listeners want to hear. Radio, he says, plays what's hot in them streets. Harris a former co-host in LA on Big Boy's Neighborhood who is also a features reporter on the local morning show 'Good Day Philadelphia' debates Haggins on this issue on the program.
Watch their debate below.
FOX 29 News Philadelphia | WTXF-TV
What's your take on this issue? We will reserve our thoughts for the comment section below.
Meanwhile Carvin Haggins and a group of like minded people recently protested outside a anti-violence concert sponsored by Philadelphia radio station Power 99 and in the parking lot of the station a couple of months earlier. Haggins' organized effort is called "Rage Against the Ratchet."
Read also: Carvin Haggins crusades against 'destructive' influence in rap and hip-hop lyrics
We applaud Carvin Haggin's efforts, however as a music producer he can affect greater change as a producer within the music industry. We agree with Q Deezy on this one. Radio stations play music that comes directly from the labels. Radio doesn't make music. They don't sign artists. They don't audition singers. They only promote music through a format. If the labels don't produce "ratchet" or edgy music, then the radio stations can't play it. Radio is a business and most cities have competition. So targeting one Clear Channel station is misguided in our opinion. It just means adult listeners (and kids) will go to the Radio One, Cumulus, or Emmis Broadcasting station in town that plays the ratchet music that the record labels have produced.
ReplyDeleteIn Boston, there aren't any radio stations that specifically call or label themselves Black radio or Urban/Hip Hop. There are Rhythmic stations (Hot 96.9 and Jam'n 94.5) that play hip hop for a mainstream audience. Despite that fact rap artists don't bypass Boston while on tour. Drake and Lil Wayne are on their way there in September. We're sure at the concert the kids will be able to sing each and every song word for word. So here is a question: Are kids in Boston NOT exposed to the ratchet music that Carvin Haggins is protesting simply because there aren't radio stations specifically targeted to children and teens in the African American community? But they do have cable, the Internet, and mobile devices in Massachusetts.
The fault lies with us as parents. YOU can allow your children to watch adult content on cable tv or DVD at home or take them into movies that are not age appropriate, but hopefully you don't. So why would you let them listen to songs on the radio which aren't intended for young ears, even if the curse words are edited out? If we make it known that we aren't listening to these stations and not supporting advertisers on those stations, they will react based on the potential hit to their bottom line.
ReplyDeleteKids will find a way to listen to stuff that's not intended for them. Like Carvin said in his own video, he took his mom's records and listen to them. (Mom couldn't be there all the time.) So for every positive record from James Brown, Teddy Pendergrass and Marvin Gaye, there were also adult records like Sex Machine, Turn Off the Lights, and Let's Get It On that Carvin heard when he was growing up. Of course the lyrics may not be as bad as they are today, but it was still suggestive lyrics.
DeleteI feel you opinion and perspective but let's look at it this way... There's a issue with guns in the wrong hands. Are they going after the gun producers/manufactures or are they going after the people who's killing people... Right... As a artist i believe in artistic freedom but when responsible adults feel its cool to play this music freely to kids that's where my problem start. So that's why I'm at radio... Just cause they make you music don't mean you have to play it... IJS..Janelle Monae makes good music why don't they play that?
ReplyDeleteurban radio nation, marvine gaye, teddy pendergrass songs did not degrade women or any other people for that matter, so ur so called example is weaker than a jack ass in itself and has no merit to begin with, nor did those artists promote getting high or selling things to get people high, the issue here is Mr. Carvin Haggin has hit on something many have, but also many have tried to punk away from the matter with cliche terms to nowhere, and some even continue to act as if it's not even an issue, now that happens when u are a byproduct conditioning under the guise making moves and playing in a system that fails u in everyway, just ask pierre sutton and the children of the late sydney smalls.
ReplyDeleteRadio Facts website continues to troll this website for stories. It's ridiculous. We've talked to them before about this. Carvin Haggins has been on his 'Rage Against the Ratchet' campaign since June. We've sat on the story until yesterday. Now Radio Facts writes about Carvin Haggins today in August. www.radiofacts.com/producers-debate-radio-jock-urban-playlists-missing-one-major-element
ReplyDeleteCoincidence? We think not.
Although the Radio Facts blog takes a different stance than we do on the issue--- We ask 'Where Was Radio Facts when this video on Fox 29 morning show first aired in June?" This is not new information. It's only new to them because they trolled this website. Should I say thank you to them for bringing their eyeballs here?
All we can suggest as a blog reader is; come here first. We get it to you first. We don't just post press releases of no substance. We are independent. We don't cater to the music labels, who refuse to advertise with us. So we're not surprised that Radio Facts sided against radio programmers.