THE WILMINGTON JOURNAL (SMACKFEST)

CASH IN THE APPLE, SHARPTON CALLS FOR 90-DAY BAN ON VIOLENT MUSIC, WEEK OF MARCH 10-16, 2005by CASH MICHAELSThe Wilmington Journal

COS HAS BEEN SUED - As promised, comedian Bill Cosby has been sued in that alleged fondling case that the Philadelphia District Attorney refused to prosecute. From the young woman’s lawsuit, Cos comes off as a dirty old man (he’s 67).Don’t know what the truth is, but we can only hope for the truth.WRETCHED “SMACKFEST” - I think I’ve seen it all now, and I don’t like any of it.In fact, I’m thoroughly disgusted.Monday night I was flipping by FOX News Channel to see what dumb liberal got suckered to show up on “Hannity & Combs” with conservative meat eater Sean Hannity and progressive wimp Alan Combs.This night they had some black guy on talking about being fired from a white-owned black-formatted radio station because he protested a song that glorified men beating women.So far, I have no problem with the brotha. Too much of that crap on the air, so when someone from the inside stands up and speaks out, I’m all for it.But then the brotha starts talking about how much these white-owned hip-hop rap stations disrespect the African-American community.That I knew.Or at least I thought I knew, until he started talking about something called “Smackfest” promoted by New York’s Hot 97FM.Before he could finish, FOX ran some videotape of what brothaman was talking about.I honestly could not believe the following.Two young black women, standing, facing each other close over a table. A black man, apparently one of the station’s disc jockeys, counting of something to prompt them.And then, when he says “Go” or something, the girl on the left hauls off and slaps the girl on the right.Hard, I mean real hard.Then the girl on the right gets her turn, and she hauls off and smacks the African out of the sista on the left.You guessed it - hard, real hard.And thus crap continues until someone draws blood or is clearly injured.A radio station in what’s supposed to be a civilized city in a civilized country is sponsoring this.I, I could not believe my eyes. So I went on the net to get more info on this travesty.There I found it, an article by the New York Post (owned by the same folks who own FOX News), titled, “DJ in Hot 97 Battle.”Apparently the brotha I saw on Hannity & Colmes was named Paul Porter and he worked for KISS-FM, which is a sister station to Hot 97.The Post puts meat on the bone.Porter was fired because he complained that the song “Party and Bulls (you know what)” by rapper Rah Digger included the lyric, “Beat that bi—- with a bat.”Porter is also a volunteer teacher at a school in Queens. One of his students asked him why the station played that kind of sick, demented music.When he challenged management on the Rah Digger song, he was reportedly told, “Make up your mind: Do you want to stand up for kids or the company?”Homeboy station manager should be glad that wasn’t me he made that stupid remark to. I would have made getting him fired my life’s work, among other things.But then we get to “Smackfest.”According to the Post story, “Although the announcer’s complaint led to a new zero-tolerance policy for on-air profanity, Hot 97 just five months later launched a violent on-air contest called “Smackfest.” That’s where young women compete for a $500 prize by striking one another in the face, not only to try and produce the loudest slap but do the most physical damage — including drawing blood. “Unbelievable.We have hit a new low, my people, in actually allowing any radio station in our community to promote such a wretched, debased spectacle of black women slapping each other bloody for money and sport.I thought that madness they did on the sure-has-faded Jerry Springer Show was bad, but this is beyond that.I write about this at length because that’s how disgusted I was when I saw and read about this mess.And it is no surprise that Hot 97FM is the same New York radio station that got into hot water over that stupid joked up “Tsunami Relief Song” that made fun mothers and children being killed by the massive waves in Indonesia and Africa two months ago.That was beyond heartless.But this “Smackfest” stuff is madness.So why should you care anything about this?Because if Hot 97 gets away with it, you’ll soon be getting it on the black hip-hop station in your town.Bad enough most of the gangsta rap music is so full of violence and disrespect for women that Rev. Al Sharpton is calling on the FCC and radio stations across America to ban violent songs for 90 days.The stations could just blame the record industry.But now the stations themselves are sponsoring barbaric displays and passing them off as entertaining contests.In OUR community.I hope the people of New York don’t fall for that “freedom of speech” junk.Bringing that up in light of this is an insult because it suggests there is no equal requisite of responsibility and common sense.Those are the values, along with GOD and family, that have gotten us this far as a people.Allowing degenerate stuff like “Smackfest” only further drags us and our children down.That is something we cannot allow.