Peter Rosenberg: Hip Hop’s Unnecessary Heel
As most fans of artists, or YouTubers appreciated about Pete was playing the part of the resident back packer personality, championing and interviewing up-and-coming artists. This was a refreshing perspective and brought new eyes on talent underground lovers were thrilled to see the artist get their just due. However, a lot has changed since then. Since Kendrick Lamar’s career trajectory, arguably sitting within top 2 artists in the genre, Rosenberg has not been shy of his affection for TDE. His level of engagement for artists on the roster is easily illustrated in Jay Rocks’ interview on the morning show with Ebro & Laura Stylez. For a second, one would think that he earned his In interviews with newer talent, you can see he has all but checked out from bringing out anything insightful.
Honestly, what does he contribute to the conversation of hip hop?
Since wedging himself in the WWE, ESPN and most recently Complex, his commitment to providing worthwhile content has clearly faded from his first place of employment, making watching any interview particularly painful. Disagree still? View exhibit A: His latest sit-down with Wale. If you fast forward to the 13-minute mark, you can see for yourself. While Wale can be a normally awkward interviewee any given day, colleagues in his field can roll with the punches. Grasping for straws in a conversation with an artist from his own backyard of the DMV is telling. Other examples include asking guests questions that would easily give the impression that he doesn’t care to research them or was thrown in to take the interview at a moment’s notice.
What insight do we gain from his “style” of interviewing? Honestly, what does he contribute to the conversation of hip hop? When he’s not flustering interviews, he’s going on emphatically troll worthy rants which sound whackier than any wrestler’s rhetoric post Vince McMahon getting his head shaved by Donald Trump.
His being out of touch leads to a bigger conversation of why Hot 97 is unrelenting to put their old dogs to pasture. The identity of the station is far removed of fresh and new to a visual of old men shaking their fists furiously at the one thing synonymous with what hip hop represents — the youth. Contemporaries like Sway or Charlamagne The God, don’t cloud their affinity for legacy acts and personal favorites (who may not be in the spotlight nearly as much as they might want) get in the way of a young artist being able to get access to their platforms in front of a new demographic. Not mention the level of tact and unbias that doesn’t disrupt the evan flow of providing information to the listener. But I guess that’s asking for too much at Emmis Communications, there huh?
If anything, he‘s a super fan who’s half-assing the golden ticket that allowed him in the room of hip hop.
Semi-annually Pete has made unnecessary hot takes on situations that not only make you side-eye him for saying the comments, it begs to question the upper brass in Hot 97. Let’s run it down.
Lest we forget in 2014, he had the gall to call Chuck D — one of the reasons he stans for being a backpacker — a troll and irrelevant? This coming from a person who clings onto conglomerates to be a part of the machine and will not be recognized away from them?
Early 2015 he came out as a Rose Bud in favor of Amber Rose versus Kanye West, during their back and forth on Twitter. An impassioned Rosenberg went on a 4-minute rant to defend the former flame of West. Calling her “the best human being in life”. Why? Ratings? Lack of other content to provide? No one knows.
This year he drops to a low beyond belief. Following the senseless murder of Florida rapper XXXTentacion, Rosenberg halted the talk break of an ESPN sports show to announce the artists’ death. He prefaced it by announcing to the audience that he is a hip hop journalist for those not aware of his other “obligations”. When asked to explain who he was to the fans, his initial reply was “He’s no angel.” Emcee turned podcaster, Joe Budden took to his platform to explain his feelings on the incident, saying it was insensitive and tasteless. Rosenberg soonafter responded to Budden on Hot 97 airwaves addressing his fans as the type of social media users who’s “emojis are cigarette butts, syringes and Timberland boots..” Wait, what?
To get this clear, Peter Rosenberg hasn’t provided anything of real substance. If anything, he‘s a super fan who’s half-assing the golden ticket that allowed him in the room of hip hop. If we’re running up the score, everyone in Hot 97 has a storied career that has direct roots woven in the culture. I’m still trying to wrap my mind around how a parody of Jim Jones’ “Ballin” effects the culture, to where you’re feeling yourself like this. And to disrespect the artist, his family –hell, his fans with this speech on live NYC airwaves is disgusting. I could be easily upset at him for saying this, but I’m more than frustrated with Hot 97, who seemingly removed the audio of this from their YouTube channel (insert pondering face emoji here). It’s bad enough the “Institution for hip hop” doesn’t have the ratings it used to have, but to reach through the bowels of trash with spewing this crap is unbelievable.
While he may profess his love for wrestling and looking to bridge the gap for the two, clearly multitasking for different platforms isn’t helping. Two wrongs equal wrong. Fan boy somewhere else. The culture would be better without an irrational placeholder. Give us your thoughts at 1-800-223-9797.