Detroit Hip-Hop Radio Station Bans Kanye’s Music

A Detroit radio station has banned the music of rapper Kanye West after his remarks to TMZ in which he said, “When you hear about slavery for 400 years—for 400 years! That sounds like a choice. Like, you was there for 400 years and it’s all of y’all? It’s like we’re mentally in prison.”

On Thursday, DJs BiGG and Shay Shay of 105.1 The Bounce posted on Facebook:

We feel like Kanye has gone too far with his latest statement declaring that “slavery was a choice.” We are over it. We don’t want to hear Kanye’s music, we don’t want to play Kanye on our show, we don’t want to talk about Kanye anymore. So we are taking a stand and we aren’t playing his music anymore; we just are refusing to give him a platform.

On Wednesday, when Shay Shay was asked how the DJs would deal with airplay of West, she said she was tired of listening to him. Shay Shay also commented on West asserting that Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X were “too far in the past and not relatable.” She said, “As an educator, as someone who works with young kids … he has a huge platform, OK? I just think that’s reckless. I think when you have such a huge platform like that, to use it in a reckless way, I mean, you’re basically saying history is irrelevant.”

Bigg told The Detroit News that the response from fans of the station to West’s remarks was so massive that the station’s new program director, John Candelaria, approved the ban. Biggs stated, “In my 20-year radio career, this is one of the largest responses I’ve ever seen; the largest reaction on The Bounce, too. It’s very overwhelming right now. I’m just trying to keep up. Lots of people in support, but the people that aren’t are taking personal jabs. Weird.”