Peter Rosenberg: Saves Radio?

“At the end of every show I want people to say, that was funny, smart and the music was dope.” Peter Rosenberg

Peter Rosenberg isn’t here to save radio or HOT97. Peter Rosenberg is here to be a medium if not THE medium for artists who make music with passion, creativity and originality which has seemingly been diluted in the midst of the chase for the corporate dollar. This wrestling fanatic with the right connection has birthed a commercial radio show that hasn’t been around since the likes of Stretch Armstrong and Bobbito “Kool Bob Love” Garcia. So how did this University of Maryland graduate, hardcore hip hop head, Brett Hart supporter (pause) land a show on one of the most groundbreaking hip hop stations in the world (without tomatoes flying at him) and plan to be the lane for the Little Brother’s, Oddisee’s, Saigon’s and Big Shug’s of the world to see some light?

Scheme: Don’t take this personal but who the heck is Peter Rosenberg?
Peter Rosenberg: I’m an almost twenty year-old, but I’m going to drop that back and call myself a 26 year old University of Maryland graduate, hardcore college radio DJ, huge sports fan, wrestling head and mostly hip hop loving DJ. I’ve always had a lot to say, I’ve always been real opinionated, funny, entertaining, all that. I’ve been on the college radio grind for almost a decade. Over the years I got on the air and interned at big stations in DC like PGC and WHFS. I had a morning show on XM Satellite Radio then I had a talk show at WJFK. Recently I’ve been living my dream doing a hiphop show on HOT97 in New York.

Scheme: Did you know it was always radio for you?
Peter Rosenberg: It started out as radio. Over the years I’ve gotten interested in other things even though I want to master radio first. There’s a whole bunch of stuff about the medium of radio that I love and radio is the one thing that you can really participate in while doing other stuff. You can catch it on the way home, while working out, while doing a million other things and you can still be involved with the radio. It forces people to create images of themselves and I love that. I love theatre of the mind, it can allow you to take something that is very small like a real ghetto low end kind of skit and make it really big and hilarious, even if you don’t have the means. Radio has always been a medium I’ve really loved. There has always been radio personalities that I’ve grown up listening to and really loved.

“A lot of times underground doesn’t understand what it entails to do commercial radio and try to keep it hip hop.”

Scheme: Was it hard coming out as this White kid who was basically informing another race about hip hop and or was it hard gaining that respect?
Peter Rosenberg: I very rarely have felt concerned about that. Every blue moon I feel some level of something from audiences like that. I’ve always found to be honest that it was White programmers who didn’t believe that a Black audience would identify with what I do and I’ve never gotten that vibe from the Black audience. The phrase in hip hop that I find to be the most true over the years is, “Real recognize real”, so I very rarely felt like I’ve had anything to prove. Maybe that’s getting older and getting more confident. I’ve done a lot, although on a very small level I’ve done a lot to contribute to hip hop. It’s brought me so much joy and I’ve tried my best to give back to it. I’m sure there are other people that feel the way I do but haven’t gotten accepted so in a certain sense I’m fortunate. Also it’s about confidence and if you show people you’re the real deal and you believe and live for it, I think people accept you and believe it.

Scheme: Every city has that college radio station that you have to listen to Tuesday or Wednesday at 11:30pm but the mainstream radio that you hear everyday is not what you hear on the Rosenberg show. How did you land your type of show on HOT97 granted they do have DJ’s that play good music but how did you get your diverse and balanced show on the air?
Peter Rosenberg: The main reason it happened and the main reason that HOT97 is going into a great direction and obviously I’m speaking beyond me I’m certainly no savoir, but the reason it’s going in such a great direction is because E-Bro the new program director is a hip hop head. He grew up on the Hieroglyphics, BDP (Boogie Down Productions), Tribe, De La (Soul) and the Jungle Brothers, he’s from that. The whole time I was struggling in radio I thought if I could meet the right person who gets my stic, their smart, their hip hop and their actually in the position where they can make something happen I felt that - that would be my opportunity. I kept meeting people who had a couple of those qualities. E-Bro was named program director a few months ago and he had just reached out to me before he got named program director and I was like maybe I have an opportunity now. He brought me up there and treated me like a little protégé, we have similar tastes in music, he’s much cooler than me but besides that he sometimes says I act like a little Jewish woman. We get along well and he really has a great vision for hip hop. A lot of times underground doesn’t understand what it entails to do commercial radio and try to keep it hip hop. They think they understand and their like, “Nah you can play this, this is a hit!” and we’re like nah, it’s not. I answer the phones, I’ve sat night after night answering 100 requests for B2K and Omarion, no disrespect to B2K and Omarion they’re probably in the upper echelon of stuff that’s out right now, but the vibe from kids in not Common and Kweli. It’s going to be a delicate process to stop making less seemingly trendy stuff; making that (Common and Kweli) trendy is a delicate process and requires someone who is really smart and loves hip hop and gets urban hip hop radio. I’m not just saying this because he’s the dude that hired me but I really believe E-Bro is that guy and HOT97 being a trendsetting station God-willing it’ll be something that picks up and catches on.

Scheme: Do you feel any pressure coming on HOT97 having this type of show, granted there are other shows on the station that play music late at night, do you feel any added pressure giving hip hop an arm that it already had but shining some light on it and making this show a success?
Peter Rosenberg: In one sense yes, but more so no. On the intro I play all the time from Phonte (of Little Brother) he’s more or less saying don’t mess this up because a lot of us don’t have a lane. In that sense I feel pressure because there are so many artists that I’ve gained over the years that I love and would love to see do well, as long as they give me good music I’m going to play it. I want to be that DJ that they think of when they say, “Well we always have Rosenberg he can play that record and give us some shine.”

On the other hand I feel no pressure at all because cats are starving right now and it’s a lay-up. My show is a lay-up every week, musically. I’m not saying I do a perfect show every week but musically my show has been kick a*s. Everyone is sending me product, when you get tons of mp3’s send to you every week and only 30% are air worthy and 15% are great it’s still a lot of music. The streets and the internet are so excited to hear it there’s really no pressure. It’s like when Premier sends me a new Big Shug joint I know heads are going to love it and it’s a lay-up. What I’m afraid of is I’ve blown opportunities before so have other radio host with some personality but I feel more excited and honored to be that voice for people.

“Flex over the years has broken so many classic underground artists how can you be mad at him if at the end of the day he has to crossover a little bit, it’s just where the music is.”

Scheme: What was your opinion looking at commercial radio from the outside before you were immersed in it even though it’s still early?
Peter Rosenberg: Two weeks ago Flex played five hours of the 90’s and we have that linked on our page because people need to know how deep Flex is. I feel like there are a lot of people who don’t know better and don’t know who Funk Flex and Angie (Martinez) are. Things come and go but Funk Flex and Angie are HOT97. The thing I like about the both of them is they’re innovative with style and they’re trendsetters and beyond that they love the real sh*t. So when I go to New York sometimes and I hear Flex drop a bomb on it, 10 years ago I know Flex wouldn’t have dropped a bomb on it. Your natural tendency is to be like that’s wack but the reality is I’ve been in radio for 10 years and I understand that for Flex to be able to do all the cool things that he does he had to transcend underground hip hop because that’s just not where people are at right now. Frankly how can you blame a guy like Flex who did more than enough to support the real sh*t. Flex over the years has broken so many classic underground artists how can you be mad at him if at the end of the day he has to crossover a little bit, it’s just where the music is. No one would be happier to see hip hop go back to the place where it was like Flex. Flex and Angie can start pushing that button as much as they want to but they would lose ratings and eventually their jobs.

Scheme: So what is your five year plan, because when you get to that status and the corporate dollars are offered BUT you have to play certain music and that could dilute the Rosenberg show what is your opinion on that?
Peter Rosenberg: This is why I’m doing the show as passionately and as hardcore as I am right now. I want to establish the audience I have right now to really by my core audience. So I put myself in a situation where I can say to them, “Listen, you can have me do a million things and I can play all the Bow Wow’s and Hurricane Chris that you want but at the end of the day I need to get an hour block to play my sh*t because that’s what people expect from me and that’s my niche.” I’m not going to lie and say if I have the opportunity to make a lot of money to do big things I wouldn’t take it because I would and I would hope to go back and do what I could to preserve that art. All my eggs are in this basket (laughs) so if I have any plans of having a family and a house I have to be realistic. At the same time I’ve made it this long and I’ve always kept my underground vibe. I’m at a place now with huge stars where they all expect me to be that so there’s actually no reason why I shouldn’t be able to keep that up. I truly plan on keeping underground hip hop as a part of my show but the fact of the matter is I could play bullsh*t records all day and my vibe would still be underground hip hop. I was on White talk radio in DC that is totally a Howard Stern audience and the vibe was still underground hip hop. In a sense you can take that out of me, my soul is stuck in 93′.

Scheme: What is your view on hip hop and politics because when they get together they seem to bounce off each other and go the opposite way, how do we get the message to the hip hop generation and the genrations coming up after us through radio and hip hop?
Peter Rosenberg: For the most part hip hop radio and urban radio has been very liberal and has had a slightly political agenda if you listen closely. I think HOT97 is headed in that more political direction, Angie had (Barack) Obama on the show last week and Hilary (Clinton) on the show the week before. I do think ideally the situation that we’re in right now politically you would really hope that places would step up. The company I work for at the end of the day if you do research on Emmis Communications they’re a pretty liberal company. Most stations are owned by Clear Channel and that’s a monster but I’m not sure how much their going to rock the boat. Hip hop and the world of politics has always been funny style and ever since the days of Public Enemy it really never matured politically. Hip Hop politically, your talking about Fight the Power and F*ck the Police. That was a great place to start but at this point we need people to start voting because no matter how much we want to buck the system, at this point you have to vote, I don’t care how you feel about it. It would be great to see hip hop as an organizing force in that regard but I personally don’t have my fingers crossed about it because at the end of the day if Jay-Z started talking about political stuff the radio would follow it. It’s really about the artist being over the top political and putting the ice and rims down for one record and not many artists are.

“I don’t need hip hop to be that different I just want creativity to come back and that doesn’t mean records that sound like 1988.”

Scheme: I flipped out when I heard you play Dilla, Common, Snoop and Skyzoo? What’s it like to have that ability to play that music?
Peter Rosenberg: In terms of my career I have a long way to go but as far as being able to play my music it’s been a dream come true. It feels great to be able to play good records, it feels like what radio is supposed to feel like. There are certain kids like, “I’m in college and all I listened to Talib and Mos Def.”, and then there are the rest of us who are like sometimes a Slim Thug or Chamillionaire record is hot. It’s been a great situation for me for this first month.

“If I was really good at playing dominos and blackjack but the sad thing is we think some of these people are artists but really hip hop is just one of their hustles.”

Scheme: What do you do when your not around the radio station and what is your inphatuation with wrestling?
Peter Rosenberg: The only commitment I have every single week is RAW, I’m pretty internet obsessed I’m pretty much heavy on Myspace and Facebook and all that mess, I’m addicted to technology. I was into wrestling when I was a little kid like everyone was and then I got out it for years and years and I missed Stone Cold and the Rock. Then I went back to talk radio and we did stuff with WWE regularly so I was getting free tickets and free DVD’s and I started interviewing all the new stars. Then it was very easy to get back into it and I started studying it because it really intrigued me. I think it’s the most incredible business I’ve ever learned about. It’s a really funny business because no matter how much people know wrestling is staged on the surface not only are they not enemies but the success of them really depends on how well they work together. There is no tougher business than professional wrestling and I consider it a sport even if it’s staged it’s the toughest sport in the business. I’m always drawn to things that require me to defend them.

Scheme: If you had a dream about hip hop in this perfect euphoric state community, music etc.?
Peter Rosenberg: It would be like the money power and influence that hip hop has now mixed with the passion, conviction and creativity of the late 80’s and early 90’s and the lack of separation between underground and commercial if somehow that didn’t have to be so separated. I don’t need hip hop to be that different I just want creativity to come back and that doesn’t mean records that sound like 1988. Most of these cats aren’t artists their just dudes that hustle for hip hop and I understand that. If I was really good at playing dominos and blackjack but the sad thing is we think some of these people are artists but really hip hop is just one of their hustles.