This has nothing to do with music, but has everything to do with revenge. Once upon a time, the New York hip hop radio station Hot 97 (WQHT-FM) was a ferocious, competitive entity that no one could defeat. Known for being “No. 1 in Hip Hop,” at the break of dawn the radio station would crank out the lovely sounds of the Star and Buc Wild Morning Show for four hours.
Filling the time slot that formerly belonged to radio hosts Ed Lover and Dr. Dre, the shock jock duo built a reputation for being unfiltered and unbothered, while spewing vicious venom about hip hop’s top celebrities. Of course, with the coating of comedy to soften the blow of the messages, listeners ate it up.
Star (real name Troi Torain), who idolized prominent radio shock jock Howard Stern and worked at The Source Magazine, Complex’s Everyday Struggle and several major record labels, was a troll before trolling was a thing.
He, along with his partner Buc Wild, understood he was hating — something that he was continuously reminded of from fuming listeners who opposed his views. Since his beginnings in the industry, he would often criticize hip hop for some of the hypocritical ideologies and ignorant behavior enforced by the culture.
“I love the culture of hip hop, but there are a lot of things in it that I think are very ignorant, and I hate the state of hip hop today,” Star said in an interview.
Star’s ability to push boundaries (and tempers) came to a head in 2006 when he made disparaging comments about rival DJ Envy’s children during a radio rant. By that time, Star had transitioned from Hot 97 to New York’s Power 105 (WPWR-FM) and was competing with DJ Envy who was currently working at Hot 97. Because Star made threats against minors, the incident led to him being arrested and eventually dismissed by Power 105.
Years later, Star is still kicking up dust. With the Internet making the radio marketplace more competitively balanced, it compelled the DJ to set up his own platform via YouTube. The Star Report consists of Star talking with his regular callers — other popular YouTubers and personal friends — about daily occurrences and trending news from an objective POV.
Currently, the channel has 156k subscribers and an accumulative 17,821,834 views. In other words, he has a lot of hate watchers who view his content but are stingy with the subscriptions and likes.
In one of the episodes, Star exposed his former employer Hot 97 for “lying” about being the No. 1 radio station for hip hop. Star decided to do so after Hot 97 morning host Ebro and his crew went in on YouTuber-turned-digital personality DJ Akademiks for his recent admission about leaving Complex’s Everyday Struggle and his platform.
To back his claims, Star released a ratings report showing the station’s performance in contrast to other New York radio stations. He revealed that in the 25-54 year old demo “on the 2nd line labeled “Mon-Fri 6am-10am,” Ebro In The Morning is mainly in 15th place,” he posted.
On another report, Star posted that the 18-34 demo “on the 2nd line “Mon-Fri 6am-10am,” Ebro In The Morning barely make the top 5, and that only happens when the Breakfast Club is on vacation.”
Star then shows that the 12+ demo shown “on the 2nd line “Mon-Fri 6am-10am” Ebro In The Morning fluctuates between 18th and 19th place. Thats really sad for the number 1 radio market where Hip Hop/Rap is the dominate genre,” he posted.
Star’s resolve is that Hot 97 fabricates fake outrage and scenarios in order to pick up more ratings and to trend on social media — something that is obvious for many media outlets (and celebrities) who have discovered that bad news and shock value are the quickest way to polarize their content and orchestrate interest.
While Star’s accusations are biased toward his former employer, one thing that’s for sure is that the Breakfast Club is on top of it’s competition — in part thanks to DJ Envy, Charlamagne Tha God and Angela Yee.
