The Ebro, Laura, Rosenberg Show - 2.) Responding to Benzino, Who Ruined New York Hip-Hop, + Happy Chanukah! (12/16/25)

Episode Date: December 16, 2025

Ebro, Laura Stylez & Rosenberg are back like they never left! On our second episode we respond to Benzino's rant, claims about who ruined hip-hop in New York, Chanukah talk, Rob Reiner's Death, Trump, and the team tries not to curse. Stay tuned for latest updates: X: @theelrshow Tik Tok: @ebrolaurarosenberg Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Just don't call it a podcast. Okay, Ebro, Laura Rosenberg. That's the show. It's actually the Ebro Laura Rosenberg show. You can subscribe on YouTube if you're watching this. ELR. They're saying ELR. That's what they're saying.

That's what the people are saying, the ELR show. Oh, big out here. Apparently Ben Zino says I ruined his life. So we're going to get to that audio. That's big. 50 cent Jim Jones and Mayno. Have you seen this? No.

You haven't seen this. They're going back and forth on the socials. In the world of Trump is a terrible human being that some far right-wing white nationalists, Christian nationalists think are like some sort of religious leader. He decided to put something up that was very, very nasty about Rob Reiner. How would you, Rosework, how would you describe what Trump put out about Rob Reiner? vindictive crazy the kind of things that you go to hell for

I mean like crushing crushing someone and insulting them on the day of their tragic death by the way bad enough that I saw some of his people coming for him yeah no they were the the people who consider themselves Christians because you know Rosen

Trump doesn't consider himself anything no he pretends to he plays Christian sometime but it's not Not even well, though. Not even well. Does he? I don't know if he's actually ever said it. But he says he likes the Bible. Chris says, but he has Bibles. I know he has Bibles.

No, no, and he likes the Bible. He likes both Testaments. They're both great Testaments. He loves all the Testaments. Who did you see coming out for him? I saw Sage Steele. Sage Steele. Oh, man, she picked the wrong side. Sage Steele, big trumper. She still thinks she's white. And she put up, but she's been that.

And she put out a big, like, disappointed. This is, this, this hurts all of the good things that you do. See, she's delusional. No, no, no, but she's a hardcore. I mean, I'm just saying she's a hardcore. Oh, what good things, man. Here we go. Here, I found the post.

What good thing? Yeah, but you're focusing on the wrong part of it. That's already who she is. Don't even focus on that part. That's her. No, we know there are no good things. but she she thinks there's so many good things here you go here's the post of uh she said this tweet is so disappointing and so unnecessary it's comments like this that take away from all the

countless great things real donald trump does for america he he's right he said there's tron let me see trump's post real quick a very sad thing happened last night in hollywood rob riner a tortured and struggling but once very talented movie director and comedy stars passed away together with his wife, Michelle reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive unyielding and incurable affliction with mind-cripling disease known as Trump derangement syndrome. Sometimes referred to as TDS. Does anybody refer to this as TDS? Never heard that now.

He has known to driven people crazy and his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump administration surpassed all goals and expect away what it's it's it's it's completely what no it's completely unhinged with the golden age of america upon us perhaps like never before what did that read that sentence out loud again the golden age of america upon us perhaps like never before the gold what does that even mean perhaps like never before the golden age for how could there be a golden age perhaps like never before There's either a golden age or there's not a golden age. What are we saying?

The most golden. I see. No, listen. It's foul. Bro, it's, and for the record, Rob Reiner was like so not unhinged. He was just like every other progressive, angry that the world's getting fucked up person. Wait, wait, though.

Your man right here, Donald Trump, yo, your man, Donald Trump, go back to the Donald Trump clip for me, the post. All right. Or did you lose it? No, I got it. You can get it back. Here we are. Hold on, Bascom. I thought he was really going to speak on like, you know,

because he says a very sad thing. Then he goes to talk about him. And then he makes it all about himself. And then still makes it all about himself. And just ends it with, May Rob and Michelle rest in peace. Yo. I will say this, though.

I think Rob, I think Rob would appreciate that on his way out the door, the person who he considered to be the world's biggest piece of shit continued to act like a piece of a shit in his death. Like, also I apologize. No, wait, real quick, I got to apologize. I promised some parents that reached out. Oh, cursing.

And when we went to YouTube, we wouldn't be cursing. Oh, okay, sorry. You're right. You know what? Mute that. Mute those curses. I promise that it would still be fun, family, music, and what's going on in the world.

Then we're not this isn't turning into it. I say it's respectfully, but this isn't turning to the Joe Budden podcast. We're gonna start screaming. Listen, man, what are you talking about? Man, we can't show up. You know, listen, we're new in this YouTube space. We're new to the internet. We can't show up in these people's house.

Disrespecting them, Rosenberg. No, I mean, that's a bad thing. But the Joe shows an adult program. That's that's her adult program. This is a family program. By the way, also, also for the kid, for everyone out there who observes, just want to say, happy Chinooka. You know what I mean?

There it is, yeah. Happy Chinooka. No idea what Chinooka is, but happy Chinooka and enjoy Chinooka. Have a wonderful time. That is the gasmic Smokey Robinson. Yeah, he was gasmic on that day when he couldn't fake, when he looked at that word, was like, what's Chinooka? He was because why do they spell Hanukkah with a C.H. Happy Chinooka.

Because it's Hanukkah. Because it's actually Hanukkah. It's not Hanukkah. And the C.H is not chuh. It's in Hebrew. No, it's not. Happy Chinooka. No, it's not that.

No, so I was thinking about Rob Reiner yesterday, though. Because, like, you know, I'm sure there's some people who know him from all in the family. I'm sure there are some people who know him, you know, as just a director. I'm sure there are some people who just know his name. Yo, Ebro, I'm going to hit you real quick. Run down the film. No, I'm going to hit you with this real quick, okay. First movie out of the gate, 1984, director and writer.

this is spinal tap. Classic. That's out of the gate. Like if you've never seen it, just do yourself a favor, a mockumentary before that was a thing as far as I know. I don't know.

And them dudes from Spinal Tap, you know they just recently put some new issue out too, right? Yeah, well, he did that too. I didn't know that. He did the sequel, which I haven't watched yet. He did in 2025. So then he did a movie, he did The Sure Thing in 1985.

Do you remember that? No, I don't know. It was like a, all I know is it was like a, sort of a sexy kind of movie starring. Hurry up and get to stand by me, man. We're almost there. That's a John Cusack movie. 86 is Stand By Me.

He didn't write it. Stephen King did, but he directed it. And man, I got to tell you. Wait, wait, wait, the Stephen King? Yeah. Wrote Stand By Me? Yeah, I'm pretty sure. Yo, I never knew that.

Hold me look. Let me make sure I'm not making that up. Chit-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch. I'm 90% sure. I think it's about his life. Yeah, written by Stephen King. It's written, it's a book called The Body. We should read that book.

The book's called The Body by Stephen King. Oh, yeah, and it's, Griff says it's a short story. So, so. Total Barforama. Griff said it's 70 pages. So here's what hit me yesterday when I was, so Natalie's never seen it. So I, we turned it on last night.

And the first day out of the gate is, Ebro, do you remember the story well? Because I know you, you'll love a movie, but then when we go through the story, I'm like, what? What happened now? I remember, I remember you have four. kids you had the fat kid yeah you had the kid that was like abused by his parents kid yeah Corey

Feldman yep you had the the nerdy kid the main kid which was the main kid whose older brother who's older brother had died before like recently before that and he was struggling with some stuff at home and he comes back in the flashbacks as John Cusack as his older brother who comes back and and then and then the main kid is River Phoenix yes right so there's always been a tragic sort of feel to go back to stand by me because River Phoenix died so young. And in that movie, he's so like young and jumps off the screen and then he died a few years later, right? But if you remember, Ebro and spoiler, fast forward 20 seconds, if you've never seen it, you want to watch it because it's an iconic all-time movie. They tell you that River Phoenix's character died at the beginning.

Yeah. It starts with the older version. Richard Dreyfus is the old version. He's looking at the newspaper and it says Christopher Chambers stabbed in blah blah blah accident and killed but then you watch the whole movie and you forget I forgot and then he tells the story to end the movie after you've seen this thing of that's the dead body no it's not oh happy Chinooka that's he bro just botching the whole thing but at the end when they remind you and then and then this character you've now fallen in love with he grew up and he got stabbed to death at a coffee shop because he tried to break up a fight between two strangers. That's right.

And then when I watched it yesterday knowing that Rob Reiner had just fucking had his throat slit, it's just like... And is it confirmed that that was his son? That's confirmed. It seems, it seems completely. It doesn't seem like there's any other conversation. Damn, was a knife to the neck in the movie, too, Griff said.

And the, and, uh, this... So anyways, keep going, though, by the way. I don't want to, let's not, let's not sleep on the rest of it. Because stand by me may be the, the number one for people our... That's the crown jewel. But hold on. Is it, Eber one?

The next one was the Princess Bride. Come on, bro. That's back to back. Stand by me in 86, the Princess Bride 87. But wait a second. This run, this man goes on year by year. 89 when Harry met Sally. Jeez.

1990, misery. Damn. Another Stephen King bang. Stephen King joint, yeah, I know that for sure. 1992, a few good men. That's the run he goes on. from 84 to 92. And then there's just a lot of good movies.

The American President, Ghost of Mississippi, you know, just some other fun movies in there. Definitely slowed down from a film standpoint. And then popped up, of course, as an actor and mad stuff as well. But, man. Well, rest in peace, Rob Reiner, man. At least, listen, bro,

it sucks that your son became who he became and this happened to your family. There's no other way to frame. that right like no it's a tragedy like in all ways shapes and forms but at least you know um it's documented that you wasn't with the current shenanigans that are going on and uh super documented he was that the man was outside listen that's all you ask for in this life is that you go out on the right side of history and like trump i'm going to make this about myself well done you like it you're like i did that um because that was one thing i found very

heartwarming from a lot of the responses that we got after putting out our show yesterday and people, you know, locking in, it's just kind of like, yo, you stood on business, you never missed words, you stay true to yourself regardless of the outcome. And I think, I think that's something, when I look at my, when I look at my, you know, 15-year-old, 16-year-old self when I got in this business,

you know, you are not in this business until you've been fired. That's that's kind of like what they tell used to tell you coming. Wait, had you ever been fired? Yeah, I've been fired. Okay, okay. I didn't remember if you've been fired. Well, well, now I'm in the, because now I'm in the business by literally being out of the business. Um, but, um, I got, I got fired.

I got fired from a station that I started in Sacramento, KB, 103.5. The owner fired me. I had gone and I was working also in Portland, Oregon simultaneously. So I was doing mornings in Portland, Oregon while also programming in Sacramento between 1999 and 2002. That's right before I came to New York City. And she fired me. Black woman fired me because I refused to take money from record labels to do interviews with artists. Nah.

She was like, we need a, I want this revenue stream. They should be paying us money to if we're going to be promoting their albums. And if they want to do an interview, they need to pay us more money. I was like, that's not, I'm not participating in that. That's not how this works. I was like, you can have them buy commercials to promote their albums. Like, that's above board. Right.

That was the way of getting around it in a way that's not as quite as nasty. Yeah, but like, oh, you want an interview? Like, oh, you want us to promote your album here by commercial. Oh, you want an interview? just cut us a check. Otherwise, we're not even talking to your artist. Not doing that. So she fired.

That's great. By the way, in this era, it feels like, you know, you could probably turn that into more of a thing. Although it's happening everywhere. What's happening? No, no, things like that. Like, I was going to say, if someone ever said that to me, I would feel like I'd go to my union rep and be like,

they want me to do something that I'm not supposed to do. California is not as much of a union. Doesn't have, I mean, they have unions, but it's not like New York City. New York City's a union. town you know what i'm saying like certain cities sacramental california i don't see is like really well and also in that era you know the employees just didn't have as much powers they have today look that's this is what they want corporations wanted to go back to my bro they wanted to go back to where employees don't have no

power oh they sure do hell yeah buckle up yo uh before we move on from trump and get into kind of the the entertainment goings-ons. Did you see the headline about Ethiopians who were here under protected status in the United States, about 30,000 of them? Trump moving to now unprotect them

so that he can add them to the list of people that need to be deported. So I guess, you know, Haitians have been, they've been trying to do it with Haitian people, Ethiopian people. and several other groups where the protective status because they were here as refugees

is now being removed. So tens of thousands of people can now be legally deported if they're not able to get the quote unquote proper immigration status set up. And this is all part of the overall plan to just screw people of color

from, or particularly black people. Yeah. Okay. Duh. Where you been? Project 2025. So this is just another page in this, what you're saying. Hey, Salasi. Y'all feel like, wow, you got a full, you got a full hot, hi, da, da, I'm excited for that.

Hi, baby, come. You want to say hi to the people? Mommy won't let you on screen with smoothie all over your face. No, not like that. You look nuts. Yeah, come. Hold on, bring on the baby, and I got to go with my baby a pacifier. This is crazy.

You guys want to talk and say hi. Hi. Hi. You want to show them your bubbles? Show them your bubbles. Bibles. You got to put it on the screen like that. Bubbles.

You want to show them how you blow a bubble? Blow a bubble for them. Go for it. Go. No, you got to blow, right? She's seeing herself. You got to blow, booby. Blow.

No? Now you don't want to? No blowing bubbles? No. Why? Because that's what the people want. You're such a little, you're such a mischievous, what? Well, you want to say something? Go. I say, good morning.

Say, what's your favorite movie right now? Movie. Which one? Moana? Or what's your best? What's the happiest movie you watch? All done? Yeah.

Okay, go to Mama. All done. Say, say, say, la you. Bubble. Okay, you can have your bubble. Here. Say bye. Bye.

Damn, I missed her best appearance. She was in and out. Yeah, but she was dropping gems, talking, saying whole things. Yeah, she was in and out. She was saying bye, she said bubbles. She wouldn't blow bubbles. But she said bubbles.

But she said bubbles. Normally she blow bubbles, but. You know what we gave, you know, we gave Maya for Hanukkah yesterday? What was that? The, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, Ooh, that's lit. You have one of those? I don't think we have an Elmo cell phone.

We have Elmo that talks, though. This, well, that's what this, this, so it looks like a cell phone. So she wants to grab it just like a cell phone. And when we took it out of the packaging, we acted like it was for us. We're giving it back and forth, blah, blah. And then she wants, we're like, no, no, this is for us.

And then we're like, oh, fine, you can have it. And yo, she was calling the count. She's, she's calling Grover. I mean, she doesn't even know these people are yet, but she's able to call them, though. But she's calling them. And listen, the Elmo thing. So the Elmo thing's big.

Like, you know, Elmo's going to be like, Elmo. She pointed to the TV. Elmo, trolls, Moana, Lion King, Paw Patrol has opened. She's on Paul Patrol now. That's a thing, too. So she has TV viewing. She got a little crew here in the building. They had a little holiday party yesterday.

Oh, there's a crew. She got, there's like four of them. They hang out every day. and they had a pajama holiday party yesterday. Whoa. Yeah, they sure did. It's frigging lit out here. No, she got a little squat.

We're deciding whether we're doing a full, like, birthday party with kids or if we're just going to have, like, a birthday party with mostly adults and, like, you know, a couple of children who come with that. But, like, do we need to have it at a kids facility? No, no. Like we don't, she doesn't have friends yet. No, no, no, no. She's too small. And she's too small, so it's not for her.

I told Natalie, I'm like, it's nice if you want to do it, but it's just us paying for a daycare day for other people's kids. It's not for her. Well, you really, now they do have some kids spaces. Matter of fact, the place that helped Miss Rachel was on the Upper West Side and it's black on. And so when Miss Rachel was trying to throw a birthday party for the young girl who lost her legs in Gaza, and she got the prosthetics and brought her over here to the United States and people were turning Ms. Rachel down

and saying that they didn't want, you know, whatever, for whatever reason. And we know what it is. We know the reason, yes. The, there's this place on the Upper West Side that reached out to Miss Rachel and let her do the party there. You should absolutely be up in there and support that place. What, do you know what you don't know what it's called? Let me look back on Ms. Rachel's page right now.

Griff, if you're in there paying attention, can you find that on Ms. Rachel's page? Because I DM that business and was like, listen, it's going to be a long haul for you. Because, A, you supported Ms. Rachel when people are trying to, like, come for you. Let me see. Yeah.

Shout to Raha from Gaza and her mom, Isra. They got her medically evacuated from Gaza. The place did? No, Ms. Rachel did. Ms. Rachel and, you know, a bunch of people. But I was just seeing that on Miss Rachel's page. Play Street Museum. Yeah, I remember that on 805 Columbus at 100th Street.

I'll check them out. Yeah, Play Street Museum. But I still don't know. I still don't know. That's just like a, that's just like, yeah, it's just a place. But it's, I think it's still too big for. For a one-year-old, I don't know if we need that. No, no, no.

But what you should do is having a, I was like, Natalie, have your own party. You know, you need, you need to throw a party for her. Right. For her. But first I have to encourage her to not want to have like make it a huge, a big thing for kids. You just take control and say, hey, this is what we're doing, bro. Yeah, let's pick a location.

That's nice. Be a man in your house. Yo, man. I'll try. And plan this little kid's birthday party. Well, you know, what she needs is a space where her mom can decorate. That's all she needs because her mom will go great. That's all we need.

Her mom will go crazy and do the thing. Yeah. But I think the point of it really is to celebrate Natalie. So. Well, listen, shout to Natalie. Shout to Play Street Museum. Shout to everyone with kids. We love you guys.

And please subscribe to and share with a friend, Ebro Laura Rosenberg Show. You know, we had a good first day, though, man. How'd we do numbers-wise? We did great. We did great. At last I saw, we were up past, I'm going to look right now,

but past 13,000 subscribers in a day. Wow. Wow. I've launched a lot of little things in my life, Chud, channels. Yeah. 13.9,000. And there was like 200 prior to yesterday or whatever. The video itself is at almost 50,000, which for a channel that has zero followers, zero algorithm help, zero anything, that's a, that's a sizable number. Obviously it helped that, you know, one of the biggest artists in the world, you know, pseudo threatened to kill you. That helps. You know, mean. Yeah, are you still running with that? Well, I meant that said pseudo. I said he's pseudo threatened to kill you. Murder or Jace? Although someone said, uh, Baskim said that some

people said die slower is actually a nice thing. It's like more life. Well, it's more life while suffering though. Oh, but I told him, regardless of the meaning when you add to the end, it just changes the field either way. I mean, oh, sorry, damn it, mute that curse. Mute that curse. Mute that curse. Sorry. Yeah, you can't curse on this program. Sorry. Listen, I have to assume that Drake knows what he's doing. And I have to assume that he and Sack

know that they're helping me. Oh, no, Sack doesn't see it that way. He's been waiting for both of us. I mean, no, no, no. Sack promoted my Apple show yesterday. He promoted this show yesterday. No, a lot.

No, a lot, bro. No, he's not. I mean, the, the, the, the comment that Laura made about the roaches and unsanitary conditions. By the way, Laura on the plane, spicy Laura. Yo, no, no, no, no. Laura in the comments yesterday, I've never seen that. Wait, wait, should I be reading it? Someone sent me post.

Bro, I don't want to read this. No, no, no. Laura was frying. Everybody can catch it, Laura. Like, no, like, shut the fuck up. Like, sit your ass shit down. You just said no person. You just said.

No cursing, my bad. Edit that. This is now going to take Baskin two days already. We have four curses. Sorry. I'm going to try to bleep on the fly. But at any rate, Laura was going ahead. There you go.

Yeah, she was, I got to find these, by the way. I want to see the comments. I need to know which post. Oh, hold on. It's on the sheet. Griff sent. Oh, God, Griff, you're a frigging pro. Nah, Griff sent us prep today, man.

I appreciate Griff still in the building. Here we go. What's the prep call, Griff? And you know, Ebro can't find an email. Oh, here it is. Show prep. Bung. Oh, let's see. Oh, he included some nice comments here.

Yeah. Really nice comments from people. I tested four NYC radio stations this morning. Hated every single one. So happy to see your faces and hear your voice is excited for what's to come. These are on the YouTube, I suppose. Oh, yeah, there you go. Which is nice to see.

realized how much of a friend of the show I was until this morning. And I heard flex dropping bombs all early in the morning aggravated my whole day. Ha, ha ha. Listen, flex has got to be flex. Yeah. By the way. Well, no, somebody left a comment. Yo, academics is so real for making sure you still get views during these hard times.

Y'all, yo, that's facts. That's facts. This is facts. But the thing is, the reason that the sack thing doesn't help as much is the Drake thing is, I don't think his people are ever coming to watch us or enjoys. And I don't think he reaches regular people. Like, I think he has a very specific academic stuff. Not, no, no, not his news page. His news page reaches everybody. But him like tweeting and going crazy, I feel like that's a very specific kind of crowd that he's reaching. I don't care. The promo yesterday was phenomenal.

No, it was nice. I've never seen nothing like this before. Yo, especially. especially considering how irrelevant and dead radio is and we are. When you think about how just finished we have been and no one's ever cared. Well, no, but then the other thing was I saw a whole other other section of the internet that was angry because they really thought that the Ebro and the morning thing was like the whole thing. They don't really know. Like they didn't like, people were like, wait, you work at Apple? Nah.

Then they were like, wait, you're on YouTube. too already. Nah. Oh, they thought like we were actually dead and gone and then they were like, oh, no, they're back. Yeah. See, I can't. I can't. And I'll see the comments, you know, when, when, when the Russian cop, or he's Ukrainian, I think, when the Ukrainian cop started coming for me on Twitter yesterday. Who are you talking about flat? Yeah. When he started coming for me, I'll see in the comments when he's talking about how finished I am and having a life. They're like, Yo, bro, I'm pretty sure he's full time at ESPN and WWE. Like you're acting as if he's literally wandering the streets.

Like he did like I have a stick over my shoulder with the blet, you know, with the towel on the back and I'm just walking around going someone please give me a check anybody. Yo, uh, let's let's now here. Uh, I want to see what Benzino. I thought me and Benzino had, you know, cleaned it up. Burry de hatchet. I haven't seen this yet. The axe.

but apparently not. Well, here we go. I'm seeing shirtless Benzino standing here. Let me see. I haven't seen this. I've only heard about this. Me too. I haven't seen it either.

Run this clip. Let me see what's going on here. All right. Hold on. Is this it? Here it is. Oh, I got to get the shirtlessness right. How do I get the audio on here?

Give me a sec. Give me a sec. Give me a sec. Old man vibes. He's jacked up as Benzino. Let's start him over. Now, look. It's over here, bro.

And in my opinion, when you took over Hot 97's program director, you, Rosembourg, y'all fuck New York hip hop up. Y'all fuck New York radio, New York hip hop up. Shout to Funkmaster Flex, because without Flex, y'all really were offered up. You took over, you and your ego, when you thought that you was bigger than the program and it was about you and that fucking dusty-ass gray beard of yours? one point that's right you just came across as corny

you didn't come across as new york you ain't from new york so i don't even know why they'd even give you that job you're from boston benzina just always came across as like the extra educated culture culture an educated rep oh that's bad it's always bad to be extra educated not so fun huh being ousted or being canceled huh yeah It happens.

But your contribution to the culture is your 13 years up there. What can anybody say you really accomplished? 13 years was a decent run, Ebro. Wasn't like mine's at the source of 19 years, but, you know. I'm sure there's a job for you out there. You know, culture vultures love hiring culture vultures, so you'll be a good. But he's already...

But listen, I just want to say. Rosenberg, you always been corny. Oh, I don't even know the ladies, so no disrespect. Rosenberg, you all been corny as fuck. I don't even know the lady, so no disrespect. That's nice. Yo, I don't even know the lady, so no disrespect, we need is a drop. Yeah, that's Vex.

I need that. Benzino, I, um. Keep talking. I did this baby. I'm here. All right. No, I was just going to say, Benzino, listen. sir um i thought i thought our our our issues from when y'all tried to when y'all really tried to

run down on me when y'all was at the source and try to force me to play your whack-ass music i thought we had put that shit behind us i thought we was in a good space um i'll tell that story if this keeps going give people something to chew into but yeah nah it was we had situations before but 13 years I've been at hot 97 since 03 bro so yeah I think you're mixing the ebro in the morning

and the program director thing and like I don't and I don't even know what you're talking about and then it's at some point at some point we're going to get into the number of artists from New York City that Hot 97

supported throughout the years it's never been about me It's always been about artists and songs coming through Flex's show Camillo. Shout to E Enough. It's always been about the DJs. And you can ask any of the DJs up there. It's always been about the DJs and giving people shine. Or the many artists that we put on Summer Jam,

or the many artists that we put at the Who's Next event at SOBs. It's always been about that. So I don't really know where people get this narrative from. But, well, I do know where they get it from. They get it from me and 50 cent going back and forth with each other. Shout to 50, which we got to get into his current new issues on social media. But 50, I told 50 he ruined New York hip hop. He spun it back around on me talking about I ruined New York hip hop.

And then all of his fans and fanatics ran with that. But first, it was 50 cent who ruined New York hip hop. Y'all know. Nobody wanted to work together. People who was already popping in the city was like, you know, everybody was hym and hawing and soft-shoeing because nobody wanted to work together because 50 cent was so popping. So that's where that narrative comes from.

Now, Rosenberg, if we were to go, if we were to really go through the documentation of the amount of opportunity given to New York rappers in my term or in my tenure at Hot 97, How do you think I would fare when you really grade it? Well, I mean, there's two different tenures for you, obviously, that are, that it's relevant to point out between being program director and, thank you, between being program director and on air host. People also don't understand that's two different jobs. Right, hang on.

This has to be more professional. Sorry, sorry. So, so there's two things. One, you were program director. That's one era. See, this is the problem with the young rappers. Just want to grab the mic, you just want to grab the mic, but you don't have anything to offer yet. You haven't gotten your skills up.

You haven't lived enough life. I think that none of these people who talk have truly any idea whatsoever. A, A, how the game even works, but B, what the stuff that we did and do and that you did and do. Like, what are they basing it on? But the whole narrative, I mean, listen, it's also. your fault. So hit the, we don't have that button. So hit this. Happy Chinooka. Hit the happy Chinooka button because you ran with the narrative because you thought it was fun and good promo. But no, I love it. I mean, but it was me of 50 going back and forth. Right. And that's a

fun thing to do. But the truth is it was a completely invalid statement. It was 50 being Trump, which he is in a lot of ways. 50 was Trump. He knows he divided hip hop. And so he's turned it on someone else. It was complete nonsense. But you ran with it because it was fun. Yeah, I still don't mind. I still don't. But it's not, but like, I either, by the way, it's not even true that 50 quote unquote ruined New York hip hop, but he did it more than you did. Neither of you did, by the way.

The problem was dick riding and people want, oh, I did it again. It's people copycatting other people. And when New York lost its creativity and wanted to start sounding like the South, that to me is when things fell off a cliff. It really wasn't about any program director or one artist. It was about lazy people, lazy DJs too. Lazy DJs who were like, ah, not, the hot things at Lama. But one, I also think to some degree you would factor in there, the internet, right?

And social media where things, because people essentially want to have a good time with the music. And so how you go about having a good time with the music, there's a lot of things that converged in New York City. There weren't really any clubs where people were dancing. things became very strip club focused. Strip club focused, obviously will then turn the music to a specific sound. So when you don't have people gathering around a certain sound, right, like where you had these institutional clubs where people, you know, because music is a, in many ways, music is a, it's a utility.

Right? Like you use it for things. You use it to work out. You use it to drive. You use it to gather with your friends. You use it. You know what I mean? So when you don't have these spaces anymore in New York

because the club seemed fell apart and then a lot of things were sitting around the strip clubs I think it changed the sound. That's all. I think that's real. And then you put on top of that social media and the internet. But that goes back to my thing with DJs. And I get it.

DJs want to be in the spots where the hot girls are. I get it. So they want to go to the strip clubs. And that's where the monies get spent. And that's where the money gets spent. But like as a result, a lot of the hip hop that was New York sort of heart and soul got abandoned.

And I know that because I became basically one of me in K. Slay for a period where the only people who are like, we're going to play boom bap quality New York kind of rap on the radio. And most people didn't want to stand near it because I don't want to be near a bunch of dusty dudes. I want to be in the club with girls. I'm not saying I completely begrudge that. But when you throw away the other part altogether, which was such a part of the soul of what New York hip hop was, there's a lasting effect that was problematic for a long time. But by the way, let's not overdo it because New York hip hop started bouncing back pretty hard already. by like the early 2010s. No, very much so.

Pro era, Bronson, ASAP, mob. There was a lot of people acting like New York was dead when there were probably. Nikki Minaj for it, by the way. Nicky Minaj. 2009, 2010. There were more New York artists probably on top than any other area except maybe Atlanta.

Well, then let's not act like A Boogie ain't been out here putting up numbers. Look, they may not be all the lyricals, but. It just ain't the rap part, though. That's the thing. That's just like, I like A Boogie, but it's not rap. No, they just say New York.

York artists. They say New York. Oh, right. See, I differentiate that. There are always people from New York. And Abee's huge. But like, I didn't know any adults. Because then you're also having an adult conversation. Let's be honest. What kids are even having this conversation? Some adults need to be some adults, they're not having

this conversation. Right. Some adults need to realize that that radio station, Hot 97, ain't for them. Yeah, no. But also, I mean, listen, this gets back to why I was okay with the end coming because the the the place that we knew and loved i mean let's be honest it died a long time ago and and and even though even though it was always a business but it got worse it was always a business but emis emis emis communications empowered you as program director yes i am not claiming that rick cummings and jeff samuli and these people who owned emis loved hip-hop of course not but they

empowered and trusted the people who knew to at least do their thing and that's been gone but they love But they love radio. And they loved radio. They loved radio. For sure. And they love what radio means to the community. Correct. That is supposed to serve.

And that all went away. Yeah. Well, I do think it's important, too. I'm glad we got to this point. And we got to, we're going to wrap for today. Here's pretty soon. I found myself really having to dig into why I still showed up to do that show, even though, like, the money, it wasn't, like, the money is like, was irrelevant.

And even for yourself, you got ESPN and WWW. You eat. It was many times where you were like, all right, guys, I'm done. They're not redoing my deal. They're like, this is ridiculous. Or just decisions they made you were like, what? Huh? I'm leaving.

Many times Rosenberg would come in and be like, yo, I'm done. And I'd be like, nah, chill, chill, chill. This is we're talking about at least for a year, if not to. The commitment and connection that we had to the commuters in New York City, I feel is a very special thing, right? To wake up and say, yo, I just want to help somebody get some info, laugh a little bit, crack some jokes, and get them to work in a city where it's fucking hard. Excuse my language, see. In a city where it's hard enough was like the reason I did it.

As many mornings I got up and I was just like, yo, let's help people get to work. I would literally say that to myself. I know it sounds corny. I'm corny, whatever. But that's really what my commitment was. And I felt like it was reciprocated by the audience based on our ratings. And when we would walk around and the delivery guys and the doorman and the firefighters

and the ambulance drivers and the bus drivers and all that, that's, that's like really what, that's motivational. And you're talking about what you're talking about is, getting love from real New Yorkers with jobs who are out and about doing their things. And the thing is the Benzinos, the academics, the people whose life is spent looking into a phone and not being a part of the community. I mean, in some cases, these people don't even leave their house. You don't understand the impact that we were having.

So you're like, we don't see you being hot on Twitter. No, I mean, we literally didn't. Our radio station never once paid for digital marketing. We weren't, you weren't getting served, Ebro in the morning clips on your thing. but all it took was us walking out in the street every single day to feel the impact. And that's the part that's going to be hardest because I know we're going to lose some of those people.

And they won't find us again because they're not podcast people. Well, hopefully, so here's our plan or here's what I would like our plan to be. I'm still trying to get buying from Rosenberg. I don't know if he's there yet. I would hope that we could go live every day or most days, but I think it would have to be every day to build consistency. at 8 a.m. on YouTube. And so when people are in their car,

they get literally Bluetooth to their radio, Ebro Lauren Rosenberg, at 8 a.m. And you could drive, and we could go to work together. We could still get that going. And this would be starting January 5th? Or after, maybe like the 15th.

Or no, the 12th. The 12th is the next Monday. Yeah, something like that. Okay. And then... And then we would also... be supplying to the channel interviews and things, all those other things, would also still go up on social.

And that would be to play where we, every day, we could deliver a 45 minutes to an hour live, get people to work, have some fun with them. And then, you know, and we can still, we'll figure out some new shenanigans. You know, a lot of the, a lot of the stuff that we created at the last show, I don't know how much of that stuff we could use. Because I don't think any of it would have to be all new names. The way those contracts are written, they can take all that. Anything you create over there, they can take.

And by the way, it's crazy. It's just, so first of all, I'm buying in, down with this plan. Obviously, I mean, listen, just for Fortunity. Griff said, Griff says he got new names for everything. Fultry. But so a lot of, and I got to put a pin in that, Rosenberg. One second. Okay.

This, what you guys heard on that show, we as a collective wrote and performed. Right, like the funny, the bits, the whole thing was this was, this was, this was our production. We did that for them. Oh, that's a good one right there. What? He says the, he says the gurus become the original gurus, the OGs. The OGs is crazy. No, that's tough.

That's tough. So you guys can still email. What's the guru email? Uh, well, we can't, we have, we need a new one. Oh, damn. Because that was based on Ebro in the morning. Although you own that website, but I don't know how that works. So we'll figure that out.

They can send us a cease and desist if they won't get active. So, so. And then that's just a waste of money and, and for no reason. But, but I do, I do have to say, oh, he said, congrats could just be the button, hit him with a button. And then we can figure out what that button is. Like, like I said, today the button is simply happy Chinooka, you know, but, well, you know, the, the, the, the, the, the congratulations you played yourself. That's call. Right.

for sure it certainly wasn't ours we just wasn't our we that's calid saying so we just borrowed it i i like this plan i mean listen i think we should still keep having conversations to see if we end up landing some other place that we want to go but until that that play comes clear i think we should just keep going i like the plan well i don't know if there'll be another place we want to go maybe there won't be that's what i'm saying maybe there'll be no place and we go this makes the most sense to just keep going right but you know listen if someone shows up it says hey we can offer you support in the following ways. But look, if we can get our subscription numbers up, you know what I'm saying?

You can email us right now, Ebro Laura Rosenberg at gmail.com. And that's where the gurus and everything could go. And even, listen, even we'll figure out a way to, you know, get you guys incorporated. I'm working on buying us an 800 number. Ooh, I love the sound of an 800 number. I'm buying us an 800 number so we can take phone calls. So you can, you can still be in your car. you know what I'm saying

and you can be you know listening to the show well I want to finish this thought I'm putting this baby down for five minutes and we'll close out uninterrupted and if she wants to cry she can cry all right mom went to go work on our old apartment that we got to get rid of

okay so wait what do you want to close what are you doing I'm gonna put her down give me 10 seconds oh okay this is the work from home experience on ebro laura and Rosenberg oh and yo why is 50 cent Jim Jones and may no beefing by the way I know 50 and Jim always had a little thing. Mano's throwing shots.

But it feels like good promo for their podcast. That's what it feels like. You know, I think everything's promo. So they're going back and forth. They're going 50. Oh, Meno didn't like the documentary on Diddy. Okay, that's where it starts. All right, boom.

And now 50 and Mano and Jim Jones are going at it. Wait, he's getting, 50's getting mad at people who don't like the documentary? Apparently. But I didn't see it. But apparently the level, maybe the level at which Mano went after it. It was too far. But at this point, the documentary is successful. Why would 50 give a shit?

I mean, give a damn. Excuse my name. Damn. Damn. No, what I just wanted to say was, in closing about the radio show, like the things that I haven't processed yet. You know, like, I just, it's funny to me, though, you guys have to understand. building equity in radio is such a rare and special and old school thing. Like for this show and our personalities and the segments we did to have become known to people

over, you know, the last umpteen years, right? That is such a commodity and it's so crazy. And I understand the company who owns Hot 97, they're viewing, getting dollars in a different way, to throw that all in the garbage without, at least it seems, some sort of good backup plan. And I don't even know what that would be. Like the other,

I'm sure Ebro, you've heard from other people of radio. Their minds are blown. They're like, wait, they just threw this in the garbage? Wait, weren't you guys? I'm going to keep it with you guys. We were getting text messages every two weeks about our numbers and how great the station's numbers were doing. And you literally think you can just get rid of that whole thing.

All the things Ibro just mentioned, the congratulations you played yourself, the gurus, the flashing lights, all the different things that we did. Whiteish Wednesday, which we spent the last few years building, you just erased it and you think you can either pop on Flex, who doesn't do mornings or some new internet guys. And you think it's just going to roll. It's just, it's just embarrassing. Like it just is really embarrassing.

Maybe it was a ripped a Band-Aid scenario. Maybe they were just like feeling like, hey, man, like. When's this ever getting better? These guys don't really like us. They don't really want to work with us. Because the truth is, we weren't ever going to, as Ebro said in a very Ebro way with a joint in his mouth and his in his SUV. We're not going to, we weren't going to capitulate and do the things they wanted.

And for Ebro on one level, and I get it. And for me, too, it's principle. yes, but beyond the political principle, the Cuomo thing really pissed me off because you guys don't even pay for marketing. And we just had an organic, viral moment that's hot, and you cabashed it? You deleted the video because of your friendship

and you trying to get whatever you're trying to get. So now you're not giving us tools to win. But you're going to have to, but you're going to have to articulate that again. I know we got to go, but you're going to have to... Okay, so we did the Cuomo interview. It ended crazy, right? He hung up on us, which made it nuts. It was actually, I thought, a very good conversation.

Aggressive at times, particularly, actually from both of us, a little bit aggressive at times, but a really good conversation. Cuomo decides to hang up at Dan. Immediately people are like, oh, my God, what happened? That's crazy. We immediately afterwards hear from upper management that the video and audio needs to be deleted and not uploaded. Cuomo's team calls our bosses, who obviously they're friends with,

and say that we hung up on them. Obviously a lie. We would never hang up on a guest. You could tell we didn't hang up on them. Not true. And then we are told by upper management. Oh, and Griff says also that we ambushed him. Yes.

We ambushed and hung up on him. And then they tell us you got to delete that video. So yes, from a sociopolitical standpoint, how dare you? We were using our voices that you've empowered us with. And now you don't like what we're saying and you want to silence us. Yes, that's Ebro's main point. I agree with that. My other point from a professional standpoint is

you guys don't do anything to help promote our show. And when we make our own magic happen, you delete it. I don't want to be here anymore. I can't win. You already don't pay. I heart is paying. Joe Budden's company is paying. People are paying to get eyeballs on their content.

We've never had that. All we can do is try to create our own and we do it and you delete it? Well, I don't think a lot of people realize that either is People know us because of our hard work and we were associated with a legendary brand. But there was no active investment in what we were doing on the internet. That's never happened. But ebro, there hasn't been a program director in two years. Hot 97.com.

Yeah. Hot 97.com's YouTube. channel. Huh? I started. Oh, I believe that. Of course you did. Wait, they still got our videos up on the on the hot 97.com.

Yeah, of course. Now, I don't mean on the YouTube channel. I mean it's still on their website. Yeah. Like when you go there. I bet the talent's gone though. Oh, man, we're all gone. Of course.

Yo, by the way, y'all look nuts up here. This looks absolutely nuts. Stop, man. Stop. You don't have to do that. No, no, no. You're saying I'm just not having it. I don't think a lot of people realize the level of work that went into what we have today

and even making the digital presence of that radio, of that brand of thing. But listen, this is what happens when you work for companies, guys. This is how it goes. And so there is a reciprocal relationship, right? Because to some degree, they benefited or to a major degree, they benefited for our time investment and our talents. And to a degree, we benefited as well. Um, yeah, of course. And listen, it was our, it was, and that's how it works. It was my life, life dream to be at hot 97. And I got to be there at the end of the glory era and have a run that was still really felt like hot 97. And then I don't know, sometime, sometime like it was post COVID. It was post. It was post. It was sometimes during COVID. It started to. But COVID was weird anyway. But remember the 395 Hudson Street location. Well, we went back to it though. We went back. We went back. We went back. But then it was a rap. Yeah. And that was the real end.

The end of 3.95 was the real end. Yes. Like that's what it didn't. And can I be real? It also coincides with like the death of Mr. C. Yes. And like just some things that were like. Fat man scoop.

Fat man scoop. And we're like, Yo, bro, think about that. Like the station literally died in ways. Like I always felt that the heart of the station died with Mr. C. Even though he was gone from the station at that point, it's just hard to explain. Like he, he like, his energy was the, he kept us honest as a brand.

You know what I mean? Like it like from a keeping it culturally relevant standpoint. No, he fought for it, man. He fought for it. But we had other losses, bro. We lost losing Carly Hustle when they cut her job and she ended up with you at Apple, the death of Chris Nadler. All of these little things, like, were all hits.

But what you're talking about is people who actually believed in the work we were doing. on behalf of the culture we love and the community we serve. Like that's what you're talking about. Correct. Like I do this because I can help artists connect with the community. That's it. That's the joy for me. Because I could easily be in management and just manage people or being executive.

Yeah, but you bring a different, yeah, you bring a different energy to this thing. And frankly, that's the thing that I wouldn't bring, for example. Like, I know, like, I love the community and I love being. I think I'm a very regular person who connects with people a lot. Certainly on my music side I do. But like you're driven by the I want to alert people to what's going on. I care about that stuff and I can get very serious about it, but I won't lie and say I wake up and it's my first motivation.

My first motivation is like, I just want to like laugh or point out something big in the news and get it off my chest. So the combination became really dope, you know? And that's why we're here. We got something fresh for the people. You know what I'm saying? Keep the people going. Now, I am going away, though, I'm going to Vermont tomorrow.

I might see you next week. Let's do. We'll do. We'll get active next week. So you want to, what day's Christmas? Oh, perfect. No, you know what we'll do? We'll run it back.

We did Monday, Tuesday this week. Let's run Monday, Tuesday next week. Well, the other, yeah, I think the other thing on that is we just need to keep, you know, we need to keep our reps up. We got to work, bro. Listen, make no mistake. We got to work. This ain't no lay up.

Listen, I'm on. We got to earn people. People's views. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? We got to, we got to be consistent in their life. We're going to have to get people who are accustomed to just turning their car on and the radio pops on. You know what I'm saying?

To actually go, oh wait, I need to go look for them. I got to hit another button now. Like these are things that people are not accustomed to doing. That's the thing that people forget is like you're accustomed. you pick up your phone, you go to IG, you go to TikTok. Some people go to YouTube. Like, that's where they go. Like, these are their sources. But there's a significant population that supported us. That's not what they did. Correct. They woke up. They got in their car. And now, and now they're hearing something completely different.

Well, and that's what the people who own radio stations know is that they have people top of mind. We don't necessarily have people. They think about us, but they don't think about how to find us. Correct. And that was the, well, that's the beauty of free radio as much as people talk is yo i'm gonna tell you what the funniest thing last thing um and i like the idea we'll come back next monday tuesday hit the people again right before christmas is great um my dms and you probably haven't even gotten a chance to look at yours yet and i've just like scrolled through and i've tried to hit a few people back the amount of women that have dm'd us about the end of the show do you know how crazy that is coming from sports talk and wrestling like all right because we have

women who listen to more more. I hear from more women. I definitely hear from more women than men. For sure. We have moms for sure. My Twitter presence and or our YouTube chat on ESPN New York. God bless them. 98% men. I'm not kidding. Maybe higher. So like we are reaching different people who aren't active. A lot of moms aren't super active in the podcast space in the same way that can I tell you something else. Can I tell you something else that you got to know. Women are not going to be in your comments arguing with trolls. Unless it's Laura Stiles this week. Right.

Unless there's something so real that they got to go and tear somebody to shreds. Right. They're not in these comments arguing what you losers. But I need y'all to understand if you are a woman or a person who doesn't normally engage in comments or sharing content, supporting us in that way is definitely needed because that gets the conversation going. Yep. Your engagement is what these algorithms are built on.

And if you could support us in that way, that would be great. And please share and subscribe. And we'll see y'all next week. Absolutely. Later, brother. Just don't call in a podcast. With an Amex card,

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