| Tony Quarterone: |
R&B/Rap singer and actor Tyrese Gibson insists he won’t be apologizing for comments he made during a recent radio interview at QC Communications’ Urban WJKS KISS 101.7 Wilmington, DE to reverse a ban on his music at the station. Owner and PD Tony Quarterone responded to Tyrese directly, via audio on RBR-TVBR.
The Transformers star says he was ejected from a live show on last week after making a passionate speech urging local officials to ban “liquor banks” near schools.
Quarterone originally took offence to the way Tyrese went about the rant, considering it disrespectful to the state of Delaware and the station’s audience. Quarterone says his music would be banned until he received an apology. Here’s what he told RBR-TVBR earlier:
“We did not cut him off. Then he started to do this rage about liquor stores, only because he was getting ready to start promoting an appearance he was doing at the local college to talk about his book—a book signing that he was doing and a performance at the University of Delaware.
First of all, it is a privilege to be interviewed on this station. 2). We were one of the few stations playing his record and 3). If he’s going to come into my state and degrade my audience by calling them homies and all of that crap, I don’t have room for that on the air. Prejudice is alive and doing very, very well and if you’re going to knock your own culture, then you don’t belong on the air.”
“Again, he was never taken off the air. We never turned off the mic and told him to get out. But I had a problem degrading my audience. Do I agree with liquor shops being near schools? Of course not. If parents want to do something about it then I’ll stand behind them. But I’m not going to have an artist come on the air and slang and degrade and stereotype my audience. It ain’t going to happen. But I understand why he wanted to rev-up the audience—to promote his personal appearance so he got a free infomercial out of that. The college never promoted that, not on this station. What he did was make an interview into a 15-minute informercial about his book and about his personal appearance. I have a problem with that. He was supposed to talk about his music. Not the homies and book signing.”
Tyrese told BlogTalkRadio.com this week: “My position won’t change… He banned my music and this is exactly why a lot of artists don’t speak on serious issues that are going on in the community, because we can’t survive without radio supporting our music. This is why artists come to radio stations and keep things generic: ‘Hey, buy my new album,’ and then they leave. I got an album coming out in less than 30 days and to have my music banned from a radio station because I’m walking in my purpose and speaking my truth, I mean that’s just crazy. Let’s just keep people ignorant. We don’t want anybody on the mic speaking the truth!”
He reiterated what he said on the air: “I had just left an elementary school (after) speaking to some kids. I went across the street to try and get a Pepsi or something… (and) there was a liquor bank. I got on the air talking about the album and then I transitioned because it was fresh in my mind: ‘Man, I went to speak to these kids and there was a liquor bank across the street from this school. I got a problem with that (s$%#).’ I got a problem with the personalities and the energy that liquor stores attract. Not everybody’s crazy and not everybody’s over the top; some folks are able to hold their liquor, but a lot of folks can’t and this type of energy should not be that close to a junior high/elementary school. This is not just a Delaware issue. I don’t want anyone to think I’m targeting Delaware… I wrote a book, How To Get Out Of Your Own Way, and… I talk about the fact that my mother suffered from being an alcoholic. Twenty-seven years of my mother drinking literally killed a lot of my childhood, so alcohol is a very sensitive topic for me. So, for a liquor bank to be that close to a school, of all people in the world that could’ve seen that and been affected by it, it’s gonna be me.”
Listen to Quarterone’s response to all of this, by clicking on the audio, above. In addition, Quarterone has been numerous getting death threats over this—so much so that he had to contact the FBI.
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