thisland

A tale of 2 cocky Radio DJs, an angry listener & a tshirt.

On Monday morning, September 5th, The Kevin And Bean show on KROQ FM dedicated a good chunk of its morning show to the character assasination of Kanye West, who had famously spoken out on national live television the Friday before.

One listener decided to speak his mind to Kevin and Bean, as well as almost EVERY single DJ on the KROQ roster, Kanye's fan club and Kanye's talent agent.

Below is their saga.


---------- Forwarded message ----------

From:REDACTED@gmail.com
Date: Sep 6, 2005 12:00 PM
Subject: Re: Kanye Stands up, KROQ mocks

To: bean@kroq.com
Cc: kevin@kroq.com, ralph@kroq.com ,rodneyontheroq@kroq.com, jason@kroq.com, john@kroq.com, sluggo@kroq.com , savage@kroq.com,kurt@kroq.com, likewecare@kroq.com, Loveline Questions<>, kanye@fanessentials.com, REDACTED@caa.com

Dear friends,

As some of you might know, Kanye West went off the scripted teleprompter on live television for a benefit for the Relief Efforts for Hurricane Katrina. It was an impassioned speech and Kanye was nervous, human, real. Watch it here.

Today on my long commute to work, The Kevin and Bean show on KROQ devoted most of their show to discussing Kanye. They mocked him for owning pink polos and Bentleys. These rich, angry white men (my favorite, most empathetic demographic) even had their black friend call in and say Kanye put "race relations back 50 years".

They pretended to have an open forum, but as most talk show radio hosts do, anyone who disagreed with the hosts Kevin and Bean was mocked and cajoled. They could admit that most of the people left behind were black but this was only because they were poor. They contended that these two things have nothing to do with one another.

The response to Hurricane Katrina has shown us how little progress has come in the last 50 years.

Kanye's new album came out last week. Let's get it to number one on the charts. Please buy his album to support a hero who stood up for his beliefs and took great personal risk at the height of his career to help people without a voice.

Thanks,
Tyrrell

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: bean < REDACTED@earthlink.net>
Date: Sep 6, 2005 1:15 PM
Subject: Re: Kanye Stands up, KROQ mocks

To: REDACTED@gmail.com
Cc: kevin@kroq.com, ralph@kroq.com ,rodneyontheroq@kroq.com, jason@kroq.com, john@kroq.com, sluggo@kroq.com , savage@kroq.com,kurt@kroq.com, likewecare@kroq.com, Loveline Questions<>,kanye@fanessentials.com, REDACTED@caa.com

i support tyrell's efforts and have already bought my copy of kanye's cd. just so you know, this cd will debut at ..1 already with or without our help. it has already sold more than enough copies to do so.

also, it was a listener's email that mocked kanye's polos and bentleys. i like them, being rich and white.

tyrell seemed to have a problem with several of theother listener comments too if they did not agree with his. sounds like instead of an open forum what hewould like is just to hear himself talk uninterrupted.

as you were,
bean

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Kevin
Signed-By: earthlink.net
Mailed-By:earthlink.net

To: REDACTED@gmail.com, kevin@kroq.com,bean@kroq.com, ralph@kroq.com,rodneyontheroq@kroq.com, jason@kroq.com, john@kroq.com, "sluggo@kroq.com", savage@kroq.com,kurt@kroq.com, likewecare@kroq.com,questions@lovelineradio.com, kanye@fanessentials.com, REDACTED@caa.com

Date: Sep 6, 2005 8:02 PM
Subject: Re: Kanye Stands up, KROQ mocks

It's a real shame that people like kanye, and yourself, try desperately to prove that everyone out there is racist, and if anything bad happens forwhatever reason, it's automatically "racist". That's pathetic. There are thousands of reasons that things happen, and to simplify it by shouting "racism" is foolish, and childish. And more importantly, there are people out there that are unfortunately victims of real racism, and those of you that "cry wolf" over everything are hurting them the most.

Kevin

P.s. I bought the Kanye album...it's brilliant...and he's racist.

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: bean < REDACTED@earthlink.net>
Date: Sep 7, 2005 1:15 PM
Subject: it's all because of you, tyrell!
To: REDACTED@gmail.com

KANYE WEST took Number One this week with his secondalbum, "Late Registration," selling an impressive 860,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The latest CD from the hip-hop super-producer almost doubled the first-week sales of his debut, 2004'sGrammy-winning "The College Dropout."

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: REDACTED
Date: Sep 7, 2005 11:58 AM
Subject: Re: it's all because of you, tyrell!
To: bean < REDACTED@earthlink.net>

Dear Bean,

And because of you, I made sure to purchase one of these yesterday -http://www.cafepress.com/postkatrinaaid - with proceeds from the tshirts going to Master P's Team Rescue for Hurrican Katrina victims.

I'll be sure to wear it at your next KROQ show!

- Tyrrell