Hip Hop Nation's repetitive rotation.

[Power Trip]

Got another e-mail from Dion today. My e-mail was regarding why Shade was stacked so heavy, meaning they play some "HHN Brigade" songs, all the Eminem songs, and break new music but HHN really only plays about 50-60 songs over and over..here is his response.






Hip-Hop Nation is designed to be the more-structured, balanced channel, while Shade is more the irreverent channel. As such, more often than not, a song will break on Shade, but may be off the channel soon thereafter. HHN will more so commit to its new music, providing ample airplay for Brigade consideration. The intent is for Shade to feel “all over the place” – this is done purposely. This allows HHN, by design, to function as the more mainstream hip-hop channel.



That being said, if there is any new music/artists that you feel HHN should be supporting – or more supportive of – please let me know your suggestions. Or if there is another concern with HHN, or any other channel under my guidance, I welcome your feedback.



Again, thanks for your support.



Dion Summers

Senior Director - Current Hip-Hop/R&B Programming

SIRIUS XM

1500 Eckington Place, NE

Washington DC 20002

(202) 380-4467

AIM: diondeezy

mp3 address: mynameisdion@gmail.com

[imromo24]

That is great, and a nice professional reply.

I figured as much and I really like the setup. One thing I have been thinking about is how HHN doesn't have 23 minutes of commercials every hour so the rotation seems more repetitive even though it is probably quite large (comparitively speaking to FM) Nevertheless, it feels like something is not right....

I think the solution that we are looking for, fits right along with the HHN setup. Play the Mainstream artists....but more songs from the mainstream artists, like track 10, 11 and 12 instead of just the singles.

Is there a reason they can't do that? Do they have to pay more royalties to play different tracks from an artist?

[imromo24]

I'll try to maintain a list of the shows that are good and ones that are bad....

Good:
DJ Scream Hoodrich Radio 10pm Wednesday
Celo Definition 12am wednesday (tuesday night)
DJ Bee (day/time?)
DJ Eclipse and Panch, friday 12am(saturday) (good show, deserve their own spot, they were filling in for Premier)
DJ Muggs (cypress hill) Soul Assassins (monday shade 45, 10pm, not HHN but good show)
DJ E-Feezy grind time radio (wednesday night)

Bad:
DJ Drake on Affiliates Monday night 10pm? (played censored music wtf)

[Power Trip]

That is great, and a nice professional reply.


I think the solution that we are looking for, fits right along with the HHN setup. Play the Mainstream artists....but more songs from the mainstream artists, like track 10, 11 and 12 instead of just the singles.

This is all they need to. It seems so easy to do, I dont know why they wouldnt be able to. They can play "hip hop hits" all they want as long as they play more hits..their are tons of "hip hop hits" that I still never see. I'm confident in saying that their is no more than 60 songs in rotation...their are 30 "brigade" songs, and about another 30 non-brigade songs..and they dont switch those non "brigade" songs much either.

[imromo24]

I emailed HHN and told them to talk to DJ Drake and DJ Rasta Root about playing censored songs...Drake played 2 or 3 tracks in his mix that were edited, wow it was painful to listen to! They said they would talk to them.

One of the best I've hear was DJ Eclipse and Panch filling in for Premier Friday night, I emailed them to give those guys a day slot if they don't have one. They themselve urged listeners to push for a morning/day show for themselves. They kept it clean with their own conversations but the whole show was "RAW" so that was good. They mentioned that the West coast still had kids listening...but personally, their parents should block the channel if thats a problem, I pay good money for the content....nothing was censored though, they just didn't talk about "partying hard" although the callers did.

Listening right now to DJ Skee from Last night, he says he is at SXSW, good show he put on.

[imromo24]

On DJ Premiers show on Friday night (filling in was DJ eclipse and panch) More people were calling in for additional shows like this one....Panch's reply was

"were working on all that, just be happy that you got in at the ground floor, the foundation."

Also joked about giving out Ron Mills phone number...who is that?

[Power Trip]

I'm not sure who Ron Mills is, i'll look into it though. I must say, I've seen a drastic improvement in the rotation over the last 2 weeks. Especially during Leo G's 12PM-5PM Time Slot, Nina and Dj Envy's rotation's have also improved but not as much as Leo's. I listend to a couple of the mix shows you listed and they were all very nice, definentaly what I am looking to hear, I especially liked Hoodrich Radio and Celo "The Definition".

[imromo24]

Oh yeah, Hoodrich is moving up as one of my favorites. Celo the definition is tight, he knows what we want.

I got a new Brigade email that said Rick Ross is going to be the next Backstage pass. It also had a survey (even the songs on the survey are getting better lol) And it had several new questions. It said they have included more rap from the 90's (jay-z, nas etc) and whether I noticed and if i liked it. I did notice and i do like it.

Things are definately looking up!

Im still saying i don't like the affiliates show but only because these are so good:

Good:
DJ Scream Hoodrich Radio 10pm Wednesday
Celo Definition 12am wednesday (tuesday night)
DJ Bee (day/time?)
DJ Eclipse and Panch, friday 12am(saturday) (good show, deserve their own spot, they were filling in for Premier)
DJ Muggs (cypress hill) Soul Assassins (monday shade 45, 10pm, not HHN but good show)
DJ E-Feezy grind time radio (wednesday night, this may be one of my favorites too)

[imromo24]

Definately seeing some improvements on the playlist, on the Brigade emails etc.

For this weeks email I made the following suggestion:

I think you need to improve the 8pm to 10pm timeslot.

I was driving home from work late one night (8pm detroit) and caught a show on Shade 45 that reminded me of the night shows here on FM in Detroit. Meaning...it was a little bit thuggier, a little bit geared toward the underground, new music, stuff to hype you up and get you ahead on the rap game.

here on the east coast people are off work, maybe stressed after a hard day or starting a late night of partying and catching the 10pm shows. Right now, that timeslot isn't cutting it.

Other than improving the 8pm to 10pm (detroit time) I think the changes to HHN have been great, keep up the good work. Also, the 10 to 2 slot is great, i record it everynight on my xmp3 and listen to it at work.

Thanks!!!

[imromo24]

DJ Celo Definition is now on Friday Night and DJ Bee is on Tuesday Night...my top picks still.

I think i heard LEO G's Gmixx friday or saturday night?? that was great if it was, good times.