NYC Radio: WQHT Talks About Sunday's Melee

Ebro

Radio hosts at WQHT 97.1 FM Hot97 which sponsored Sunday's Summer Jam hip-hop festival took to the airwaves Monday to scold concertgoers who threw bottles and rushed the gates, prompting police to fire tear gas into the crowd and arrest 61 people.

According to the AP, While tens of thousands of fans listened to some of the biggest names in hip-hop inside MetLife Stadium Sunday night, hundreds trying to get in clashed with police in riot gear after the gates were closed, leaving 10 troopers hurt.

The melee in East Rutherford, New Jersey, drew a sharp rebuke Monday from hosts at WQHT-FM. "You cannot throw bottles at police," Laura Stylez, of the Hot 97 morning show, said on air Monday. "What is wrong with you?"

Hot 97 DJ Ebro Darden said the concert is "one of a kind" and that the station will address the issues from Sunday night.

"There's not another concert where this many hip-hop and R&B individuals are on the same stage at one night," he told WPIX-TV. "Part of the reason it may not exist is because people are afraid of this type of behavior from young people. This is the music that we play and ... we have to take the good with the bad some times."

The concert was headlined Sunday by Kendrick Lamar, Trey Songz, Big Sean and Chris Brown.

Emmis New York owner WQHT-FM, said refunds will be offered for those whose tickets were not scanned.