damn right
Hot97 Program Director Was Involved In The Murder of Yusuf Hawkins
- Thread starter jemstar
- Start date
damn right
has the Hawkins FAMILY addressed this?
Not yet
Do you ever see yourself moving out of NYC?
He's saying if you were white it wouldn't' have taken you 20 years to get that shit expunged lol.
I feel like we need to hear from them if they WANT to say anything
Nah... when I go away for over three months, I start to miss this rat infested pissy ball
of adrenaline..
Iiving away for one to three months, and then coming back works for me..
new york will always be an awesome place to come home to..
and as the vampires slowly leave that feeling will just get better and better.
nope not really
mostly I aint know
but Ebro "confession" and Star's ether kinda f*cked up all that
Well, if anyone should have to answer it's Hot 97 management (Emmis Com or whoever the parent company is... the HR person, etc. during that period) and Angie Martinez. My recollection is that she would big him up all the time... which is fukcing inexcusable under the circumstances.
‘Hot97’ Fires Paddy Duke After His Connection To 1989 Murder Was Revealed In HBO Doc.
Paddy Duke (Pasquale Raucci), who served as commercial production director at Emmis/Mediaco rhythmic CHR “Hot 97” WQHT New York, was fired after it was revealed in an HBO documentary that he was part of a group of men charged in the 1989 death of 16-year-old Yusef Hawkins.
“Yusef Hawkins: Storm Over Brooklyn” recounts the story of the Black teen’s death after being surrounded by a group of men in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. He and his three friends were in the neighborhood looking to purchase a used car when they were attacked by the mob, who mistakenly believed one in the group was dating a girl in the predominately Italian-American neighborhood.
Raucci was found not guilty of manslaughter and second-degree murder, but was convicted on eight lesser charges and sentenced to three years’ probation and a $200 fine, Hip Hop DX reports. He joined WQHT in 1994 and served as a producer of the Angie Martinez show and was also heard on-air, before assuming his most recent role in 2003.
“After watching HBO's Storm over Brooklyn, Hot 97 was shocked and took swift action,” the station posted to Twitter. “Paddy Duke is no longer employed by Hot 97. The march for social justice continues.”
“Ebro in the Morning” addressed Raucci’s firing on Monday (Aug. 24).
“If you see the Yusef Hawkins documentary on HBO, you will learn that this guy who worked here for 30 years was more involved in the Yusef Hawkins story than he led many people to believe,” Ebro says as he opens the show. “There are people who knew he got swept up in that neighborhood situation in 1989. Most people believed he got swept up just because he lived in that neighborhood… come to find out in this documentary it was deeper.”
The morning show brought up the subject multiple times during the broadcast.
- Aug 24, 2020 Updated Aug 24, 2020
Paddy Duke (Pasquale Raucci), who served as commercial production director at Emmis/Mediaco rhythmic CHR “Hot 97” WQHT New York, was fired after it was revealed in an HBO documentary that he was part of a group of men charged in the 1989 death of 16-year-old Yusef Hawkins.
“Yusef Hawkins: Storm Over Brooklyn” recounts the story of the Black teen’s death after being surrounded by a group of men in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. He and his three friends were in the neighborhood looking to purchase a used car when they were attacked by the mob, who mistakenly believed one in the group was dating a girl in the predominately Italian-American neighborhood.
Raucci was found not guilty of manslaughter and second-degree murder, but was convicted on eight lesser charges and sentenced to three years’ probation and a $200 fine, Hip Hop DX reports. He joined WQHT in 1994 and served as a producer of the Angie Martinez show and was also heard on-air, before assuming his most recent role in 2003.
“After watching HBO's Storm over Brooklyn, Hot 97 was shocked and took swift action,” the station posted to Twitter. “Paddy Duke is no longer employed by Hot 97. The march for social justice continues.”
“Ebro in the Morning” addressed Raucci’s firing on Monday (Aug. 24).
“If you see the Yusef Hawkins documentary on HBO, you will learn that this guy who worked here for 30 years was more involved in the Yusef Hawkins story than he led many people to believe,” Ebro says as he opens the show. “There are people who knew he got swept up in that neighborhood situation in 1989. Most people believed he got swept up just because he lived in that neighborhood… come to find out in this documentary it was deeper.”
The morning show brought up the subject multiple times during the broadcast.
Radio Exec ‘Paddy Duke’ Fired After Past Accusations Of Murder Exposed
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LinkedIn/YouTubePasquale "Paddy Duke" Raucci (left) and Yusef Hawkins (right).
Along-time radio executive by the name of Pasquale Raucci, also known as Paddy Duke, has been fired by popular New York radio station Hot 97, according to a tweet from the station.
His firing came after accusations that Raucci was involved in a vicious murder that took place more than 20 years ago, Okay Player reported. An HBO documentary called “Storm Over Brooklyn” documented the murder of a Black teenager Yusef Hawkins by a mob of 30 white men and accused Raucci of being one of the 30 men involved.
Although Raucci was acquitted of murder, he was convicted of other charges, including false imprisonment. Many on social media were outraged that he was involved in the once-high-profile crime.
Here’s what you need to know:
Yusef Hawkins’ Murder Sparked Marches in the Street
Looking Back At Murder Of Yusuf Hawkins & NYPD Union Endorsing Donald TrumpEbro takes a hard look back on the murder of Yusuf Hawkins, and where New York stood culturally in the late 1980's, early 1990's as Rosenberg and Laura Stylez review what it meant for the city at the time, and comparing it to NYPD union deciding to endorse a president for the first time ever in showing their public support for Donald Trump this weekend. 'Yusuf Hawkins: Storm Over Brooklyn' documentary is out now on HBO Max. #EbrointheMorning #Hot97 #YusufHawkins SUBSCRIBE: http://bit.ly/HOT97Subscribe2020-08-17T19:45:28Z
According to Hip Hop DX, the 16-year-old Hawkins was with three other Black teenagers, all of whom were walking through the predominately Italian-American area of Bensonhurst in Brooklyn. Hawkins, a native of Bentonville, was going to the area because there was a used 1982 Pontiac being sold there for $900. However, the mob misidentified them and believed that they were going to the home of a local girl.
According to All That’s Interesting, the “local girl” was an 18-year-old half-Puerto Rican woman named Gina Feliciano. She had invited Black and Hispanic friends to her birthday and had also “refused to date one of the white men in the mob,” the article states. The article also said that Feliciano told police she had seen the mob gathering outside her home and also recalled one of them show her a gun and tell her, “You better watch yourself with your n***** friends.”
Hip Hop DX reported that as they left a corner shop, Hawkins and his friends were followed by ten white men, some of whom were holding bats. The mob of ten grew to 30, some of whom were yelling racial slurs such as “Let’s club the n*****s.” Hawkin was fatally shot in the chest twice, later dying in the hospital.
Hawkins’ parents, Moses J. Stewart and Diane Hawkins, were devastated. “To see my son’s life wasted because of some indiscriminatory fool with a gun in his hands who saw nothing but a Black man is a very, very vile thing to me,” Stewart said, according to reporting from All That’s Interesting. Hawkins has recently been accepted into a technical high school, had an interest in engineering and enjoyed basketball, according to the “Storm Over Brooklyn” documentary.
heavy.com
The case sparked national outrage, with Reverend Al Sharpton, Reverend Jesse Jackson and the Nation of Islam’s Minister Louis Farrakhan paying attention to the case, Okay Player reported. According to a 1989 Washington Post article, those marching in the streets were confronted with racist residents in Bensonhurst. “In one of the ugliest scenes in New York in recent years, several hundred white residents taunted the marchers, shouting “N*****s go home” and waving watermelons,” the article stated.
Nearly a dozen members of the mob were arrested and accused of taking part of the murder, including Raucci; according to the New York Times, only eight of the 30 young men were actually charged for crimes.
According to a 1991 Buffalo News story, Raucci was acquitted of murder and manslaughter and convicted of three counts of unlawful imprisonment, four counts of menacing and one count of the criminal possession of a weapon.
Only one person, Joseph Fama, was convicted of murder in relation to the incident.
According to a LinkedIn page from a “Paddy Duke” who worked at Hot 97, he worked there as a commercial production director for the station from 2003 to this month, a total of 17 years and eight months. His role there, the description reads, was “recording, editing and (the) production of commercial content.”
Before that, “Duke” worked at Emmis Communications, the owners of Hot 97, from December 1994 up to January 2003; he is listed during those nine years as a producer for the Angie Martinez show and a person who filled in for DJs on vacation. He is also listed as a graduate of New Utrecht High School and Brauch College.
Many on Twitter were outraged that Raucci was accused of being involved in a hate-crime and then went on to have a career at a radio station featuring Hip Hop, a style of music intrinsically tied to Black culture.,
One person expressing his anger tweeted, “Being around doesn’t make you down.”
Another person tweeted, “Y’all literally had one of the guys that killed Yusef Hawkins profiteering off hiphop music @ hot97 all these years? wow #paddyduke shame! Thank you @Dallas_Penn for bringing this to light for some of us.”
Many on Social Media Believe Hot 97 Was Aware of the Charges Before 2020
After the firing was announced, Twitter exploded with people outraged by the revelations and questioning whether the station knew about his involvement, given that his charges were public information.
One person tweeted, “so #PaddyDuke was just chillin collecting checks at @HOT97 for 25yrs & y’all just magically realize he had a hand in #YusefHawkins demise…..”
Others were especially skeptical that the documentary is what brought the accusations about Raucci’s involvement to the radio station’s attention.
Another person tweeted, “yo that #PaddyDuke s*** aint no secret. mogs been known that about dude and him workin at #Hot97. a f****** documentary comes out on #Netflix and yall swear yall Sherlock Holmes. Shit like this been happening in hip-hop since the BEGINNING. #JMJ killers took pics at his mural #FOH.”
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- Updated Aug 24, 2020 at 2:25am
LinkedIn/YouTubePasquale "Paddy Duke" Raucci (left) and Yusef Hawkins (right).
Along-time radio executive by the name of Pasquale Raucci, also known as Paddy Duke, has been fired by popular New York radio station Hot 97, according to a tweet from the station.
His firing came after accusations that Raucci was involved in a vicious murder that took place more than 20 years ago, Okay Player reported. An HBO documentary called “Storm Over Brooklyn” documented the murder of a Black teenager Yusef Hawkins by a mob of 30 white men and accused Raucci of being one of the 30 men involved.
Although Raucci was acquitted of murder, he was convicted of other charges, including false imprisonment. Many on social media were outraged that he was involved in the once-high-profile crime.
Here’s what you need to know:
Yusef Hawkins’ Murder Sparked Marches in the Street
Looking Back At Murder Of Yusuf Hawkins & NYPD Union Endorsing Donald TrumpEbro takes a hard look back on the murder of Yusuf Hawkins, and where New York stood culturally in the late 1980's, early 1990's as Rosenberg and Laura Stylez review what it meant for the city at the time, and comparing it to NYPD union deciding to endorse a president for the first time ever in showing their public support for Donald Trump this weekend. 'Yusuf Hawkins: Storm Over Brooklyn' documentary is out now on HBO Max. #EbrointheMorning #Hot97 #YusufHawkins SUBSCRIBE: http://bit.ly/HOT97Subscribe2020-08-17T19:45:28Z
According to Hip Hop DX, the 16-year-old Hawkins was with three other Black teenagers, all of whom were walking through the predominately Italian-American area of Bensonhurst in Brooklyn. Hawkins, a native of Bentonville, was going to the area because there was a used 1982 Pontiac being sold there for $900. However, the mob misidentified them and believed that they were going to the home of a local girl.
According to All That’s Interesting, the “local girl” was an 18-year-old half-Puerto Rican woman named Gina Feliciano. She had invited Black and Hispanic friends to her birthday and had also “refused to date one of the white men in the mob,” the article states. The article also said that Feliciano told police she had seen the mob gathering outside her home and also recalled one of them show her a gun and tell her, “You better watch yourself with your n***** friends.”
Hip Hop DX reported that as they left a corner shop, Hawkins and his friends were followed by ten white men, some of whom were holding bats. The mob of ten grew to 30, some of whom were yelling racial slurs such as “Let’s club the n*****s.” Hawkin was fatally shot in the chest twice, later dying in the hospital.
Hawkins’ parents, Moses J. Stewart and Diane Hawkins, were devastated. “To see my son’s life wasted because of some indiscriminatory fool with a gun in his hands who saw nothing but a Black man is a very, very vile thing to me,” Stewart said, according to reporting from All That’s Interesting. Hawkins has recently been accepted into a technical high school, had an interest in engineering and enjoyed basketball, according to the “Storm Over Brooklyn” documentary.
Radio Exec 'Paddy Duke' Fired After Past Accusations Of Murder Exposed
Long-time radio executive Pasquale Raucci, aka Paddy Duke, was fired by popular New York radio station Hot 97 after being accused of joining a 1989 murder mob.
heavy.com
The case sparked national outrage, with Reverend Al Sharpton, Reverend Jesse Jackson and the Nation of Islam’s Minister Louis Farrakhan paying attention to the case, Okay Player reported. According to a 1989 Washington Post article, those marching in the streets were confronted with racist residents in Bensonhurst. “In one of the ugliest scenes in New York in recent years, several hundred white residents taunted the marchers, shouting “N*****s go home” and waving watermelons,” the article stated.
Nearly a dozen members of the mob were arrested and accused of taking part of the murder, including Raucci; according to the New York Times, only eight of the 30 young men were actually charged for crimes.
According to a 1991 Buffalo News story, Raucci was acquitted of murder and manslaughter and convicted of three counts of unlawful imprisonment, four counts of menacing and one count of the criminal possession of a weapon.
Only one person, Joseph Fama, was convicted of murder in relation to the incident.
According to a LinkedIn page from a “Paddy Duke” who worked at Hot 97, he worked there as a commercial production director for the station from 2003 to this month, a total of 17 years and eight months. His role there, the description reads, was “recording, editing and (the) production of commercial content.”
Before that, “Duke” worked at Emmis Communications, the owners of Hot 97, from December 1994 up to January 2003; he is listed during those nine years as a producer for the Angie Martinez show and a person who filled in for DJs on vacation. He is also listed as a graduate of New Utrecht High School and Brauch College.
Many on Twitter were outraged that Raucci was accused of being involved in a hate-crime and then went on to have a career at a radio station featuring Hip Hop, a style of music intrinsically tied to Black culture.,
One person expressing his anger tweeted, “Being around doesn’t make you down.”
Another person tweeted, “Y’all literally had one of the guys that killed Yusef Hawkins profiteering off hiphop music @ hot97 all these years? wow #paddyduke shame! Thank you @Dallas_Penn for bringing this to light for some of us.”
Many on Social Media Believe Hot 97 Was Aware of the Charges Before 2020
After the firing was announced, Twitter exploded with people outraged by the revelations and questioning whether the station knew about his involvement, given that his charges were public information.
One person tweeted, “so #PaddyDuke was just chillin collecting checks at @HOT97 for 25yrs & y’all just magically realize he had a hand in #YusefHawkins demise…..”
Others were especially skeptical that the documentary is what brought the accusations about Raucci’s involvement to the radio station’s attention.
Another person tweeted, “yo that #PaddyDuke s*** aint no secret. mogs been known that about dude and him workin at #Hot97. a f****** documentary comes out on #Netflix and yall swear yall Sherlock Holmes. Shit like this been happening in hip-hop since the BEGINNING. #JMJ killers took pics at his mural #FOH.”
Moreover, people have noted that Raucci’s firing came on the 31st anniversary of Hawkins’ murder.
Hot 97 Fires Rap Radio Veteran for Ties to Yusuf Hawkins Killing
Employees of the radio station said they were shocked to see a colleague known as Paddy Duke in a new HBO documentary about the racist murder of a Brooklyn teenager in 1989.
From left, the brothers Yusuf, Amir and Freddy Hawkins as seen in the HBO documentary “Yusuf Hawkins: Storm Over Brooklyn.”Credit...HBO
By Joe Coscarelli
Duke, it turned out, was really Pasquale Raucci, who, as a teenager, was one of eight young men charged in the 1989 killing of Yusuf K. Hawkins, a Black 16-year-old, in Brooklyn. Hawkins had traveled one summer night to the Bensonhurst neighborhood to look at a used car with three friends, only to encounter a bat-wielding mob of some 30 white youths, one of whom shot him dead.
Hawkins’s murder, which, along with the Central Park jogger case, came to represent a brutal period of racism and violence in the city, is now the subject of a new HBO documentary, “Yusuf Hawkins: Storm Over Brooklyn,” which led to the revelation.
“When people saw it, they was like, ‘What in the world!?’” said Ebro Darden, the face of Hot 97, on his morning show Monday. “At that moment behind the scenes, corporate started to go to work to figure out who knew what when Paddy was hired and what was going to be the response. Because this wasn’t just going to be allowed to fly.”
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Raucci, now 50, was quickly fired. “After watching HBO’s ‘Storm over Brooklyn,’ Hot97 was shocked and terminated its relationship with Paddy Duke,” the station said in a statement. “Nothing is more important to Hot97 than our role as a trusted community resource. The march for social justice continues.”
The company, which is owned by Emmis Communications and MediaCo Holding Inc., sent an email to staffers that said no one “was aware of this situation until the airing of the HBO documentary,” and noted the immediate “adverse business impact and damage to our reputation.” The memo continued: “Now, more than ever, we serve as both a source of desperately needed information and entertainment, and any conflict in that relationship harms both our stations and the communities we serve.”
Image
A mural in Brooklyn honoring Hawkins’s life.Credit...HBO
Still, many listeners, along with employees past and present, were left feeling betrayed and confused by the news, which came amid a summer of national uproar regarding unjust killings of Black people and a struggle over how best to move forward. On social media, many in the Hot 97 orbit expressed dismay and disbelief, though some said they had learned years ago about Raucci’s role in the case. “This is so sickening and sad!” wrote Ed Lover, a defining personality on the station in the mid-1990s.
ADVERTISEMENT
Continue reading the main story
Reached by phone on Monday, Raucci declined to comment.
On the morning show, Darden and his co-hosts, Laura Stylez and Peter Rosenberg, said that Raucci had predated them at the station, having been there for more than 25 years, most recently in the production department, recording and editing commercials. They said they had been unaware of Raucci’s real name, though Darden said he’d discussed the killing once with Raucci.
“He told me he got swept up in the Yusuf Hawkins situation. He also told me he had nothing to do with it,” Darden said, recalling a conversation that he said occurred eight to 10 years ago. “What am I going to say to a guy I’m working with — ‘I don’t believe you’?”
Raucci, who was 19 at the time of the attack on Hawkins, was one of eight young men charged in the crime, and faced trial for second-degree murder, manslaughter, discrimination, assault, rioting and other crimes. Prosecutors argued that the white teenagers mistakenly believed Hawkins had been dating a girl in the largely Italian-American neighborhood. In the documentary footage, Raucci, diminutive in a baseball hat and with the beginnings of a mustache, is seen being questioned by the police, telling them he was near the back of the pack of rampaging kids.
In 1991, Raucci was convicted of rioting, illegal imprisonment, menacing and weapons possession, while being acquitted of murder, manslaughter and discrimination. But a judge threw out the felony convictions, citing insufficient evidence, sentencing him to probation and community service for possession of a bat as a weapon. Joseph Fama, the gunman, was convicted of murder and sentenced to 32 years to life in prison, while others were found guilty of lesser crimes.
The Rev. Al Sharpton said at the time that Hawkins “did not get justice,” calling it “a continuing outrage how this case has dissipated into verdicts that are more compatible with traffic violations than murder.”
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Continue reading the main story
It was only a few years later, in 1994, that Raucci landed a producer job at Hot 97 (WQHT-FM, 97.1), which was in the midst of transitioning to hip-hop full-time, according to his LinkedIn page.
Behind now-legendary D.J.s and hosts like Funkmaster Flex and Angie Martinez, the upstart station became inseparable from the commercial rise of East Coast rap, including the careers of the Notorious B.I.G. and Jay-Z. As Paddy Duke, Raucci worked closely with Martinez, even appearing in the music video for her 2001 rap single “Dem Thangs.” Martinez, now a host at the rival station Power 105.1, declined to comment through her representatives.
Executives at Hot 97, Emmis and MediaCo also declined to comment further, citing a policy not to discuss personnel matters.
“It was out of our control, but we apologize,” Darden said on-air following Raucci’s firing, which was announced 31 years to the day after Hawkins’s death. “We inherited something that we have to, as a team, deal with the brunt of. That’s just what it is.”
Rosenberg added on Twitter, “People inside and outside the building are rightfully upset and disappointed. We all are. We will continue to address this well beyond today.”
www.nytimes.com
Employees of the radio station said they were shocked to see a colleague known as Paddy Duke in a new HBO documentary about the racist murder of a Brooklyn teenager in 1989.
From left, the brothers Yusuf, Amir and Freddy Hawkins as seen in the HBO documentary “Yusuf Hawkins: Storm Over Brooklyn.”Credit...HBO
By Joe Coscarelli
- Aug. 25, 2020
Duke, it turned out, was really Pasquale Raucci, who, as a teenager, was one of eight young men charged in the 1989 killing of Yusuf K. Hawkins, a Black 16-year-old, in Brooklyn. Hawkins had traveled one summer night to the Bensonhurst neighborhood to look at a used car with three friends, only to encounter a bat-wielding mob of some 30 white youths, one of whom shot him dead.
Hawkins’s murder, which, along with the Central Park jogger case, came to represent a brutal period of racism and violence in the city, is now the subject of a new HBO documentary, “Yusuf Hawkins: Storm Over Brooklyn,” which led to the revelation.
“When people saw it, they was like, ‘What in the world!?’” said Ebro Darden, the face of Hot 97, on his morning show Monday. “At that moment behind the scenes, corporate started to go to work to figure out who knew what when Paddy was hired and what was going to be the response. Because this wasn’t just going to be allowed to fly.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Continue reading the main story
Raucci, now 50, was quickly fired. “After watching HBO’s ‘Storm over Brooklyn,’ Hot97 was shocked and terminated its relationship with Paddy Duke,” the station said in a statement. “Nothing is more important to Hot97 than our role as a trusted community resource. The march for social justice continues.”
The company, which is owned by Emmis Communications and MediaCo Holding Inc., sent an email to staffers that said no one “was aware of this situation until the airing of the HBO documentary,” and noted the immediate “adverse business impact and damage to our reputation.” The memo continued: “Now, more than ever, we serve as both a source of desperately needed information and entertainment, and any conflict in that relationship harms both our stations and the communities we serve.”
Image
A mural in Brooklyn honoring Hawkins’s life.Credit...HBO
Still, many listeners, along with employees past and present, were left feeling betrayed and confused by the news, which came amid a summer of national uproar regarding unjust killings of Black people and a struggle over how best to move forward. On social media, many in the Hot 97 orbit expressed dismay and disbelief, though some said they had learned years ago about Raucci’s role in the case. “This is so sickening and sad!” wrote Ed Lover, a defining personality on the station in the mid-1990s.
ADVERTISEMENT
Continue reading the main story
Reached by phone on Monday, Raucci declined to comment.
On the morning show, Darden and his co-hosts, Laura Stylez and Peter Rosenberg, said that Raucci had predated them at the station, having been there for more than 25 years, most recently in the production department, recording and editing commercials. They said they had been unaware of Raucci’s real name, though Darden said he’d discussed the killing once with Raucci.
“He told me he got swept up in the Yusuf Hawkins situation. He also told me he had nothing to do with it,” Darden said, recalling a conversation that he said occurred eight to 10 years ago. “What am I going to say to a guy I’m working with — ‘I don’t believe you’?”
Raucci, who was 19 at the time of the attack on Hawkins, was one of eight young men charged in the crime, and faced trial for second-degree murder, manslaughter, discrimination, assault, rioting and other crimes. Prosecutors argued that the white teenagers mistakenly believed Hawkins had been dating a girl in the largely Italian-American neighborhood. In the documentary footage, Raucci, diminutive in a baseball hat and with the beginnings of a mustache, is seen being questioned by the police, telling them he was near the back of the pack of rampaging kids.
In 1991, Raucci was convicted of rioting, illegal imprisonment, menacing and weapons possession, while being acquitted of murder, manslaughter and discrimination. But a judge threw out the felony convictions, citing insufficient evidence, sentencing him to probation and community service for possession of a bat as a weapon. Joseph Fama, the gunman, was convicted of murder and sentenced to 32 years to life in prison, while others were found guilty of lesser crimes.
The Rev. Al Sharpton said at the time that Hawkins “did not get justice,” calling it “a continuing outrage how this case has dissipated into verdicts that are more compatible with traffic violations than murder.”
Editors’ Picks
A Couple Look for Their First Purchase in the ‘Heart of Brooklyn.’ But Where Is That?
‘A Woman Waiting to Get On Told Me That My Shoe Was Untied’
The South’s Fight for White Supremacy
Continue reading the main story
ADVERTISEMENT
Continue reading the main story
It was only a few years later, in 1994, that Raucci landed a producer job at Hot 97 (WQHT-FM, 97.1), which was in the midst of transitioning to hip-hop full-time, according to his LinkedIn page.
Behind now-legendary D.J.s and hosts like Funkmaster Flex and Angie Martinez, the upstart station became inseparable from the commercial rise of East Coast rap, including the careers of the Notorious B.I.G. and Jay-Z. As Paddy Duke, Raucci worked closely with Martinez, even appearing in the music video for her 2001 rap single “Dem Thangs.” Martinez, now a host at the rival station Power 105.1, declined to comment through her representatives.
Executives at Hot 97, Emmis and MediaCo also declined to comment further, citing a policy not to discuss personnel matters.
“It was out of our control, but we apologize,” Darden said on-air following Raucci’s firing, which was announced 31 years to the day after Hawkins’s death. “We inherited something that we have to, as a team, deal with the brunt of. That’s just what it is.”
Rosenberg added on Twitter, “People inside and outside the building are rightfully upset and disappointed. We all are. We will continue to address this well beyond today.”
Hot 97 Fires Rap Radio Veteran for Ties to Yusuf Hawkins Killing (Published 2020)
Employees of the radio station said they were shocked to see a colleague known as Paddy Duke in a new HBO documentary about the racist murder of a Brooklyn teenager in 1989.
Bensonhurst Case Ends, Satisfying Few (Published 1991)
“When people saw it, they was like, ‘What in the world!?’” said Ebro Darden, the face of Hot 97, on his morning show Monday. “At that moment behind the scenes, corporate started to go to work to figure out who knew what when Paddy was hired and what was going to be the response. Because this wasn’t just going to be allowed to fly.”
There is no word from Funk Flex, basically the godfather of the station, or Angie Martinez, the personality that worked closely with him until her departure a few years ago.
Hot 97 Let Closet Racist Patty Duke Rock For Two Decades | The Shadow League
Pasquale Raucci aka Paddy Duke was part of the attack and subsequent murder of Yusuf Hawkins in 1989.
theshadowleague.com
I haven't listened to all of Star's show from yesterday, but he also said that Hot 97 made Mary J Blige and Jay-Z perform for free while they paid $300,000 for Eminem's expenses.
Oh okay cool, that's the same way I feel about my hometown Toronto.
There is no word from Funk Flex, basically the godfather of the station, or Angie Martinez, the personality that worked closely with him until her departure a few years ago.
Hot 97 Let Closet Racist Patty Duke Rock For Two Decades | The Shadow League
Pasquale Raucci aka Paddy Duke was part of the attack and subsequent murder of Yusuf Hawkins in 1989.
Right!!! Flex (forgot about him) needs to be called on for answers as well.
A sewer rat can't leave the sewer!!
LIEs as always you becky boonkey licka....
rats always leave the sewer, flash floods, construction projects..etc....
to smoke a blunt...
NO, SERIOUSLY. This is such a massive show of disrespect it can't be understated or swept under the rug... it's mind boggling quite frankly. So little is thought about the mental health and well being of the people who patronize the station that they hire a man who was involved in one of the most, if not the most, racist incidents in NYC's recent history. And, allegedly, they let someone else go to make room for him. This is so disrespectful. If you don't know what they think about you, now you know.
Star spoke on it last night
EVERYONE at Hot97 knew
EVERYONE at Hot97 knew
And Flex. Crickets from all of them.