Image via Complex Original
Hot 97’s Summer Jam is the premiere hip-hop concert event of the year, and on Friday, we published an oral history that pulled back the curtain on some of the show’s memorable moments. We reminisced about Michael Jackson hitting that Summer Jam stage, Swizz and Kanye’s beat battle, and the time Nas tried to hang a Jay Z doll. But Summer Jam has been around since 1994, and a lot came up during reporting that didn’t fit in the oral history. Here are 5 more Summer Jam stories.
Thomas Golianopoulos is a writer living in New York. Follow him @Golianopoulos.
The Fabolous, Lil' Kim, and Foxy Brown set that never was
Peter Rosenberg: I had heard that it was happening and was all set and was going to happen, and the next thing I heard was that it wasn't going to happen. It was very Summer Jam.
Ebro: Fab was trying to get Lil' Kim and Foxy to perform together. I didn’t know about that until right before. But then Foxy missed the moment. She was late. I knew he was going to do the Kim thing, but I didn’t know he was trying to bring Foxy and Kim together. She was late. She was late. She was late.
Foxy Brown [to MTV News]: It’s a touchy situation because I have a lot of respect for Fab, but let’s just say that it wasn’t orchestrated properly and when you have something of that magnitude—I understand the epicness of [having] the biggest female rappers to change the game come together and touch mics—some part of that has to feel real. [Note: In the same interview with Sway, Foxy maintained that she was not late.]
The rumors of a station-wide Wu-Tang Clan ban
Dennis Rivera: I don't remember any kind of ban. When it comes to music, it's either you have a good radio hit or you don't. There might have been a ban on coming up to the station, which happens a lot because of shootouts or artists disrespecting the office. But music-wise we can’t stop a hit. When a hit is a hit we have to play it.
Tracy Cloherty: A ban? A Wu-Tang ban? I don't think there was a ban.
The time Lil Wayne scared off Kanye
Mister Cee: That was around the Carter III album. Wayne was just ooof. He did kill the stage.
DJ Enuff: Kanye talked to the crowd and told them, I’ll be back next year. It was more like he wasn’t happy with his set. I think it was after his Glow in the Dark tour. I think he used that same material and tried to implement it at Summer Jam, and I don't think it was as effective as he thought it was going to be. Maybe if he would have came with a little grittier performance, it would have worked. He felt it. He knew it.
The entire (exhausting) Peter Rosenberg/Nicki Minaj/”Starships” controversy
Peter Rosenberg: It was at least an hour until I made it to the main stage, and when I made it to the main stage I saw Ebro. He was like, "Hey, did something happen?" I didn’t know what he was talking about. He was like, "Something is happening." I looked at Twitter. I was going to look at my @s. I wasn’t even going to look at trends. When I went to the main page, I saw my name under the trends. I was like, "Oh shit." That’s how I found it was a big deal.
Ebro: I’m not looking at my phone. People had to tell me what was happening.
Mister Cee: It was so confusing. Us DJs were getting reports through Twitter and Instagram what was going on with Nicki, but we weren’t getting official word from Ebro or anyone in the back. The madness of her not touching down and the whole Cash Money pulling out and Wayne giving the order that nobody from Cash Money can get on stage. Flex then went into his rant on stage. Nothing compares to that madness.
DJ Khaled: It wasn’t even so much that with the stuff that was going on. It was so much going on backstage, and the schedules kept changing. At the same time, I felt like I’d rather just fall back. It wasn’t so much I was getting the political stuff, it was like, I’m confused at this point. I'm one of those guys in the game who want everyone to have love. I was really back there like, instead of rushing the set and scrambling last minute because there was so much going on backstage. Summer Jam you have to remember, you only have a certain amount of time on that stage, so I didn’t want to go out there and have my set cut off because everything was moving—the schedule was changing up. I’m not going to compromise what I put together. Nah, it got to be right. I was just trying to make it all love. I had shit up my sleeve that set and didn’t get a chance to do it. It was going to be another 2010 moment. It was one of them type of vibes. I had Future, I had MOP, I had Raekwon and Meth. Who else? Man, I had so people I forgot. I had so many people ready to come out with me, and the thing is I was in that 2010 mode, and it was going to be back to back with classics and my records. It was going to be crazy. But we didn’t get a chance to perform.
Ebro: We had planned for Nicki to have special guests. Nas was supposed to come out with Nicki and Lauryn Hill was supposed to come out with Nicki. So you were supposed to have Nicki, Nas, and Lauryn Hill on the stage at the same time, and that would have been a big moment. That was the plan. I already had Nas and Lauryn at the show. When Nicki didn’t perform Nas graciously did an impromptu performance, and Lauryn Hill came out and fucking shook the building. People was in there crying and shit. The Nicki Minaj incident lived on afterwards because of blogs clamoring for a headline, but in the moment in that building, we might have gotten 20 complaints from ticket buyers about Nicki not being there because they got Lauryn Hill and they got Nas. In their mind they were like, shit, Nicki wasn’t there, but we got Lauryn Hill.
Dennis Rivera: No matter what Rosenberg said, her fans were there to see her. She stopped her show for one guy. We were all excited to see her. The fans were excited to see her. She should have handled it differently.
Ebro: If you listen to the audio what he said wasn’t that serious: He didn’t like "Starships," so what? Everyone in hip-hop hated the song. The song was made for Top 40, it wasn’t for hip-hop. It wasn’t like a slight on her rapping ability. Nobody said anything about her rapping ability, her appearance, anything in her personal life, none of that, it was fuck that song.
DJ Enuff: A part of me wants to have Rosenberg’s back because I know what he stands for. I know the kind of DJ he is and the kind of music he represents with his radio show. At the same time, I understand Nicki. Here we are asking Nicki Minaj to perform at our own concert and one of our DJs kind of like throws a jab at her at the actual concert. I don't know. To me it’s a little bit of bad business.
Mister Cee: I understand her point, man. When you are one of the only key female rappers in this industry and you are one of the only key rappers period and you have someone saying something about you in a disrespectful way in your own hometown—this is her backyard, this is where she’s from. I think if someone said this at another concert somewhere else she wouldn’t have reacted as much, but this is her own backyard. I was mad at Rosenberg about it. I don't blame her for being upset. The only people that I kind of blame is management and the record label for handling the situation a little better so at least Nicki could have still been able to perform. At the end of the day, you are there for the fans. You can still say, "Fuck Hot 97," after you get off stage. There are more people there that paid money to see Nicki, than people who paid money for Hot 97. From a professional standpoint, I feel like her team and management should have gotten her on that stage and then deal with the consequences afterwards. She had every right to be upset.
Peter Rosenberg: There was no sense that, "Oh, this is going to cause a stir." It was literally, to use a wrestling analogy, a cheap pop. It was just playing to the crowd, that’s it. Yes, it was something I really felt, but I only said it because I was thinking about that crowd in particular agreeing with it. It wasn’t at all like something that felt seriously controversial. I’ve said way crazier things on stage before.
Ebro: Relationships are built on good and bad moments, and never once did we consider not playing Young Money’s music because of that moment or firing Rosenberg or not supporting Nicki. We knew it was a fucked up scenario, and we worked to fix it.
The great (alleged) chain-snatching during 50 Cent and G-Unit's set
Tony Yayo: Last year we did the reunion and that was a beautiful thing. It felt like the same energy as 2004. It was a last minute thing because me and 50 were going through our thing but we’re brothers though. It wasn’t nothing serious to that nature for me. I was kind of happy that Banks finally had that conversation with Fif. I was dying for that conversation for maybe two or three years. They weren’t talking for like two years. But I was talking to both of them. I felt like I was in the middle of my big brother and little brother arguing. I think what frustrated me and what had me and 50 not talking was that all I wanted was for our group to be back doing what we were doing. After 50 went crazy on the radio, Banks spoke to him and they hashed everything out. I went to the office we chopped it up. He’s big boss man, I appreciate what he did for me, and what he did for hip hop and we got back together. Let me tell you something, brothers arguing is nothing. When you got fans hitting your page like, You motherfuckers better be on the summer Jam stage. I don't look at fans as groupies. I look at fans as the people who make big superstars. Those are the people that make us. My fans were killing me on Instagram, Twitter and the social networks like, Y’all motherfuckers better come out on that Summer Jam stage. I had to come out with my brothers and we made history again.
Mister Cee: I was on stage when it happened. I didn’t see the actual chain snatching. It was another one of those things like the Nicki Minaj thing where it was just confusion. The aftermath of that seeing Slowbucks running around and trying to get back on stage. The whole thing was happening and 50 and Fab were performing. There was no interruption in the show. The show continued. The skirmish never really interrupted the show. It was confusion but the show wasn’t interrupted. It was like, What happened? And what song are 50 and Fab doing? Once they got Slowbucks off stage, it kind of went back to normal. The crazy thing was that it never interrupted the show.
Tony Yayo: Honestly, I didn’t see what happened. I was stuck in the moment. I didn't know what was going on, what was said. Summer Jam there are a lot of people backstage, there is a lot going on, so it can get hoody—that’s all I know. With that, I can’t really speak on it because I didn’t see what happened.
Ebro: I don't know if 50 enjoys the chaos, I know he doesn't shy away from it. It might be attracted to him because of what his brand is because he doesn’t shy away from it. He fosters it a little bit just because he’s not going to back down from it. I think that is part of the 50 brand. I don't think last year was particularly his fault. I was trying to quell it and was there to clean it up. It was a perfect storm of individuals at the venue in the moment and one thing kind of lead to another.