Another Hip-Hop Feud

NEW YORK -- The entrance to 395 Hudson St. looks like any other in its tame and corporate stretch of the West Village. Down the block there is a chocolate factory selling, among other goodies, a creme brulee bar. Next door, there's a gym with five squash courts.

You don't look at this neighborhood and think "rap-related violence," but occasionally you should. According to a tally kept by the New York City District Council of Carpenters, the union that owns the building, there have been more than 50 "acts of violence" here in recent years, all of them connected to the world of hip-hop.

The first of three shootings outside the station was in 2001, when 21 bullets were fired as the crew of Lil' Kim faced off against the crew of a rapper named Capone. (She's in jail today for lying about that particular episode.) The latest melee came in late April, and ended with a bullet in the rear end of a rapper named Jamal "Gravy" Woolard.

The blame for all this, the union says, falls on Hot 97, aka WQHT, one of the most influential hip-hop stations in the country and a destination of choice for music luminaries such as Jay-Z, DMX and Diddy, who want to talk directly to their fans. The fans, it turns out, like to talk back, and often show up at the entrance of 395 Hudson. Take rap stars, add posses and fans, and the union says you've got a highly volatile mix.

A mix the union is no longer willing to tolerate. On May 2, eviction proceedings against Hot 97 began, and with them a very noisy public relations fight. The owners of the station, Emmis Radio, say they aren't budging and aren't responsible for isolated criminal acts on a street that they don't control. The union says it's just worried about the safety of its other tenants. In all, 1,400 people work in the building.

Last week, there were legal motions back and forth, with the union attempting to bar rappers and their entourages from visiting the station. That didn't quite fly. State Supreme Court Justice Bernard Fried ruled that the union had to allow the stars into the building, but could block their entourages. This prompted a triumphant press release from Emmis, lauding the judge for recognizing that the goal of ensuring public safety "can be accomplished without the unreasonable restrictions imposed by the union that prevented us from doing business."

But according to Brian O'Dwyer, an attorney for the union, the anti-posse injunction is more of a win for his team than it might appear.

"These rappers don't like to travel solo," O'Dwyer said yesterday. "Most of these guys like to travel like the president, and if you tell them they can't bring their friends, they don't want to go."

Both O'Dwyer and the PR pros hired by Emmis Radio were backing away from their warlike rhetoric yesterday. With the next preliminary hearing on the eviction dispute set for Friday, both sides sound eager to resolve the matter without a lengthy and costly fight. Exactly what a negotiated settlement might look like is unclear, but O'Dwyer hinted that it could include a provision that all celebrity interviews be conducted at a different site.

A deal would be welcome news to the office workers at 395 Hudson. They're accustomed to seeing a small crowd and a limo or two outside the building when they leave. (Virtually all these episodes happen at night.) Running into Busta Rhymes on the way home is a hoot, but the shooting part understandably freaks everybody out.

"If you see a posse, you just duck your head and keep going," said Prakash Patel, a systems administrator who works for a financial software firm in the building. "You don't know what is going to happen. And whenever something happens, we all read about it in the newspaper."

Hot 97 is, in a way, simply too good at what it does, which is to stir up just enough controversy to keep it in the vanguard of hip-hop. When 50 Cent decided to toss his former protege, the Game, out of his creative collective, called G-Unit, Hot 97 is where he announced the news. Along with 20 of his closest friends. The Game apparently wasn't pleased. He went to the station with an entourage of his own, and when he was blocked from entering -- well, the complaint filed by the union says it best:

"Four members of 50 Cent's 'posse' then came down to the Building lobby from Hot 97's studio, where words were exchanged between the two groups. Building security forced the feuding 'posses' outside and, ultimately, the situation escalated, culminating in gunfire in front of the Building."

Kevin Reed of Compton, Calif., ended up in the hospital.

The station turned up in the news last week, when a DJ at rival Power 105.1 threatened on the air to sexually assault the 4-year-old daughter of Hot 97's DJ Envy. The cops arrested DJ Star, who had offered $500 for information about where Envy's daughter went to school. He was subsequently fired and arrested, and he's since apologized. His lawyer said Star, whose real name is Troi Torain, "never intended to frighten the family."

The union surely had little idea what it was in for when it signed Hot 97 to a 16-year lease. It claims to have spent $1 million on security enhancements, including two armed guards, a new surveillance camera and recording equipment.