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HOT 97 has always thrived on its larger-than-life personalities and its place in Hip-Hop history, but last week the station’s internal drama spilled into the open in a way that pulled back the curtain on its fractured culture.
The shake-up began with the dismissal of DJ Enuff, a fixture at the station and in hip hop for nearly three decades. His abrupt termination, after 27 years, sent shockwaves through the city’s radio scene. But the fallout didn’t stop at Enuff — it quickly turned into a referendum on the station’s leadership and their handling of talent.
Ebro Darden, who has helmed HOT 97 ’s flagship morning show for over a decade, didn’t mince words when he addressed the situation live on air. “Congratulations, you played yourself,” he began, before widening his critique beyond Enuff’s firing. To him, the issue wasn’t just the exit of a veteran DJ — it was the lack of transparency and the creeping culture of disposability that’s now hanging over the entire staff.
“They’re gonna start,” Ebro warned about potential cuts to his own team. “This program right here, the amount of money they spend — which ain’t a lot, but it’s more than they spend on the rest of the radio station — when they get to cutting off fingers and toes up here? It’s gonna happen, bro. Don’t play with these people, man. Don’t play with these people if you worried about your mortgage and all of that.”
Ebro also singled out Funkmaster Flex, another titan of the station, suggesting Flex’s willingness to “do the song and dance” is exactly why his job will always be safe under corporate oversight. It was a barbed comment that was echoed days earlier, when Enuff himself hinted in a TMZ interview that Flex may have had a hand in his dismissal.
Flex fired back on his own show, firmly denying the allegations. “I would never have anything to do—not just my brother. I would have nothing to do with anyone being fired or no longer here. You know why? I’m too hot,” Flex insisted. Instead, he threw suspicion back on Enuff’s inner circle, claiming the people who betrayed him were right there during his farewell. “The people who snaked you, man, was in that video on your goodbye,” Flex said. “They were standing with you, my brother.”
The back-and-forth between HOT 97 ’s veterans has turned what was already a painful programming shake-up into a messy family feud, exposing a deeper rift between loyalty, corporate control, and survival in an industry that’s rapidly evolving. For fans, it’s the unraveling of a station that once represented New York’s heartbeat in Hip-Hop; for the talent still clocking in every morning, it’s a reminder that legacy offers no guarantees in a venture capitalist’s ledger.
