by Jeremy Hunt
Daily Lobo
Being a hip-hop DJ is about two things.
"It's skills and knowledge. It's got nothing to do with your sex or race," Jason "DJ Scientific" Marchiondo said. "All it has to do with is, are you good and have you studied?"
Marchiondo spins records on "Street Beat," an uncensored hip-hop radio show on KUNM 89.9. It mostly plays underground hip-hop Fridays from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m.
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The show has three groups of volunteers who take turns doing the show. It airs during the time when KUNM allows explicit
content.
A disclaimer begins the show, warning listeners that the content may be offensive.
"Street Beat" provides New Mexico with content that won't be found anywhere else, said Marcos Martinez, program director for the show.
Martinez said KUNM has a unique place on the airwaves because it is public and independent.
It gives "Street Beat" a home it would not have in a media dominated by corporations,
Martinez said.
"They're (the media) basically interested in their financial bottom line," he said. "We're really here to promote artful expression, freedom of speech and discussion of relevant community issues."
Marchiondo said he also plays the roots of hip-hop, such as soul and funk. He said he spends as much time looking for records as he does playing them.
"That's what I do as a DJ - I dig a lot," he said. "I look for records every day. Whatever I can really get my hands on."
Albuquerque has a poor selection of underground hip-hop, so Marchiondo has to get records from California and Nevada,
he said.
Marchiondo said "Street Beat" is a remnant of the wave of college radio hip-hop shows that sprung up in the mid-'90s.
"It's one of the only of its kind in existence in the nation," he said. "This is a college show that's kind of the last of its breed. A lot of these shows have died over the years."
The show is the best thing happening for hip-hop in Albuquerque, said Nick "Fury" Meyers, who co-hosts the show with the Soul Cypher Crew.
Meyers said the DJs at KUNM have freedom to play whatever they want, unlike the rest of
the dial.
"You turn on the regular radio, and all there is is crap. I don't care if you listen to rock, rap," he said. "Everything on mainstream radio is cookie-cutter crap."
The show's music is more authentic than anything else on the radio because the musicians talk about their lives, which isn't always pretty, Meyers said.
"Hip-hop is inherently honest," he said. "These guys are pushing cutting-edge underground music - music of the street, music of the struggle."
Marchiondo said people are offended by hip-hop because they don't understand it. They take the lyrics too literally and don't appreciate it for its artistic and entertainment value, Marchiondo said.
"Street Beat" was criticized in a letter to the editor published in the Daily Lobo last week. UNM-Taos
alumnus Jeffrey Bullard said the show is racist, sexist and offensive to homosexuals.
Martinez said the point of the show is not to offend people. "Street Beat" isn't the only program that has had similar complaints, Martinez said.
"When you're doing what we do, sometimes people are going to get offended," he said. "We can't shy away because of that."
