Eminem Breaks KROQ’s Rap Barrier

Hip-hop has been rapping at the door of alternative-rock leader KROQ-FM (106.7) for years. From the Beastie Boys through Limp Bizkit, varying degrees of hip-hop--usually mixed with rock and pop sounds--have become common on the outlet. But never real, hard-core urban rap. You’d never dream of hearing a Dr. Dre track on their frequency.

Now rap has its foot in the door, thanks to Eminem. The Detroit rapper’s “My Name Is,” produced by Dr. Dre in Dre’s graphic urban style, is getting a test on the station.

Why this track when others haven’t even gotten a chance? Does it have anything to do with the fact that Eminem is white?

“Not at all,” insists KROQ program director Kevin Weatherly. “This is definitely hip-hop, but it kind of has a novelty appeal to it. That’s more a reason why we’re trying it. And obviously the exposure it’s getting on MTV makes it a little easier to pop it on.”

But this is hardly the first hard-core rap track with a novelty element and massive MTV exposure. The difference, Weatherly says, is timing. Young KROQ listeners increasingly are attracted to hip-hop, which has exploded as the sound of youth culture across ethnic and economic lines.

But it’s still a long way from broad acceptance among KROQ listeners.

“There’s a polar response to the track every time we play it,” Weatherly says. “It’s getting a ton of requests, but it also gets a lot of negatives. Most of the [callers] have been very young. It seems like listeners 17 and under love it. The listeners over 18 might like it, but they don’t want to hear it on KROQ.”

Indeed, the markets where Eminem is working best on alternative-rock stations are ones that lack a dominant hip-hop outlet such as L.A.’s Power (KPWR-FM, 105.9).

“Power is entrenched in that world, and for us getting too far into hip-hop would be akin to them jumping on Hole or Green Day,” Weatherly says. “It’s not what you expect when you punch into that station.”

Frank Williams, West Coast editor of rap monthly the Source, agrees that KROQ needs to protect its niche and move cautiously. But he sees an increased rap presence there as inevitable, and he hopes the station will be more open to African American rappers soon.

“Think how big this music is,” he says. “They have no choice, given what their audience is. At some point, they have to get with the times, and even if some people don’t want to hear it, they have to acknowledge those who do. Things are changing and people have to realize it.”

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SPF WITH A BULLET: A piece of advice for record companies: Don’t look a gift novelty record in the mouth.

That’s the lesson learned at Capitol Records, where a track featuring a spoken-word recitation of advice purportedly given in a college graduation address (“wear sunscreen,” “do one thing every day that scares you”) is now the hottest thing on the label after gathering dust for nearly a year.

The track, “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen),” is KROQ’s top requested song by far.

“It’s out-pulling Limp Bizkit and No Doubt by a mile,” says program director Weatherly. “I’ve never seen a track so instant as far as striking a nerve.”

The track is from “Something for Everybody,” an album of music put together by Australian film director Baz Luhrmann related to his movies. The music behind the track is “Everybody’s Free,” from his film “William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet.”

While mixing it for the record, Luhrmann encountered the “commencement address” on the Internet, where it had been bouncing around with claims that it had been delivered by author Kurt Vonnegut Jr. In truth, it was a piece by Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Schmich. Luhrmann hired actor Lee Perry to read the column over the music.

After the album came out last April, it got a lot of spins on Santa Monica public station KCRW-FM (89.9), but Capitol didn’t do much to stir interest until Burt Baumgartner arrived last month as senior vice president of promotion. He thought there was some serious potential.

The track had started to get play in Portland, Ore., after programmers edited it down from seven minutes to less than five. On hearing that it was the station’s No. 1 request, Baumgartner got busy. He pressed some CD singles of the edit for other radio stations, took out a few ads in trade magazines, and soon it was landing in other markets, with influential KROQ putting it on the official playlist in late February. Baumgartner says that the phenomenon is now starting to cross over to mainstream pop stations.

“I love wacko records,” he says. “What radio loves about it is there’s no video, no artist appearing with Jay Leno. You can only get it on radio. It’s a media exclusive for them.”