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UK RADIO JOCK SUSPENDED OVER BUSTA SONG: Station owners issue apology over rapper's hit 'Arab Money.'
*A popular UK radio DJ and his producer were suspended last month for playing Busta Rhymes' latest single "Arab Money," a track that received a number of complaints from listeners.
The song, which Steve “Smooth” Sutherland’s played at 9:58 p.m. on Nov. 29, has Busta boasting about being "oil well rich" and using various Arab references to describe his wealth.
After listeners complained that the lyrics were racist, Sutherland was removed by Global Radio, the owners of Galaxy Radio, which beams his show into Manchester, Yorkshire, Birmingham, York Shire, the South Coast, the North East and Scotland, reports UK Web site Radio Today.
“Galaxy would like to apologize to all our listeners for the airing of this song. It was never Galaxy’s intent to offend its listeners and never will be,” the company said in a statement. “A full internal investigation has now commenced. Galaxy would like to apologize for any offense however unintentionally caused.”
A Muslim reader of Allhiphopcom, Khalid, took offense to one of the song's remixes. He wrote: “In ‘Arab Money Remix Part 1,’ in the chorus you used (‘Bismillah Ulrahman Ulrahim Alhamdullillah rab Ulalamen) which is a Quranic verse from the first Surah (chapter) in the Holy Quran." [Scroll down to listen to song.]
“As an Arab and a Muslim it's prohibited to sing or cite a Quranic verse in combination with music and most Muslims will find this disrespectful," Khalid explained. "I'm afraid this misunderstanding will be interpreted as an offensive and disrespectful way by some people and I trust that you wouldn't upset and disrespect your Muslim and Arab fans.”
Busta Rhymes has gone on several blog sites to defend the track, as well as it's title, insisting that it actually champions Arab culture.
"Sometimes, people like to twist things," he said, according to WENN. "We ain’t mockin’ the culture. We ain’t tryin’ to be disrespectful. Ain’t no racism going on right here.
"If you listen to the song, you see that we are actually acknowledging the fact that the Arabian culture, a Middle East culture, is one of the few cultures that values passing down hard work riches that’s been built amongst the family. It would be nice if a lot of other cultures did the same thing.
"I would like for it to be like that in my culture where we could build things to the point where we got so much that we don’t need to rely on other cultures to contribute majorly in a financial way, or in whatever other way, to societies, communities or whatever governments we might live in.
"So, we are actually biggin’ up the culture. At the end of the day, I want to be like that. I think a lot of us want to be like that.”
Sutherland has twice been named Best DJ at the Music of Black Origina (MOBO) Awards. He's also a world famous club DJ and has put his name to 11 urban music compilation albums, attaining platinum and gold status, reports Radio Today.
"Arab Money Remix Pt 1" - Busta Rhymes feat. Lil Wayne, Diddy, Akon, T-Pain, Ron Browz, Swizz Beatz
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