DJs fighting! Watch out! There was a great article in today's Times about this morning 'zoo' DJ who was arrested after he threatened another radio DJ claiming that he was going to pee and ejaculate on the other DJ's four year old daughter. He also offered $500 for information on where the girl went to school. Oh, and he also called the guy's part-asian wife a "lo-mein eater" and "gook. Gothamist has the transcript in their comments section.
So, today's NYT had parts of a brief interview with him and I realized that if you followed all of his inane delusions of grandeur comments with "in regards to peeing on little girls" it was a much funnier article...
Radio Show Host Says He's No Shock Jock May 13, 2006 By LOLA OGUNNAIKE Over the years, Troi Torain, an infamous disc jockey known to his fans and foes as Star, has eviscerated celebrities like Jennifer Lopez and Eminem and mocked the death of the R&B singer Aaliyah. He has called fans of hip-hop music savages and has regularly used racial epithets.
But in an interview yesterday, just before he was arrested on charges of harassment and endangering the welfare of a child, Mr. Torain, 42, said that he was no shock jock. "There is a philosophy behind what I do," he said. "I have an ideology [in regards to peeing on little girls]."
He called his philosophy "objective hate," but refused to expound. "Visit www.rebirthofreason.com," he said. "When you start scrolling through those posts, then you'll understand my philosophy [in regards to peeing on little girls]."
In one of several messages posted on the Web site, Mr. Torain, who has described himself as a die-hard fan of the author Ayn Rand, wrote, "Soon, I will indeed explain how the cheap emotion of hate, a common subliminal thread in all men including myself, can only be fully understood by way of Objectivism [in regards to peeing on little girls]."
Mr. Torain is regularly compared to Howard Stern, himself no stranger to controversy. "He basically ripped off Stern and threw his own urban twist into the equation," said Erik Parker, the music editor at Vibe, a hip-hop magazine. "Both of them make a living pushing taboo topics to the limit and both of them have no problem offending people."
In the interview yesterday, Mr. Torain rejected the comparison to Mr. Stern. "I'm not some black version of that coward Howard Stern [in regards to peeing on little girls]," he said. "I'm right there on the verge of being the new Lenny Bruce [in regards to peeing on little girls]."
Mr. Torain refused to discuss the details of his current situation. He was fired on Wednesday, a week after his rant against a rival radio host. "I have no desire to sit and do an interview [in regards to peeing on little girls], to spill my guts because somebody is going to give me a little shine in a newspaper or television," he said with a sardonic chuckle. "I don't need a pat on the head from mainstream America [in regards to peeing on little girls]."
Before this week, Mr. Torain's over-the-top schtick had, at worst, earned him enemies, suspensions and terminations. During his three years at WQHT-FM, known as Hot 97, as one of the hosts of the "Star and Buc Wild Morning Show," he was suspended more than a dozen times. After clashing with station management in 2003, he was fired.
He took his act to WUSL-FM, known as Power 99, in Philadelphia, where he continued to rebel and delight listeners. In 2004, Power 99 suspended him after he threatened to choke a call-center worker in India, and called her a "rat eater" during a segment on the air. The following year, he returned to New York on WWPR-FM, known as Power 105, (Hot 97's rival) and received a reported four-year $17 million deal.
His show - a mix of tongue-in-cheek commentary, profanity-laced diatribes and in-studio interviews with the likes of Wynton Marsalis and Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers - was a hit, one that raised Power 105's morning ratings.
"We brought in Star to help make Power the market leader," Tom Poleman, vice president of Clear Channel Communications was quoted as saying in an interview with The Daily News this month. Clear Channel is Power 105's parent. "He's done that. We're delighted."
In an industry in which street credibility is prized, Mr. Torain, born and raised in Scotch Plains, N.J., has always been pleased to be a product of the suburbs. "I'm proud to say that I'm not from the slums, that I know nothing about five people sleeping in one bed growing up," he said in a 2003 interview. "I'm proud that my parents were hard-working, that my brother and I had separate bedrooms, that we had a backyard with a swimming pool."
Before working in radio, Mr. Torain was the host of an MTV show and had a column in The Source magazine. When asked yesterday if he regretted the comments that have caused such a firestorm, he refused to answer. "The direction and the pulse of the country has changed [in regards to peeing on little girls], and that's all I'm going to say."
