Shawn Cotton Says NYC 🗽 Ain't Listen To NY

NY Radio Don’t Play NY Music Anymore… So What We Doin’?

Shoutout to Shawn Cotton from Say Cheese, ‘cause when he touched down in NYC recently, he said something that low‑key hurt the city’s pride. Man said he ain’t hear NO New York artists in New York. Not in the clubs, not in the lounges, not in the Uber, not even in the corner store where the chopped cheese be hittin’. Instead? He said he heard a whole lotta BossMan Dlow and a couple other out‑of‑towners.

Now listen… he ain’t wrong.

And yeah, nobody listens to the radio like that anymore, but let’s keep it a stack: these DJs ain’t really DJing no more. It’s a business now. They not breaking artists — they waiting for the industry to break the artist first. They wanna see a million views, a viral TikTok, a WorldStar moment, THEN they’ll spin you like they been supporting from day one.

Meanwhile, I’m in my whip bumpin’ Nino Man, Sheff G, Sleepy Hallow, King Beamo, Fivio Foreign, Benji the ButterMan, Vado, Dave East, Poppa Da Don, Rowdy Rebel — real NY energy. Then you got the young drill kids makin’ noise: 41, TaTa, Jenn Carter, Kyle Richh, and the ladies too like Connie Diiamond who been applying pressure.

But the radio? They act like these artists don’t exist unless they already trending on TikTok.

Only a few DJs holdin’ it down for the city. DJ Emz Dewski got the whole NEW New York movement on lock. Clue and Flex will sprinkle some NY heat here and there, but it ain’t consistent. NY radio should be the platform breaking these artists — not waiting for YouTube or WorldStar to do it first like what happened with Pop Smoke (rest in peace).

So the real question is:

What can New York do to get New York artists back on New York radio?

Because let’s be honest — we don’t got Rap City, we don’t got 106 & Park, we don’t got a direct pipeline anymore. Everything is scattered. Everything is algorithm‑based. Everything is “who got the most followers.”

NY used to be the trendsetter. Now we begging for a slot on a playlist curated by somebody in LA who never stepped foot in a bodega.

So how do we fix this?

Do we build our own platforms? Do we force the radio to tap back in? Do we support our artists harder so the numbers speak for themselves? Do we create a new version of 106 & Park for the digital era?

Something gotta give. ‘Cause New York got talent — the city just ain’t amplifying it.

And until we figure it out, the aux cord in the whip gon’ keep doing the job the radio refuses to do.