Hot 97’s Peter Rosenberg explained his decision to have pop star Justin Bieber come to the studio and kick a freestyle over the instrumental to Gang Starr’s classic single “Dwyck.” The radio host says that the Beebs rhyming over a track like that could expose millions of people to hip hop that they’ve never heard.
“It’ll probably be heard by millions of people. And it’s labeled online–I intentionally labelled it ‘Dwyck’,” Rosenberg said, referring to the freestyle. “I wanted it to be out there and people to go, ‘What’s Dwyck?’ To me, amidst all the people that would be like, ‘Why’d you do that?’ Ultimately, that’s a really dope thing to do. I think that’s a win for hip-hop. Justin Bieber is not gonna be the problem with hip-hop. Justin Bieber rhyming on a real hip-hop beat only exposes people to real hip-hop. That’s just a good thing. Even if 1% of his fans look it up. Why not? I haven’t talked to Premo yet, but I think Premo will think it’s cool. I think everyone will think it’s cool.”
