Cleveland's Kiss Edits 'LeBron' From 'Empire State Of Mind'

Persona non Grata

CLEAR CHANNEL Top 40 WAKS (96.5 KISS FM)/CLEVELAND is getting some attention for a little editing the station did to JAY-Z and ALICIA KEYS' 2009 hit "Empire State of Mind," reversing the highly offensive word (in CLEVELAND, that is) "LEBRON" in the lyrics to make the now-MIAMI HEAT star's name indecipherable.

The CAVALIERS fan blog WAITING FOR NEXT YEAR talked to KISS night slammer JAVA JOEL MURPHY, who said, "I was playing the song and realized that the word 'LEBRON' is as offensive to some people as the 'Seven Words You Can't Say On The Radio.' Anytime one of those words shows up in a song, we either bleep it, cut it out completely or obscure it by flipping it backwards. So, I suggested to our programming dept that we should treat the name 'LEBRON' similarly."

"The reaction has been immediate," JOEL added. "Listeners thought it was a brilliant idea. It's subtle, just enough to get the point across. Obviously, it's totally tongue-in-cheek. I mean, we still say the name on the air. But, in the context of a hip-hop song, it sounds kinda cool hearing it flipped backwards."

« see more Net News