What makes WQHT, NYC's Hot 97 a Rhythmic?

[*Who Is?*]

They may play CHR-ish hits by artists that appeal to Urban.. i.e. Paper Planes, Forever, Disturbia... but outside of that. But something just tells me they should be an urban...

For those that don't know what Hot 97 is... its like the Z100 of Urban and Rhythmic

I know one thing though, their playlist confuses the hell out of me.
They have no problem putting album cuts into rotation

Rank Spins
lw TW Artist Title TW lw Move Aud/mill
5 1 MARIO Break Up f/Gucci Mane 126 94 32 4.397
3 2 DRAKE Successful f/Lil Wayne 117 102 15 4.142
2 3 DRAKE Best I Ever Had 109 112 -3 3.731
12 4 BIRDMAN Always Strapped f/Lil Wayne 99 44 55 3.484
6 5 SERANI She Loves Me 94 84 10 3.352
1 6 MAINO Million Bucks f/Swizz Beatz 76 113 -37 2.776
4 7 FABOLOUS Throw It In The Bag f/Dream 74 94 -20 2.628
9 8 JAY-Z/RIHANNA/KANYE WEST Run This Town 62 62 - 2.322
7 9 JAY-Z D.O.A. (Death Of Auto-Tune) 47 79 -32 1.688
31 10 MARIAH CAREY Obsessed 41 15 26 1.454
Rank Spins
lw TW Artist Title TW lw Move Aud/mill
10 11 JOHN LEGEND No Other Love f/Estelle 41 60 -19 1.494
11 12 TREY SONGZ I Need A Girl 40 46 -6 1.548
18 13 FABOLOUS F/KERI HILSON Everything, Everyday... 38 24 14 1.372
13 14 FABOLOUS When The Money Goes f/Jay-Z 36 34 2 1.361
19 15 VYBZ KARTEL/SPICE Romping Shop 34 23 11 1.232
16 16 RYAN LESLIE You're Not My Girl 32 27 5 1.189
21 17 SEAN PAUL So Fine 32 22 10 1.078
37 18 TREY SONGZ LOL Smiley Face f/Gucci Mane 30 13 17 0.986
29 19 50 CENT Funny How Time Flies 28 15 13 1.038
26 20 KID CUDI Make Her Say f/K. West/Common 28 19 9 1.002
Rank Spins
lw TW Artist Title TW lw Move Aud/mill
8 21 LIL' KIM Download f/T-Pain 27 67 -40 0.983
24 22 TWISTA Wetter (Calling You Daddy) 27 20 7 0.971
14 23 THE-DREAM Walkin' On The Moon f/K. West 21 33 -12 0.875
23 24 JADAKISS Smokin Gun f/Jazmine Sullivan 20 21 -1 0.660
25 25 FAT JOE Aloha f/Pleasure P & Rico Love 19 19 - 0.692
22 26 DRAKE I'm Goin' In f/Lil Wayne 18 21 -3 0.629
38 27 MARY J. BLIGE Stronger 15 12 3 0.460
36 28 GUCCI MANE Wasted f/OJ Da Juiceman 14 13 1 0.497
49 29 ESTELLE American Boy f/Kanye West 13 8 5 0.534
40 30 FAST LIFE YUNGSTAZ Swag Surfin 13 11 2 0.413
Rank Spins
lw TW Artist Title TW lw Move Aud/mill
27 31 JIM JONES & RON BROWZ Pop Champagne f/J. Santana 13 17 -4 0.373
20 32 50 CENT OK, You're Right 12 22 -10 0.407
156 33 BEYONCE Sweet Dreams 12 1 11 0.390
62 34 CLIPSE All Eyes On Me f/Keri Hilson 12 6 6 0.459
45 35 GRAFH Bring The Goons Out 12 9 3 0.432
41 36 NE-YO Closer 12 11 1 0.453
32 37 PLIES Plenty Money 12 14 -2 0.417
15 38 YOUNG MONEY Every Girl 12 28 -16 0.424
30 39 BEYONCE Ego 11 15 -4 0.443
35 40 CONSEQUENCE Whatever You Want f/Kanye West 11 13 -2 0.285
Rank Spins
lw TW Artist Title TW lw Move Aud/mill
44 41 SERANI No Games 11 10 1 0.371
33 42 SLAUGHTERHOUSE The One 11 14 -3 0.471
42 43 MARY J. BLIGE The One f/Drake 10 10 - 0.361
51 44 JADAKISS Who's Real f/Swizz Beatz/OJ 10 8 2 0.301
17 45 CHRISETTE MICHELE Epiphany (I'm Leaving) 10 26 -16 0.410
47 46 NICKI MINAJ I Get Crazy f/Lil Wayne 10 9 1 0.336
53 47 OJ DA JUICEMAN Make The Trap Say Aye 10 8 2 0.319
28 48 QUEEN LATIFAH People 10 16 -6 0.215
43 49 LIL WAYNE Mrs. Officer f/Bobby Valentino 9 10 -1 0.263
55 50 KEYSHIA COLE Let It Go 8 7 1 0.249

[B-Boy]

WQHT is an urban leaning rhythmic. I guess the number of spins given to the top songs makes them a rhythmic.

[Nic (Britney Spears)]

Hot 97 sucks... not the music, really. Just you know, the way they talk over every song. Can't stand it.

But I'm on your side on this, to me, Hot 97 definitely seems Urban, not Rhythmic.

[Sir Benji]

i'd have to disagree they would be imo a Rhythmic that tends to slightly lean Urban because they play rhythmic chr hits, & urban hits but pretty much no dance when Houston had a Rhythmic it's playlist was similar to HOT 97's it was also a rhythmic that slightly leaned urban

[tico]

I'll argue that Hot 97 is an urban disguised as rhythmic.

[620 Soul Train]

Judging by the playlist this is definitely Urban leaning.

[Sir Benji]

Sept 8, 2009 14:19:13 GMT -5 Sir Benji said:

i'd have to disagree they would be imo a Rhythmic that tends to slightly lean Urban because they play rhythmic chr hits, & urban hits but pretty much no dance when Houston had a Rhythmic it's playlist was similar to HOT 97's it was also a rhythmic that slightly leaned urban

i forgot that the Urban station here is an Urban but also a Rhythmic if that makes sense for example it's on Mediabase's Rhythmic panel but BDS's Urban so i would consider it a Rhythmic-leaning Urban station but HOT97 is definately a Rhythmic station that leans Urban

[bjordan]

Sept 12, 2009 20:13:06 GMT -5 Sir Benji said:

Sept 8, 2009 14:19:13 GMT -5 Sir Benji said:

i'd have to disagree they would be imo a Rhythmic that tends to slightly lean Urban because they play rhythmic chr hits, & urban hits but pretty much no dance when Houston had a Rhythmic it's playlist was similar to HOT 97's it was also a rhythmic that slightly leaned urban

i forgot that the Urban station here is an Urban but also a Rhythmic if that makes sense for example it's on Mediabase's Rhythmic panel but BDS's Urban so i would consider it a Rhythmic-leaning Urban station but HOT97 is definately a Rhythmic station that leans Urban

Hot 97 used to play Rhythmic hits like Pitbull “Give Me Everything” a decade ago but was still Hip Hop/R&B same with LA’s Power 106. In 2010-2016, Power 106 had more dance in rotation but since Real 92.3 debuted and took Big Boy, Power 106 dropped their rhythmic pop/dance from their playlist and became more urban leaning again. I listen to Hot 97 via streaming from time to time and they lost their New York elements that they had back in the day. I’ve done research on Hot 97’s playlist and they had it going on in the 90’s.

[J. Rob]

Hot 97 has been straight up Urban for about 10 years now.

[bjordan]

Aug 24, 2022 13:27:07 GMT -5 J. Rob said:

Hot 97 has been straight up Urban for about 10 years now.

They’ve actually been urban since the mid 90’s. I mostly listen when Funkmaster Flex is on. Once upon a time, Hot 97 and Power 106 were sister stations and they were the blueprint for the “where hip hop lives” format during the 90’s. I’m 28 years old and I grew up on Power 106 being an LA native. I’ve always been aware of Hot 97 but I haven’t started listening until later on in life.

[dwindeezy]

I’m from NY, hot 97 is more of the urban leaning rhytmic station and 105.1 is the more heavy urban leaning station. They play very similar music but 105.1 plays much less rhythmic kinda tracks and leans more urban and even some r&b tracks that hot 97 doesn’t play or put into higher rotation.

[bjordan]

Aug 29, 2022 18:32:27 GMT -5 dwindeezy said:

I’m from NY, hot 97 is more of the urban leaning rhytmic station and 105.1 is the more heavy urban leaning station. They play very similar music but 105.1 plays much less rhythmic kinda tracks and leans more urban and even some r&b tracks that hot 97 doesn’t play or put into higher rotation.

I listen to Hot 97 & Power 105.1 through the internet from time to time. Hot 97 is non stop hip hop and Power 105.1 is the true mainstream urban of NYC.