Hot 97 faced major scrutiny over the weekend after a major revelation was made in HBO's Yusuf Hawkins: Storm Over Brooklyn. The documentary revealed that a long-time employee at the station, Pasquale "Paddy Duke" Raucci, was a suspect in Hawkins' case where a mob of white men fatally shot him dead. After uproar on social media, Hot 97 said Paddy Duke was fired but many wondered how no one, including Ebro and Funk Flex, was aware of these accusations.
Ebro In The Morning addressed the controversy on their show this morning while offering an apology to listeners and fans for how the entire situation unfolded. "Corporate started to go to work to find out who knew what, when Paddy was hired and what was going to be the response because this wasn't going to be allowed to fly," Ebro explained before Laura added that Raucci's was at Hot 97 longer than any of the hosts. "The realization is that this couldn't be swept under the rug, obviously, so he's been fired," Ebro added.
Laura continued to explain that the staff only knew him as Paddy Duke without knowing his real name, though Ebro did admit that he was aware of Raucci's connection to the case.
"He told me that he got swept up in the Yusef Hawkins situation. He also told me he didn't have nothing to do with it," Ebro said. "This was—it had to have been more than 8, 10 years ago. I didn't know that he had a misdemeanor 'cause he did get charged with a misdemeanor and I didn't know that his record had been expunged."
He added, "Based on what I know about the NYPD, neighborhoods getting swept up around a murder, that's normal procedure, especially in the late 80s and 90s. If you was outside, if you were near the park, if you were anywhere around, you were getting swept up."
As Ebro addressed the situation head-on, he offered an apology to the viewers and supporters over the situation. "On behalf of our team at Ebro In The Morning, we apologize that this is evening happening," he said. "It was out of our control but we apologize and we're here now. We've inherited something that we have to, as a team, deal with the brunt of."
Peep the whole clip below.
