Hot 97 landlord dispute over 50 Cent and the Game

The Grunt is not a big fan of hot 97 even since their djs put out a racist song mocking the tsunami victims. Last week it was site of a shoot out between 50 Cent and an ex-member of his posse the Game.

Now, according to the New York Daily News the landlord, the city's carpenters union is making demands to Hot 97 that posses be banned.

The landlord has stated the followiing:

Hot 97 visitors have also harangued building security and blocked tenants from entering and leaving the building. The union wants the right to force some visitors to use a different entrance to the building - and the right to bar some celebrities altogether.

Article provides a list of incidents that occured there.

The union noted that the gunplay was only "the latest in a series of extremely serious incidents."

In February 2001, bullets flew outside the building when the crews of Lil' Kim and rap duo Capone-N-Noreaga clashed following back-to-back appearances at the station.

A witness testifying at Kim's trial this week faulted the station for putting the battling stars on a collision course by booking them for the same day.

A year after the Lil' Kim incident, popular DJ Funkmaster Flex got into a scrape with rival host Steph Lova outside the station and eventually pleaded guilty to harassment.

Now the million dollar question is can the landlord do this? It depends on the lease. The Grunt assumes that a commerical lease was signed which are very different than residential leases. In commerical leases the tenant is usally solely responsible for the condition and maintainence of the property allowing free reign for the tenant in exchange for a large monthy payment of rent. Residential leases require the landlord to bear more of the burden.

The landlord has claimed that Hot 97 is in violation of their lease.

Declaring Hot 97 in violation of its lease, the union gave the radio station until Friday to agree to the new rules, including the anti-posse clause.

This is where it gets kind of tricky. Unless there is a clause that the landlord can change the rules of the game, signed leases are pretty much iron clad until they expire.

Will this change anything over at hot 97? One tenant is not so sure.

Employees who work in the building rallied behind the landlord yesterday - but were skeptical the new measures would keep the peace.

"They can't get rid of a rapper's entourage," said Marc Hsu, 30, of Manhattan, who works in human resources for a company in the same building.