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Local rapper Jabee Williams forbidden to play on OKC’s KSBI 52!

 Jabee Williams just spoke to Red Dirt Report about the incident that took place this morning at the KSBI-52 studios.

“We were scheduled to be there at 10. I walked through the front door into the studio, and when I got there, the band was setting up—a drummer, a bass, a keyboard and a DJ. They were almost done setting up to the point where they were plugging and the drummer was kicking his kick drum, just checking stuff out. So a dude walks in, shakes my hand and says ‘There’s been an oversight and I need you guys to leave.’ And that was all he said, and we kind of started laughing, thinking he was joking. But he just stood there and I asked ‘are you serious?’ and said yeah. He said that when he saw the name ‘Jabee and Culture Cinematic,’ he thought it was someone else and he realized we weren’t them, so he said ‘I need you guys to breakdown and leave.’

“So I go, ‘You must have thought that we were a country band,’ I said that jokingly, but he was like ‘Honestly, yes.’ I say, ‘You mean for three weeks, you’ve had my bio and information and you thought that I was a country band?’ And the more he talked, the more he just made it worse. He ended up saying ‘We’re going in a different direction and we can’t have somebody like you on.’ And I was like ‘Somebody like me?’ I remember he was like, ‘You guys got a DJ, I wouldn’t have even approved a DJ.’ And I go, ‘Whenever the talent coordinator called me, he said make sure you bring your DJ,’ and even called back to ask what we need. Then he goes, ‘Whenever I talked to him, I told him, via text message, no DJ.’ And I said, ‘Well that don’t make sense, because you just thought that I was someone else.’ So if you’re telling me that you talked to him and texted him, I want to see the text and he said he deleted them.

“It was just so sketchy, man. Just so weird. I gave him every opportunity to save face, to say something to make it better, but he never would. He was just rude and real cold and didn’t care. He was just like, ‘I’m going to stand here until you guys leave.’ I was like we weren’t doing anything wrong! I just felt like, at that point…I don’t know…it was weird, like he was security and we were trespassers. But even the people who were there, the video people who were just standing around, even they felt bad. Even they couldn’t believe that he just came in there and did that. He talked to us like we did them wrong.

“My friends were like ‘This is Jabee! If he tweets about this, it’s going to go crazy!’ and he was like ‘I don’t care, I know who he is!’ I’ve never felt like that. Years ago when I first started, especially when hip-hop wasn’t like it is now in the city, you’d deal with stuff like that when trying to get a show or stuff like that downtown, but that’s not a usual thing that happens anymore. I was like, after everything I’ve done, in this city and for this city, I couldn’t believe what was happening. There’s nothing they can do to make it better.  KSBI shows programs like ‘Meet the Browns’ and other Tyler Perry shows, and it’s like, it’s not real, it’s fake. I hate to play that discrimination card because I’m black and because I rap, but I gave that man every opportunity to say it wasn’t and he didn’t. We didn’t mess up, they did. There was no common courtesy or professionalism.”

KSBI-52 still has yet to release a statement.

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OKLAHOMA CITY — One of the most popular and beloved musicians in Oklahoma City—and recent Emmy winner—Jabee Williams, issued a rather shocking statement from his Twitter (@mynameisJabee) and Facebook around noon today.

“Sorry I won’t be on @KSBI52 @OklahomaLive today. There was an “oversight” on the fact I was black and a rapper and got asked to leave. It was a blatant form of discrimination; we were treated and talked to so rudely that we thought it was a joke. We had been there and set up the full band and a guy named Tim said he had to ask us to leave. Their station was going in a new direction and he couldn’t have me on.”

Red Dirt Report has reached out to Williams and is currently awaiting a statement.

Oklahoma Live! is KSBI 52’s afternoon news and entertainment show hosted by Abby Broyles and Drew Schroeder, commonly featuring a local performer or band to play throughout the show. When called, a representative for Oklahoma Live! said that their President and CEO Vince Orza is “currently out of the building, but they are currently investigating and will release a statement shortly.”