Local radio station B95 airs “Homegrown”, a weekly program which plays music from local hip hop, R&B, and pop artists every Sunday night from 9:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. The show got its start in 2004 when Greg Hoffman from the Juice Crew Morning show and DJ John Magic proposed the idea of creating a platform for the talent of the Central Valley to be heard.
DJ Kay Rich, added a new aspect to the show.
“Now it’s actually a mix show so not only are we playing the records, I’m live in the mix,” says Kay Rich.
Anyone can submit music to be played on the show. The station’s only requirements for submissions are a clean, mastered mp3 version of the song, there must  instrumentals must be on the mp3 and an artist biography. Submitted music can be sent to [email protected]. On the B95 website, http://www.b95forlife.com, listeners can vote for what songs they want to hear on Sunday’s show.
Kay Rich says that the Central Valley talent should think of the Homegrown show as a stepping-stone in their musical career and a way to break into the music industry. He says the West Coast radio stations are not playing enough of the music being created at home.
“We’re not playing our music. We need to really support our own talent,” said Rich.
The Homegrown section gets the most visits on the B95 website. Rich says, “That’s a big accomplishment. That’s due to the Central Valley talent, the artists’ fans, family, and friends.”
FCC student Fernando Mariscal produces his own hip hop beats.
“I don’t just listen to hip hop. I listen to lots of different genres. I like oldies, 80s music, dubstep. I’ll try to make a dubstep song but in the end it turns into a hip hop beat with dubstep influences.”
Although Mariscal has been a listener of the Homegrown show, it wasn’t until being approached about this article that he was inspired to submit some of his own music.
“There are some horrible songs out there, songs about nothing. I like music that has meaning. There are lots of rappers, or emcee’s, that are hidden under the glamour of mainstream music. They don’t have the money to get exposed so they have to struggle to find ways to be heard,” says Mariscal.
FCC student Leonardo Torres, an emcee, has been rapping and freestyling since he was 14.  His cousins exposed him to underground hip hop like Immortal Technique and Jedi Mind Tricks and Golden Age groups like Dilated Peoples, Living Legends and Wu-tang Clan.
“The music that is getting radio play now is all about letting people know how much you have; 24-inch tires, all the girls, money,” Torres says.
Torres explains that with Fresno’s current problems of police brutality, high levels of concentrated poverty, unemployment and the cost of higher education rising dramatically. “Rapping about how much money you can throw around does not reflect the city’s reality,” Torres says.
So why hip hop? Torres, Mariscal, and Kay Rich say the same: self-expression. Torres says it is a way to “express yourself. Exercise your brain. It’s a way to release tension. A way to communicate.”
Emerging in the midst of the 1970s economic recession, hip hop was a subculture that has risen to be a permanent fixture of contemporary pop culture. Although seen by many in mainstream white America as a passing fad, its message resonated with the public. It was a voice for the voiceless. Both Leonardo Torres and Fernando Mariscal indicate that there is still a need for the stories of the underground, stories of life in low-income communities of color. The trend of the current mainstream is focused on the illusive reality of celebrity, fame and fortune.
The Homegrown show invites Central Valley talent to share the work of creating their home and take back the airwaves.  Rappers, singers, producers, promoters; here is the chance to tell a true story about yourselves. Here is a chance to support local art and demand the creative, clever, and honest stories about this place and time to be told. Tune in.