LONG ISLAND – August 4th, 2003 — The media propaganda hype would have you believe that hip hop music is cool. According to the media doing drugs and being a gangster is cool too. Apparently these days, the price of being cool, is deadly. A Long Island man who went to a Medford bar to listen to hip-hop music and hang out with friends was killed in a brawl that began inside the bar and spilled outside, authorities said yesterday.

Robert Love, 25, of Washington Avenue in Mastic, was shot at round 2:30 a.m. yesterday in front of the mostly black Bar Kar on Suffolk County Road 101, police said.

Family members say they heard that Love died trying to help a friend. “A friend of his was in an altercation with somebody and his friend needed help,” said Love’s sister, Nedra. “He was a good guy. He was always looking out for his friends.” Nedra Love said her brother wasn’t looking for trouble. “They say it was his friend’s fight,” she said. Nedra called her brother a fun-loving person who was always smiling. She said he was a family man who cared deeply about his seven children. “Now they’re all left behind, no daddy,” she said. Love worked at a Meineke in Riverhead and lived with his fiancée, Latishia Diego.

Police said the crowd that was at the bar that night was heavily promoted by HOT 97 FM. At least two shots were fired outside the bar, and the killing is still under investigation.