 In what is quickly adding up to be a troubling start of the new year, century and millennium, Hip Hop was delivered another hard blow when Juvenile and his Cash Money Millionaires saw their Bay Area concert end up in a riot and total mayhem. All this went down this past Friday Nite at the Oakland Coliseum which is home of the Golden State Warriors and site of the upcoming NBA Allstar Game. Over the years Oakland has garnered notoriety for violence at rap shows which has resulted in the Coliseum not hosting an all out rap show in almost 10 years. Last night had hordes of people running around the venue 'mobbing' on folks. Others were outside the sold out venue bumrushing [crashing] the door...and as quickly as one fight would end another one would began. Stampedes erupted at various times because of threats of gun fire inside the place. There was no actual gunfire, instead it was groups of people throwing folding chairs at each other. The loud clanging of the chairs being tossed sent people panicking because of the gunshot like sound it made. Groups of guys squared off as they lay claim to their respective cities. San Francisco on one side, Richmond on another..Oakland all over. One kid got seriously stomped during the melee while two others were tossed from balconies. There was no word as to the extent of their injuries. Groups of guys hung outside talking on cell phones to their 'peeps' on the inside trying to get the scoop. As the details floated in the stories would be relayed to the folks waiting outside. One group of guys who were rolling about 10 deep, put on black gloves as they rushed up the stairs and into the venue. No doubt they were ready to do battle. For them this wasn't something to run from, it was something to run to.. Me personally, I witnessed one guy who was on a mission to fight a security guard. He was restrained on numerous occasions. The guard in question at first blew his top and then tried to remain calm while homeboy stood inches from his face ready to swing. While this was going on, groups of people rushed through the doors and jumped over the turnstiles and ran through the metal detectors.. Others were running toward the doors in an attempt to get out because of the fighting on the main floor. The concert was cancelled. As I was leaving the venue 12 Alameda sheriff cars swooped down highway 880 to the Coliseum while Oakland PD came out in force wearing riot gear. Not one but two helicopters circled overhead and the entire 880 freeway which is a main artery even at night, was completely closed in both directions resulting in traffic being backed up for miles. There was live 'breaking' news coverage by all the local stations. The stories ranged considerably and no one got it right. One station claimed the Hot Boys and Juvenile were on stage and got scared because the crowd rushed them. This was the reason the concert goers erupted., they told viewers. Another station claimed that no groups even took the stage because of gunshots inside the place. Still another went on and spoke at length how popular Juvenile was and how he gets rushed at concerts all the time. The actual facts are as follows; The concert was being promoted by a team that included Ronald Isley of the Isley Brothers who last week filed for bankruptcy. He took a liking to Juvenile and The Cash Money Millionaires and figured this would be a good investment considering their popularity. From what I was told, this was his first concert he promoted. unfortunately it ended in disaster. The concert featured Ginuwine and Eve who both performed without incident. Comedian AJ Johnson came out and kept the crowd entertained. As is often the case, there was along delay between Eve and Cash Money's set and people got restless. AJ asked the crowd if they were having a good time. He then asked all 12 thousand people in attendance to sit down. At was at that point that a group of guys decided to bumrush the main floor and cause drama. From there on it had a domino effect. Juvenile and Cash Money never took the stage. In fact I'm not even sure they made it into the venue. They had a special treat for Bay Area folks as they had invited E-40 to perform with them. As for the coverage, one of the TV stations saw fit to air a pre-recorded interview with a young brotha who told the world about "Niggas' acting ill and 'hoo riding' the event". A heated phone call to the TV station KPIX channel 5 got me no where with an obviously insensitive news director who refused to have his newscasters apologize for the inappropriate use of the 'N' word during their heavily watched 11 o'clock broadcast. The news director's solution was for me to take my concerns up with the African American reporter who conducted the interview. I had no intention of getting sidetrack since the news director has final say so as to what goes on or doesn't go on his airwaves. I wanted his news team to publicly apologize for the offensive language. It never happened even after they went back to do additional coverage of the 'Hip Hop riot'. I will be making my calls and my presence felt Monday morning. It's bad enough to have Black folks going crazy at a concert, but to have your local, respected professional news team allow the use of the 'N' word during their coverage is just a bit much. If homeboy had said 'shit', 'fuck', 'muthafucka' for any other foul term they would've bleeped it out and if for some reason it slipped through there would have been public apologies. It was a sad day for Hip Hop, a sad day for Black folks and a sad day for the legacy of Dr Martin Luther King who's birthday we celebrate this weekend. Since the incident, I've been contacted by all sorts of news people wanting some insight on to this. The first question I'm asked is why did this happen and what should've been done differently? There is no one reason why all this jumped off. My immediate inclination is to say that you have very few concerts like this where folks from all over come together. The result is that folks who have beef with one another settle their disputes right there and then.. However, upon further thought, such incidents didn't take place during last week's sold out TLC show which took place at the Coliseum. Nor was there drama at the sold out Kings of Comedy Concert last month in which all sorts of ballers and players came out.. So why all the mayhem at the Cash Money concert? Some people say an act like Juvenile attracts a younger unmanageable crowd. But so does Jay-Z and so does Puffy, both have performed here without all the drama. In fact Jay-Z did an all ages show last week and the only problem he had was with people on the VIP list backstage. Not the sold out crowd in the venue. Also Juvenile and his crew have performed in the Bay Area twice before without incident. Both times were at large venues like the Coliseum. So why did violence erupt on this outting? In addition, it wasn't just young kids going buckwyld. Grown men in their mid to late 20 that were fighting and carrying on. The drama wasn't strictly caused by Bay Area youth. Was all this mayhem it due to all the alcohol being consumed? I saw a ton of liquor and beer bottles strewn along the overpass leading to the venue. People were downing alcohol in the parking lots prior to entering the venue. Was everyone so high that they just acted ill? Or is what everyone kept saying at the event..'Black folks just don't know how to act? I'm trying to see if there is a pattern here..
 Historically speaking, as bad as last night's event was, it was nothing compared to the drama that took place at Oakland Coliseum's last Hip Hop concert in 1989. Then MC Hammer was the headliner. Young MC, Kool Moe Dee and Heavy D were on the ticket. Heavy D set things off when he refused to perform until the houselights were shut off. A rowdy group rolling about 30 deep took that opportunity to rush the stage. They ran all over the Coliseum beating people at random. It was awful, because a lot of parents showed up with their kids. Remember this was a Young MC, MC Hammer show. Both acts were at the height of their popularity then. I witnessed parents getting mobbed by this marauding band of youth who decided to wear all Black that night. To see a mother or dad get stomped on in front of their kids was indeed troubling. Most of the 10 thousand people who attended left. That was the Coliseum's last concert. It came on the heals of an equally disruptive NWA concert that pitted LA gangs who were trying to set up shop in the Bay Area and wound up going head to head with local kids from around the way. The result of that were several LA Gang members being found dead the next day...The list of incidents that have taken place at large Bay Area Hip Hop venues has been a long one..Whether it was the disruptive Dogg Pound show from three years ago to the KRS-One show 10 years ago which resulted in a year long moratorium on Bay Area rap shows...The only Bay Area city that has been able to have these large scale shows with successful regularity is San Jose. Much of has to do with all the various agencies from their police department on down to the San Jose Arena and the Mayor's office coming together and being on the same page. Everyone seems to have a vested interest in making sure concerts go on without a hitch. That means that before each event, various community groups are contacted, parole officers are brought in and anyone who has involvement with youth are on hand to lend eyes and ears. Potential trouble makers and gang members are contacted and spoken to before and during the event. Others upon arrival, are put on notice that their activities are being watched by both, law enforcement as well as the community organizations. The City of San Jose also has a zero tolerance policy. If you mess up, you're doing jail time. There are always a generous amount of uniformed officers to ensure this commitment. In San Francisco, steps are taken in terms of the security that is used. Oftentimes you'll find the Nation of Islam, Your Black Muslim Bakery or a large contingent of Samoan security guards who have good community rapport. Just like in San Jose a lot of the drama that has the potential to occur is severely limited. Similar measures may have to be taken in Oakland. Right now, we can only speculate what this latest incident means. It will no doubt be used as the excuse to ban future concerts at least here in the Bay. It may hurt Cash Money who are getting set to do a huge tour with the Ruff Ryders. It certainly hurt Oakland and Bay Area Hip Hop. Overall its a black eye for us as a community. As I mentioned earlier, though it isn't always being echoed publicly, people are definitely saying.. What's up with these Black folks-'cause they sure don't know how to act!.
 It's ironic all this went down on the weekend we celebrate Martin Luther King's birthday. It's ironic that earlier that day I hosted an event of over 2000 Oakland youth who had successfully completed conflict resolution courses. All these youth were brought together and honored. All the politicians from Mayor Jerry Brown to Congresswoman Barbara Lee came out to show their support. All 2000 youth marched and sung songs.. It was really heartwarming. I even joked with the kids by pretending Juvenile was sitting in the back of the room watching them. Everyone reacted by turning around and getting all hyped up. Their enthusiasm was due to the fact that for many Juvenile was their favorite group. Today's newspaper headlines were supposed to be about the terrific progress being made by these Oakland youth. Instead the headlines are focusing on the types crazy conflicts that these kids spent a year learning how to resolve.
 As for Juvenile, Manny Fresh, Lil Wayne and company, when they came to the radio station,they were very personable and very funny. They didn't put on any 'superstar' airs or anything like that. They were down to earth and good natured and basically they came across as nice guys. They brought a sense of excitement and really had everyone appreciating them because they added E-40 to the bill. The Bay Area was definitely feeling them for that...I feel bad that they're gonna get a bad rap over this incident. It's certainly not something they were openly inviting. Well its the year 2000 and a lot of us was hoping for some major changes for the better. Many of us were hoping for brighter tomorrows and for bad things to turn around. Instead we got rap stars up on charges going to court, violence at concerts and pending Draconian laws that are really gonna leave us upended if passed. I guess God has a lot of work for us to do and he ain't letting no one off easy. Let me know what you think mailto:kingdave@sirius.com |