{"id":800528,"date":"2019-10-20T07:30:23","date_gmt":"2019-10-20T13:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=901144"},"modified":"2019-10-20T07:30:23","modified_gmt":"2019-10-20T13:30:23","slug":"rolling-loud-and-the-nypd-pulled-5-rappers-from-festival-the-repercussions-are-only-beginning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/music-news\/rolling-loud-and-the-nypd-pulled-5-rappers-from-festival-the-repercussions-are-only-beginning\/","title":{"rendered":"Rolling Loud and the NYPD Pulled 5 Rappers From Festival. The Repercussions Are Only Beginning"},"content":{"rendered":"
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On October 12th and 13th, five New York City rappers \u2014 Pop Smoke<\/a>, Casanova<\/a>, Don Q<\/a>, Sheff G<\/a>, and 22gz<\/a> \u2014 were scheduled to perform at Rolling Loud<\/a>, the popular rap festival that was finally making its debut in the birthplace of hip-hop<\/a> after dominating Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Miami. But three days before their appearance at Queens\u2019 Citi Field, festival organizers received a letter from NYPD Assistant Chief Martin Morales, citing each performer as \u201cpublic safety concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe above listed performers have been associated with recent acts of violence citywide,\u201d Morales wrote in the letter, dated October 9th. \u201cThe New York City Police Department believes if these individuals are allowed to perform, there will be a higher risk of violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Saturday, the first day of the festival, Karen Civil<\/a>, an influential hip-hop digital marketer, shared a photo of the NYPD\u2019s letter, alerting fans and the general public. Each listed rapper was subsequently removed from the Rolling Loud lineup<\/a>, with no reason given as to why these particular artists were deemed a higher risk compared to other festival performers. Tariq Cherif, a co-founder of Rolling Loud, wrote on Twitter<\/a> that all artists would receive their booking fees in full and receive offers to perform at future Rolling Loud events in other locations. \u201cAll the public sees is the letter,\u201d Cherif wrote<\/a>. \u201cWay more happened behind closed doors. If we want [Rolling Loud] to return to NYC, we have no choice but to comply. That\u2019s the position we\u2019re in.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The long-term financial and social repercussions of the NYPD and Rolling Loud\u2019s decision are still unfolding. It\u2019s unclear why the festival waited two days to inform the affected artists about the NYPD letter. For Don Q (a signee at A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie\u2019s Highbridge the Label) and his team, the news came far too late. According to Michael \u2018Emm\u2019 Acheampong-Boateng, A Boogie\u2019s co-manager and COO of Highbridge, Rolling Loud contacted them about the NYPD\u2019s stance on Friday evening.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf [Rolling Loud] let us know earlier in the week, we would have been able to employ some kind of strategy to try to get them to reverse that stance.\u201d Emm said. \u201cWhen it comes down like that, Friday evening, close of business, there isn\u2019t much you can do about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was done purposefully on a Friday evening when there isn\u2019t much recourse that you can have to combat that,\u201d Emm claims. \u201cIt was quiet. Everything was cool and then late Friday evening after the close of business there\u2019s a letter circulating that they\u2019re petitioning Rolling Loud to remove those five artists off a show. When you do it like that, even if you want to get lawyers involved and see if you can try to petition or anything, it\u2019s hard to do on a Friday evening going into the weekend. It was done that way so there would be no recourse. The weekend\u2019s over. The show\u2019s over. Everything\u2019s done and everybody\u2019s on to the next thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

A source with knowledge of the festival agreed that Rolling Loud organizers waited until close of business Friday to tell artists\u2019 camps they were no longer on the lineup; a move that hampered any chance of recourse. \u201cWe had zero time. They didn\u2019t give us any options,\u201d the source said. \u201cIt\u2019s wasn\u2019t like we could make a phone call to the legal department of NYPD and talk to them about this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rolling Loud organizers declined multiple requests for comment from Rolling Stone<\/em>. A rep for the NYPD did not reply to multiple requests for comment.<\/p>\n

Founded in 2015 by Matt Zingler and Cherif, Rolling Loud was initially home to lower- and mid-tier rappers that were beginning to bubble up to the mainstream on platforms like SoundCloud. The festival soon ballooned to dominate hip-hop, attracting marquee talents like Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole. According to The New York Times<\/em><\/a>, the New York City stop of the festival sold 60,000 tickets for each day of the festival.<\/p>\n

For an upcoming artist like Don Q, opportunities to perform for a crowd of this size are rare. \u201cA lot of people was going to be there,\u201d he tells Rolling Stone<\/em>. \u201cYou get to see a lot of new faces. People get to see you. A lot of your fans get to see you. A lot of exposure. It was something big for the city, especially for a lot of artists that wanted to be involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the NYPD\u2019s letter was written as a request, Emm and the source close to the festival interpreted the letter as a demand. What is clear is that many camps are unhappy with the way both the police and Rolling Loud went about rolling out their decisions.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Rolling Loud] said the police sent the letter to them,\u201d Emm explains. \u201cThey wanted Don and some of the other artists not to perform on the show. They didn\u2019t say they can\u2019t perform; they just requested that they not perform. You have to read between the lines: Rolling Loud needs to be in lockstep with the NYPD in order to have a successful show. When they make a request like that, that\u2019s basically telling Rolling Loud that they can\u2019t perform. If the festival went against the NYPD, they could try to shut down the entire festival or the entire weekend. Or they\u2019ll never be able to come back to New York City again. It would be a catastrophic thing for them. They had to capitulate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The source with knowledge of the festival suggests both the NYPD and Rolling Loud are to blame for a poorly handled situation. \u201cBottom line, it\u2019s supposed to be a hip-hop festival, right?\u201d the source says. \u201cIt should be standing up for hip-hop. When you have to do what\u2019s right, that\u2019s the hardest thing to do. It\u2019s very easy to go with booking acts and putting them up \u2026 If [Cheriff] says that he wouldn\u2019t have gotten permits for next year, he should be fighting that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NYPD offered few hints as to why it targeted only five up-and-coming New York City acts on the Rolling Loud lineup. The rappers included in the list have experienced run-ins with police in the past, but it\u2019s uncertain if their previous arrests factored into the decision for law enforcement to target them.<\/p>\n

In April 2018<\/a>, Casanova\u2019s crew was the target of a shooting at Brooklyn\u2019s Barclays Center, orchestrated by members of rapper 6ix9ine\u2019s entourage. In August<\/a> of that same year, Casanova was arrested on robbery charges for his connection with an attack at a Manhattan diner, which \u201cleft a woman unconscious and bleeding on the floor,\u201d according to NBC New York<\/a>.  In 2017, Don Q was arrested for possessing a gun and marijuana during a traffic stop. (Rolling Stone<\/em> reached out to both Casanova\u2019s and Don Q\u2019s reps on the status of those cases, but have not received updates at this time.)<\/p>\n

Pop Smoke was recently released from a diversion program stemming from a weapons charge that\u2019s since been dismissed, according to The New York Times<\/em><\/a>. When Sheff G was in high school, he was arrested and went on probation after firing gunshots at Brooklyn\u2019s Kings Plaza, reported Pitchfork<\/a>. In 2017, 22Gz was arrested for murder in Miami before the charges were ultimately dropped<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been out of the system for a while and still wasn\u2019t able to perform at Rolling Loud,\u201d 22Gz wrote in a statement to Rolling Stone<\/em>. \u201cAll of the artists that got banned have put our pain in the booth and in our music. I wasn\u2019t convicted of my charges and I\u2019ve steered clear of any trouble since then. I definitely won\u2019t let this stop me from doing what I do.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the NYPD\u2019s decision appears to be having repercussions beyond the Rolling Loud lineup: Future shows by some of the five acts have already been postponed or potentially cancelled. A December 4th Casanova show at New York venue SOBs is no longer listed on their website, while a Pop Smoke show at Sony Hall was recently postponed. (Reps for SOBs and Sony Hall did not return requests for comment.)<\/p>\n

Don Q and his team are adamant that he\u2019s never had an issue with the NYPD at a show since they began performing in 2016. Emm goes as far as to say that he wants to \u201cfoster a better relationship,\u201d with the NYPD going forward, even if he\u2019s clear that the police\u2019s decision sets a bad precedent for one of his ascending artists.<\/p>\n

Don Q just wants a chance to prosper in his new career. \u201cThey can\u2019t be doing this to us,\u201d the rapper says. \u201cWe worked to get out of this situation. We came from these situations where we had violent pasts or people went to jail or whatever happened in the past. Now we\u2019re trying to change our life, and do the right things and all they\u2019re doing is holding us back. They\u2019re not making anything better. They\u2019re not even giving us a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On October 12th and 13th, five New York City rappers \u2014 Pop Smoke, Casanova, Don Q, Sheff G, and 22gz \u2014 were scheduled to perform at Rolling Loud, the popular rap festival that was finally making its debut in the birthplace of hip-hop after dominating Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Miami. But three days before […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-800528","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-22 05:30:04","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800528\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}