Source: Jason Koerner / Getty
Once again the NYPD has intervened in a Rolling Loud concert and gotten rappers taken off the lineup. Drill Rappers have been targeted this time around and removed from the bill.
A few years after the NYPD had acts like Casanova, Pop Smoke, Don Q and others dropped from Rolling Loud, Variety is reporting that the boys in blue are once again dictating who gets to perform at the annual concert. Drill Rappers Sha EK, 22Gz and Ron Suno have been removed from this weekend’s festivities at Citi Field in Queens, New York.
Interestingly enough the request is said to have come from controversial Mayor, Eric Adams, who loves rubbing elbows with Hip-Hop superstars but doesn’t seem to take too kind to the latest iteration of the music style.
Speaking to Variety, Sha Ek’s manager, Stanley “Noodles” Davis, was baffled by the NYPD’s decision, especially since his client has no criminal history. As he pointed out, the Warner Music Group signee has changed his life around. He recently landed at No. 1 on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart and was able to buy his first house. Davis said when EK got the news, it was “pure devastation.”
Though Sha EK may not have a criminal history, NY Drill Rappers such as 22Gz have seemingly been engulfed in all kinds of violence for a while now, and of course the NYPD will use any excuse to keep such acts off the stage and just lump all of these rappers in the same category of potential for violence.
“He was like, ’Damn. I just can escape where I come from,’” Davis said. “Son of immigrants. Only 19. Kicked out of school. Lost his Dad to Covid. Now, out of nowhere, the mayor and NYPD says, ‘Oh, he’s not allowed to perform.’”
Unfortunately the NYPD still feels that letting these rappers perform would ultimately lead to violence somehow and naturally Rolling Loud honored their requests to drop the acts from their lineup card. Imagine the NYPD was taking these kinds of actions back in 2003? 50 Cent and G-Unit would’ve never been able to perform in New York City at any big concert venue.
Luckily, at the very least, Rolling Loud will indeed still be paying these acts and letting them walk away with the bag they were promised. Still, money can’t buy the kind of promotion that performing at an event like this could bring to one’s career, and the NYPD just cost these rappers something that they won’t be able to recoup from for the time being.
Questioned Davis: “He can’t perform in his own backyard because you think he might be an issue? On what bias? … Of all the shit going on in New York City, you’re going to say drill music is the problem? Ninety-percent of us have criminal records! It’s hip-hop.”
What do y’all think of the NYPD getting acts dropped from Rolling Loud? Let us know in the comments section below.
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