Sunday, October 31, 2004

Jay-Z vs. R Kelly




I'm now going to be waiting for the Jay-Z/R Kelly dis raps to start coming out on the DJ mix CD circuit. The Jay-Z vs. Nas beef has nothing on this one! So, I will do my best using various sources to piece this whole drama together:

From All Hip Hop:“I was threatened earlier,” Kelly claimed. “[Somebody said], ‘don’t come to Madison Square Garden.’ I’ve never been scared of anything but God, so I came anyway. It was nobody I knew. It happens. I travel with three kids and a wife of mine. During Jay’s part I saw a dude looking hard at me.”
Kelly revealed that 40 or more police officers searched the area. After a sweep of the area, he attempted to perform with Ja Rule, but was pepper sprayed by an unnamed individual as he approached the stage.

Note: Funniest thing is your at a rap concert, so of course dudes are "looking hard at you". They're looking hard at everybody! R Kelly is starting to sound like Michael Jackson.

From All Hip Hop:According to Kelly’s publicist, Kelly and two bodyguards was pepper sprayed by members of Jay-Z’s entourage, forcing him to go to the hospital.

From The New York Post:"The real story is that [the pepper-spray canister] hit the floor and busted," said Jay-Z's security guard, Crush. No one has been arrested for the incident that sent Kelly to the hospital.

From NME:Jeff Sharp, a contractor with tour promoter Atlanta World Wide Touring, confirmed that Kelly had been removed from the tour, but would not comment on the reason.

From the Chicago Sun Times:Despite being pepper-sprayed by a member of Jay-Z's entourage as he tried to return to the stage in Madison Square Garden last night, Kelly declared he was 'ready, willing, and able' to continue the tour," Kelly's spokesman said. "Jay-Z, however, refused to perform, as a result of which the promoter canceled the tour."
"We had to cancel Milwaukee, then we had to cancel Connecticut; we canceled St. Louis and then we canceled Cincinnati," Jay-Z said. "This is just disrespectful, man. Everybody better grab their 'Best of Both Worlds' albums, because that's it. It's too much. Certain things aren't meant to be."

The funniest bit I found was about how R Kelly was serving McDonalds in St Louis from the Chicago Sun Times:

More problems arose during a concert Oct. 23 at the Savvis Center in St. Louis. That show was about two-thirds through when Kelly jumped off the stage, ran to the back of the arena and exchanged heated words with production technicians. When Kelly returned, he said good night and stormed off, leaving Jay-Z to finish the concert alone. Kelly then drove to a local McDonald's and spent the next few hours serving fast food from the drive-through window, his spokesmen confirmed.

My only thought is, what a way to promote your next album! Actually, picking up a Happy Meal for your daughter and getting it from R Kelly is kinduv a scary thought.

The real victims of all this drama.....

From the New York Times: Mr. Kelly's decision to cut the show short on Friday was not well received by audience members, some of them having paid more than $100 for a ticket. "I went in the bathroom and cried," said Dee Dee Duncan, a single mother of two from Harlem and an R. Kelly fan. "I worked hard for that $102."

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