5 hours ago
2
Right now, Black Star, the classic rap duo of Talib Kweli and Yasiin Bey (formerly known as Mos Def) are touring Europe, celebrating their 30th anniversary as a group. There have been complications. As we previously posted, the Nov. 11 tour kickoff show in London started late because Bey's flight was delayed, and he addressed the audience's boos during the performance: "There are no prisoners here. There's no refund policy. The doors work both ways." After we posted about the London show, Talib Kweli wrote in and took issue with our story, which was based on live video and Reddit accounts. We've included his account below. Since the London show, there have been some further incidents, as well.
Later, TMZ posted a video of Talib Kweli making a heated speech security guards at Black Star's Nov. 15 show in Manchester. He was upset that venue staff walked onstage when the venue was just reaching its curfew, and he forcefully stated that the venue wouldn't have given the same treatment to a white artist. Kweli sent a statement to TMZ about what happened. Here it is, in full:
Black Star was at the O2 Manchester venue at 8:30PM for a 9PM set time, with an agreed to 11PM curfew. At 8:50PM the venue decided to push the show time back to 9:15PM without any input from Black Star, which made us end the show later than planned. At exactly 10:58PM as Black Star was performing our final song for the night, I witnessed venue staff on the side of the stage, harassing Black Star staff about the 11PM curfew.
At exactly 11PM, as Black Star was saying good night to the crowd, (we had completed our last song by then) someone from the venue came onto our stage to chastise us and demand we leave the stage. This is very disrespectful and not standard. You don't walk on an artist’s stage during a show. I'm sure they would not have treated a white, UK artist this way, especially when we hadn't disrespected the curfew at all.
When I came off stage, I asked to speak to the man who came on the stage. I was instead greeted by aggressive security guards who began to disrespect me immediately, so I argued with them and held them accountable for how they treated us as guests who helped the venue make money. O2 Manchester called security on their main act for the night to enforce us leaving the stage at 11PM, even though we were already in the process of leaving the stage at that exact time.
Fan accounts and all other accounts besides the venue, who has lied about their disrespect and refused to apologize, will back my account up. The only reason we even came close to the curfew is because the venue pushed the show back, not us. Even if we had gone over the curfew (we did not), there are protocols in place for this scenario. If the venue feels the artist needs to be told something while performing, they are to ask artist managers to relay the message, not just walk on stage during our show. If a scenario presents itself where the artist is still going over curfew after being warned, then you fine the artist.
What you are never supposed to do is walk on stage during the show. You are also never supposed to call security on the artist. The security is supposed to be protecting the artist, not treating the artist like some unwelcome criminal. O2 Manchester owes Black Star, Black Star management and Black Star fans an apology for the way they treated us.
Black Star were supposed to perform in Alhambra tonight, but the venue postponed that show a day before it was set to take place. In their French-language Instagram post announcing the postponement, the venue blamed "force majeure," or unavoidable events. When Talib Kweli wrote in to take issue with our post about the London show, I asked for his account of what happened, as well as the Manchester and Alhambra tour stops. Here's his response, posted in full at his request:
Regarding the postponement, there is an official statement from the venue that I will refer you to.
Regarding the TMZ story, it contains an official statement from me that details exactly what happened, I will refer you to that.
Regarding London, first I would like to address the issues I had with your reporting. In this social media age, it's very easy to get caught supporting misinformation if you're getting it from social media, but I expect more from you as a journalist and from Stereogum as a site that covers our culture. I would expect a journalist to find a more credible source than random anonymous Reddit posters before posting a story, not after. I do not think that is too much to ask for.
Your article says I was onstage for a half hour playing records before Yasiin showed up. That wasn't me. That was our DJ, Big Von from KMEL. He looks nothing like me. You took the word of a Reddit poster who doesn't even know what the members of Black Star look like. Even worse, that Reddit poster who was your source was corrected and added an edit to their post, saying it wasn't me.
You wrote "a Redditor says Yasiin didn't apologize." That's a lie. Not only did Yasiin apologize for being late as soon as we hit the stage, he also thanked the crowd for their patience and expressed his gratitude for them being fans. He didn't do this once, he did this several times thru the night.
Yasiin's flight was from Barcelona not Boston, which doesn't actually matter except for the fact that it's another example of you trusting what some random Redditor posts instead of ascertaining the facts.
While Yasiin did address the boos, as he should, not once did he display a shred of anger. Quite the opposite. He wasn't angry at all. In my opinion, he was very gracious considering how disrespectful the booing was.
This was a show that started about an hour late due to travel delays. This kind of thing happens in the touring world, it's not some sort of intentional offense. We love performing. We are not out here trying to "not" perform.
The show was scheduled to start at 9, we hit at 1015 and finished at around 1110PM. We did 55 minutes of the hour we were contracted for and we finished 10 minutes after curfew. That's not egregious in any way, shape or form. People out here acting like Yasiin shot someone. It's an overreaction. We are human beings, not jukeboxes. Shit happens, it's very hard to travel country to country to perform and always be on time for every show. If this work we do was easy, everyone would do it. They don't because it's not easy, it's very hard.
With that said, as a fan of shows, I appreciate and understand why some in the audience would be frustrated, especially working class people who spent money on tickets, had to arrange baby sitters, who had to catch the tube before too late, who had to leave because they need to be up for work the next day. This is not an optimal experience for anyone involved, not for me, not for Yasiin, not for the fans. But we do the best we can with what we have, and that's all we can do. The reality is, you don't pay for a guaranteed good time when you go to a show. You pay for the attempt. In my view, we stuck that landing. We did almost an hour, we brought out local legend Black Twang, we brought out Common, and once we hit stage, we put our entire being into that show.
A journalist should only operate on facts, not presumption. Presumption is the opposite of journalism. Yet in still, your article contains a sentence that reads "Presumably near the end of the show, Bey told the crowd that the group had "delivered" and told them to just be grateful."
This sentence confused me. It's your job to report not to "presume." Did Yasiin say we delivered? Yes. I agree. We did deliver. Did he say "just be grateful?" No. He didn't tell anyone to "just" do anything. Your presumption is incorrect.
Black Star should be grateful to the fans, and we are, which is why both Yasiin and I said as much, more than once, on that stage. This relationship works both ways, though. The fans should be grateful to us, and true fans are. This is not a controversial thing to say.
As much as I dislike Trump, and I do appreciate your attempt to give Yasiin a bit of benefit of doubt at the end of your article, this situation had nothing to do with him or the shutdown.
Thank you for responding, thank you for your time and I only asked that if you edit my words it only be for clarity, not to save space.
English (US) · 