I’m not a festival person… it’s too many people in one section, the prices are super high, you’re outside the entire day, and half the artists on the line-up are in the way of the people I actually came to see. But if there’s one festival I would ignore all of these issues, it would be Rolling Loud.
The Rolling Loud festival features rap artists from all sub-genres of rap music. Every lineup for the past few years has featured an artist that is at the top of their game.
The festival has passed and unfortunately, I wasn’t there to give you a recap of how great it was. But I can tell you that the New York Police Department had a hand in the setlist this year.
Hosted in New York City at Citi Field, those in charge of the festival banned artists from performing at the show after receiving a letter from the NYPD calling for the acts to be prevented from performing.
Karen Civil, social media influencer and strategist, posted the letter on her twitter page. The New York Police Department argued the acts were banned because they were known to have affiliation with violence and banning them was in the public’s best safety interests.
Those five artists that weren’t allowed to perform were: Casanova, Pop Smoke, Sheff G, Don Q and 22GZ.
Among those five, Casanova and Don Q took their Instagram page to express how they felt about them being banned from the festival.
Casanova wrote, “My last felony conviction was 2007. I lost everything I ever loved and I’m STILL losing…It’s unfair and unfortunate that my past, which I’ve dealt with legally and personally, continues to stigmatize me and my career as a recording artist…I will continue to fight against biases and advocate for those facing this same issue.”
Don Q said, “I just found out I can’t perform at @RollingLoud tomorrow in my home city due to misinformation … I hope the city will wake up and see that canceling me and my fellow NY artists isn’t the solution.”
This is one of those times where I’m really grateful for social media and I’m happy some of the artists spoke out about their feelings towards being banned. I don’t think the police should have a say in what acts are allowed to perform. Also, I don’t think NYPD pulled these artists from the festival due to safety concerns. These festivals have security to protect the safety of the fans.
This was a power move.
The NYPD wanted to prove they had the power to prevent artists from performing and what better place to show this than at one of the biggest festivals in the country. These artists aren’t banned from performing in New York and they were still paid for the festival despite not performing.
Rock and country music festivals are way crazier than Rolling Loud. But once again, the rappers and rap/hip-hop music is being policed on a grand scale.
I wonder why…