Reflection: Irving Plaza Shooting

Since birth, Hip Hop has been faced with negative connotations and slander. Gang bangers,  thugs, violent words, are just a few phrases that many throw around to give my culture a bad rep. Over time I would hope to see progression and growth but it seems like we’re still in the same place we started in.

Last night a friend and I were able to attend the TI concert at Irving Plaza in midtown New York. What we planned as a fun and enjoyable night on the town turned into a scene from a horror movie. The crowd was very diverse; Whites, Blacks, Asians, of all ages. To my surprise the medium age for the crowd their was about thirty-five, and older. I was a very small fish in a pond of sharks. Since I’m pretty small, my friend and I decided to kick it towards the back of the venue, and use the steps of the VIP area, as a stool so we could see the stage. Like most concerts we waited for hours to see TIP come out. Doors opened at 7 o’clock PM, yet ten o’clock rolls around and there is still no TI.

The music stopped, and there was a change in DJ. A few minutes later above me I hear gunshots but it blended with the music so I had just assumed it was base from the music that was playing, when all of a sudden I hear footsteps running. So I’m thinking…man some drunken people went and got into a fight. When I hopped on the step of the VIP to take a look at the stage I see people ambushing the stage, running to the exit, and even worse running in my direction towards the back exit. My friend grabs me and we run towards an exit but we are trapped in the middle of a stampede.

Since the door was congested we were pretty much at a standstill for one point and time. My friend peaked her head out of one exit and saw a man with his face covered in blood. At the point she started screaming “we gotta go, we gotta go” and then a man came to the main floor and started shooting again right in front of us. At this point I was scared to leave, scared to stay. Thankfully my friend was able to make her way through and drags me  out along with her.

Blessed, and thankful that no bullets hit me, I give God all the glory. As I walked outside I stood with others watching the chaos occur. The ambulance and the NYPD quickly rushed into the venue once it was empty, taking people who were hurt out on stretchers, and trying to block off the roads. It was reported that the shootings occurred because of beef between Brooklyn rapper Troy Ave and another party. Three people were injured and unfortunately one man actually died last night. (Rest in peace)  I find it ridiculous that this venue did not have metal detectors, and on top of  that failed to complete pat down’s or do any type of security check as I entered the venue. That should be mandatory for events like this.

Legends lost- Tupac and Biggie were the most tragic and impactful deaths in the Hip Hop culture. Regardless if you’re from the east coast or west coast their deaths were a loss that we all took as a community. It’s obvious that New York is not the breeding ground for Hip Hop as it use to be in the 90’s but after witnessing last nights behavior I am begging to worry about progression in our community.

In the late 80’s early 90’s there was a Stop the Violence Movement that KRS1 had created to address violence in the hip hop community. To push the movement they created a song entitled “Self Destruction” that featured versus from some of the biggest stars during this time period like Heavy D, Public Enemy, MC Lyte, Dougie Fresh, KRS1, Kool Moe Dee, and a few others. Today the African American community has came along way as far as success in this country, but unity in our culture has always been a problem. We need to demand a call to action. The Stop The Violence Movement was great for the culture back then and is something that I feel like should be reborn to help Hip Hop in it’s time of need.

  Stop the Violence!

“when it’s shot who’s to blame?”
“Headlines, front page, and rap’s the name”
“MC Delight here to state the bottom line”
“That black-on-black crime was way before our time”

-MC Lyte

 

 

Profile and Interview with the Voice of New York Angie Martinez

Q: How did you get J Cole to help you write your book?

A: Well I had my people reach out to get a quote for the back of the book, and he just wrote this amazing, it wasn’t even a quote or a forward it was just his thoughts about my career, and hip hop in general. And he sent it to me, he said he don’t know what is, I just said what I felt and he said I could do whatever I want with it, so we made it the forward. It’s short for a forward it’s about a page and half, but it was perfect, he didn’t need to say anything else.

 Q: How did you get started in radio?

 A: Awhh man, well my mother was in radio, she worked for a jazz station in New York that doesn’t exists anymore. I was 16 and I was sent to live in Miami with my aunt, and I started working at a radio station down their. When I turned 18 I moved back to New York, and I started interning at HOT97. At the time they were playing straight up 80’s 90’s dance music, and it didn’t matter to me, I was just happy to have an internship but Hip Hop was always my passion. So lucky enough for me I was able to already to be at the station while it was becoming the number one Hip Hop station in New York, you know I was at the right place at the right time. Thank God.

Q: That’s cool, so what advice would you give to someone like me or Nyla who is interested in getting into this field?

A: That’s a great question, I think you just have to figure out what your thing is, its about being honest with your audience first of all, so you know don’t put on to much of a show.

 Q: so what inspired you to write your book?

A: Well when I left HOT and moved to power it really surprised me how much it mattered to people. Not just controversy, but like I felt a lot of love, I’ve always felt a lot of love from the city, but I just really wanted to share what I learned while coming up, because the history of radio is not really well documented. There is so many lessons I learned that I had to share.

 Q: I have a question about some of the lessons you learned, I saw on your Instagram you posted Chapter 5: Tupac and Biggie. Can you touch on that?

A: Awhh man can you imagine? I was about your age, starting my career, and your surrounded by greatness, and your point in a point where you can talk to both of them Big and PAC. And that is when I really realized the power of my voice. Unfortunately that situation was bigger than I was, and everyone knows what happened. But it was devastating and I’m working at a place where I know everybody around them it was awful.

Kickin It With 821

Check out their mini series on youtube called “Welcome to the Lobby” to get some more insight about this group and see what goes on in their daily life.

I was able to sit down with the members of Queen’s own 821; C Black, KK Da Don, and Hoedy to discuss with them how life has changed since dropping their song “Lobby” in May 2015.