DJ Jazzy Jeff walked off stage in KC last night rather than change the kind of music he was spinning

[proud2BlibKansan]

Another day, another racial controversy at the Power & Light District.

For a year, the black community has been in arms about perceived racism at the entertainment district, a place their tax money helped fund. But it’s always refuted. Every one is welcome at the P&L, the officials say.

Well, those who follow the hip-hop music scene have more to chew on since late Saturday night, when one of hip-hop's icons, DJ Jazzy Jeff, cut short a set of music and left the stage in a dispute over the kind of music his show was spinning.

more . . . http://backtorockville.typepad.com/back_to_rockville/2009/06/questions-about-dj-jazzy-jeffs-short-pl-set.html

[arcadian]

1. Why doesn't the Fresh Prince throw him a bone?

:rofl:

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. He can afford to throw him several

LOL

Seriously, this is a new entertainment district in a revitalized area of downtown. It is managed by an out of town firm that implemented a very controversial dress code. (They also insisted on an open container policy, forcing the city to change an existing ordinance.)

Anyhow, the dress code is obviously aimed at young African Americans. No solid color t-shirts, no sagging pants, no backwards hats, etc. And they enforce it very strictly. If you are Black. A group of my friends, all white in their 50s and 60s, went there one night and each one of us was violating the dress code. I wore a hat backwards. And the security folks said 'Good evening' and let us all walk right in.

My co-worker who is a 20 something Black girl was down there with some friends and one of them got arrested for public intoxication when he tripped on the sidewalk as they were leaving. While the cops were cuffing him, a white girl was puking on the sidewalk and the cops asked her friends if they needed a ride home.

So it is a hotbed of racial controversy and it wouldn't surprise me in the least if they told Jeff he couldn't play hip hop.

I did a search. He had never played KC before and he doesn't have a history of walking off stage in the middle of his set.

This is embarrassing. Between Tiller's murder and this shit, the rest of the country probably thinks a bunch of ignorant hateful racist fools live in this part of the country. Damn.

[arcadian]

3. That sucks. I didn't realize the issue was so charged.

I was trying to make light of his former partnership and it fell flat. :-(

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. I should have posted more of an explanation in my OP

:hi:

[Telly Savalas]

7. I blame Kay Barnes.

While I certainly applaud the goal of revitalizing downtown, the implementation has been a total trainwreck. Rather than outsourcing the development to Cordish, the city should have established it's own urban renewal council that would have organized the redevelopment themselves. I can't imagine such a council doing a worse job than Cordish at completing the project on schedule. Seeing as Kansas City has the best BBQ in the country, maybe they could have got a local BBQ joint in the district instead of putting in a chain restaurant from Minnesota. Maybe they could have worked to get some retail in the area. Maybe they could have got the job done without it being so heavily subsidized by taxpayers. But instead Barnes hired a company which has tried to bully the city at every opportunity.

Even if it was essential that the development be outsourced, Mayor Barnes should have done the due diligence to make sure that we weren't doing business with a bunch of incompetent assholes.

But she didn't, and ultimately we're left with a downtown entertainment district that's run by people who are such fucking dumbasses that they invite a hip-hop DJ as entertainment then gets pissed off when he plays hip-hop.

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. +1

:thumbsup:

[Telly Savalas]

10. Thanks, but it looks like DJ JazzyJeffgate is about to be overshadowed by another story

Here's what the top story on Fox 4 news when I checked a little while ago:

http://www.fox4kc.com/wdaf-fireworks-injury-060809,0,6139514.story

[ColbertWatcher]

11. The Fresh Prince is too busy fighting Xenu. n/t

[floridablue]

4. Dress codes, protests, etc

Killed the BayWatch area of St. Petersburg. Tourists didn't need to put up with it, and locals found somewhere else to go. Shame it can't be worked out a bit better for all sides. P & L District is the best thing for KC in booko years.

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. It's really awesome but I won't go there

And I know lots of people who feel the same way I do. I just can't give my money to businesses that support racist policies.

Bottom line - The city screwed up and gave Cordish way too much power.

[Swede]

9. Oh well.

Go figure.

[hughee99]

12. Some thing's not right, here...

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the article, and I'm not familiar with the venue, but as I'm reading it, the same people (same group of people, anyway) who booked DJ Jazzy Jeff complained about the type of music he plays so much that they had 30 cops ready to take him offstage if he didn't change his set. I'm not disputing anyone's story, but some thing's missing here.

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. They have 30 cops down there every Sat night

The city is just convinced something bad is going to happen.