TC Hip-Hop Awards plagued with Taser-fueled violence

By Reed Fischer Mon., Jan. 23 2012 at 12:30 PM

A still from Friday night's brawl at the TC Hip-Hop Awards.

What a difference 48 hours can make in the life of the Twin Cities hip-hop community. Sunday night welcomed a positive showcase of local talent headlined by I Self Devine, but Friday night's sixth annual TC Hip-Hop Awards proved to follow a now-familiar theme of violence during its event at First Avenue's Mainroom. This, of course, stirred commenters on a blog regarding the 2010 melee, and raises serious questions about how sustainable an event can be with these types of distractions.

Footage of the fisticuffs, which includes audible Taser fire, exists here:

The 2011 running of the event included a "minor scuffle," according to our reviewer Jack Spencer, but generally the focus stayed on the vibrant local scene that needs no introduction anymore. Regarding last year's event, Spencer remarked, "I do think the separation in the local rap scene is unfortunate and it's great just seeing all the people who support homemade hip-hop music in the same room. But the fractured nature of the scene seems like it made it hard for people to get into the event as a whole." And arguably a fractured scene is the only one that would allow for this type of grandstanding by some selfish audience members in the future.

After the fight was cleared from the dancefloor, Amplified Life's Larry Lucio Jr. says that they kept the night moving. "We recapped the positive things that had happened the prior several hours that had passed without incident, and moved on," he says. "We must have kept performing and kept artists onstage giving out awards for what felt like another hour." Then, he saw First Avenue staff walk past him backstage, and told TC Hip-Hop Awards founder David "DEPth" Powell that the police wanted to end the show early. The fighting had reportedly continued outside the club after the violent patrons were ejected, and that's what raised the attention of law enforcement. Things ended peacefully, but Lucio was disappointed with the amount of disrespect the crowd showed toward the venue. Hear his entire account here:

Recap of 6th Annual Twin Cities Hip Hop Awards at First Avenue by AmplifiedLife. Uploaded with SoundCloud iPhone

According to the Current, all TC Hip Hop Award winners from the 2012 event will be recapped this evening on KMOJ's Tite at Nite between 7 and 10 p.m., and this includes the folks who didn't get the opportunity to receive their awards on Friday.

Tags:

Amplified Life, First Avenue Mainroom, TC Hip-Hop Awards

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Couch

Can a list of winners be found anywhere?

Hey now, that's not very nice!

there are no winners in hip hop

Sparky

Gosh, when was the last time the cops had to bust a gathering of the hipster-douche subculture? Or the rockabillys. Or the classic rock folk.

Hey now, that's not very nice!

hahaha, agreed. and funny!

Jeff

Could you please explain the "fractured nature of the scene".I thought the Rhymesayers collective controls the Twin Cities hip-hop scene (if you are to believe CP's coverage)

BuildCommunity

There is the "hiphop" side of Twin Cities HipHop (Rhymesayers, Doomtree, etc etc etc) and then there is the "rap" side (SP Style etc).

Unfortunately there seems to be a lot of drug money washed through the rap side which leads to a lot of sub-par emcees that have something to prove.

Not everyone on the rap side is horrible and not everyone on the hiphop side is awesome, but the scene is most certainly 'fractured'.

Hey now, that's not very nice!

It's all awful. End of discussion.

Slim Chance

That's a real bad look. Hip-hop is way bigger than this. People that don't know much about the scene watch a video like this and confirm the negative image of a culture they know little of. Its a shame, but we keep building.

Michelle Bachmann

You put a 1000 kids in a room and serve them booze you will get a fight. I was a punk rocker in my youth and I grew up in a small town so I know the secret to starting a fight. Does City Pages want to know it?

Young Men (any race) + Booze + Girls = Fights!

Research

Yup. It's winter and people were packed wall to wall. I've been to Soundset for the last four years open to close and haven't seen a fight. It basically comes down to what's said above + cold outside and packed people inside. Bar fights tend to happen more often anywhere during the winter.

Assistanteditor23

So what about every other awards show that doesn't result in violence? Or sports events with 15 to 35 thousand attendees? Seems to be a pattern at the TC hip-hop awards, not anywhere else.

Assistanteditor23

Jesus man, way to devolve into insults and aggression. No wonder no one listens when you make an otherwise interesting point, because you jump straight to attack mode. I wasn't suggesting that hip-hop is a particular instigator of violence, or that these fights have any kind of social or racial implication. I was only pointing out that you're argument was too simplistic to actually be a defense of this event, because people gather in large numbers and drink very often without escalating into violence.

But instead you make random assumptions, insult me, and imply I'm a racist because I had the audacity to question something you wrote. Grow up. If you want people to take your opinions seriously, maybe you should talk to them like an adult.

Michelle Bachmann

See what is funny about that is you obviously don't pay attention to sports if you think sporting events are free from violence. Do you remember the Giants fan that was put into a coma by two LA Dodger fans? That only happened like a year ago but I'm guessing you don't do much thinking or remembering. I'm curious if you've ever heard of parents beating other parents up over youth sports? Does that mean sports causes violence or that violent idiots like sports? Thank you for proving my point that people that think rap is some magic violence creating thing are stupid. Rap is just one genre of aggresive cocky music that appeals to young aggresive men. If you put 1000 young men in a room and give them drinks you will see someone get punched. Rap just gets called out more because its a black genre of music and the media hopes a story that makes black people look bad will get on The Drudge Report so a million racists read it.