NYPD Requests that Five Artists Not Perform at Rolling Loud Music Festival
The Rolling Loud music festival has been asked by The City of New York Police Department not to have five music acts that had been scheduled to perform this weekend at City Field in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in New York City, as safety concerns for those attending have been raised. In a letter from Assistant Chief Martin Morales to the Insomniac LLC and the founders of Rolling Loud, the department had expressed safety concerns based on historical information on the hip hop acts scheduled to appear over the weekend.
Popsmoke, Casanova, Sheff G, Don Q, and 22GZ are the artists named in the letter. The organizers of the event have complied, and, according to Tariq Cherif, co-founder of Rolling Loud on Twitter, they have agreed to pay the named artists their booking fees and has extended an invitation to those artists to perform at future Rolling Loud festivals.
Rolling Loud has quickly become the premier festival for hip hop’s biggest names. In the sold-out inaugural event taking place this weekend in New York, organizers expect to have over 60,000 people attending the festival over the two-day weekend with headliners Travis Scott, Meek Mill, Wu Tang Clan and other notable hip hop artists all scheduled to perform.
Citing a “history of violence,” the New York Police Department made the formal request to the organizers based on several factors, including social media posts and information gathered by the department that raised safety concerns, prompting the request.The music festival is no stranger to controversy: in April, rapper NBA Youngboy, who had been scheduled to perform at the Miami festival, was shot in another part of Miami. Hip hop superstar Kodak Black was arrested before he was scheduled to perform in Miami after attempting to purchase a firearm and was charged with making a false statement. Lil Wayne, who was also supposed to perform at Rolling Loud Miami, decided not to perform after being searched by police.
