What should have been a celebratory event last night for Pete Rock and Smif-N-Wessun turned chaotic when the NYPD shut down their ‘Monumental’ album release party.
XXL is reporting that a total of eleven people, including five cops were injured when clashes between police and concert goers broke out outside of a club on Manhattan’s Lower East Side last night (June 28).
The cops were initially called in by club security due to some unruly individuals. When cops arrived they detained one person outside, but the situation eventually escalated into a riot.
Police used pepper spray and billy clubs to try and disperse the crowd, but that didn’t seem to work much.
Initial reports said that Pete Rock had been injured, but that rumor turned out to be false. Rock did however address the situation via twitter.
“EVERYBODY IM GOOD,IM WAITING 4 MY MAN TO COME OUT OF DA PRECINCT! COPS WERE BEATING PEOPLE UP AND ITS ALL ON FILM!!!!” he wrote. “BUT IT TOOK A BUNCH OF THEM TO DISRESPECT MY N*GGA LOUIE MAN! IT WAS LIKE 10 COPS BEATING ON 1 MAN,BILLIE CLUBS AND ALL THAT!”
General Steele of Smif-N-Wessun said that was last night’s events were typical of NYPD’s relationship with the hip hop community. He spoke with Jay Diamond outside of the event right as things seemed to calm down.
“Right now you are witnessing some real live New York City sh*t,” Steele said. “There was no fights. There was no confrontations. It was all kinds of people in there from all over the place. It was going on, it was poppin’. Then the police came and stormed the place. Telling us that we had to get out. Then they started beating on people ,” he explained further. “Then New Yorkers like myself we get frustrated when the police come in and instead of bringing order to the crowd, they create more chaos.”