Trenton's Rakim Show Fiasco

This morning, I read today's Trentonian article about next weekend's Rakim show at the Patriots Theater and the "on-again, off-again" fiasco, and something smells fishy... "One of the concert promoters said the abrupt cancellation stemmed from the fear of some officials that such concerts attract young troublemakers". Really? How come they didn't attempt to shut down any of the .38 Special shows at the Arena for fear of drunken white teens rampaging? Oh, right, white teens don't listen to old white people Rock. How ignorant could the assumption be that young kids are going to go to a fucking Rakim show? Most younger Hip-Hop heads today in Trenton (and across the country) couldn't name 3 Rakim tracks, let alone shit from Brand Nubian and the other performers. But here's the kicker: "promoter Brian Davis of Positive Force Productions said the decision was overturned when he agreed to have the concert security force raised from the usual four to 25 state troopers", AFTER city officials realized that "the targeted audience actually will be much older". So, let's get this straight: the decision to cut the show had NO ties to racism or any other ignorant notions, but when Positive Force (shout out to them) secured 25 state troopers FOR A FUCKING RAKIM SHOW, everything was fair game? That's sad. It's sad that in 2010, before we take such severe actions like canceling a show of any nature for potential violence, we don't first think and do a bit of research on things. They could've easily done a "Rakim concert" search on Google and found clips, reviews and all other factoids on his performances; hell, Rakim used to perform in Trenton back in the day - why front on it now?

For a city a love like Trenton, a city I wish to succeed in many areas, its disheartening that they'd think to pull the trigger so quick before quashing a show that many of the people are trying to go see (especially at those prices) over some shit they didn't take the time to research. Very upsetting.


Shouts to Eva at Trenton Downtown for the heads up on the show last night.

EDIT One correction, via Eva at Trenton Downtown: the decision to pull the show wasn't the city's, but the state of New Jersey's. Apparently, The War Memorial (and Patriots Theater) "is under the jurisdiction of the Department of State, which is currently headed by Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno", as per Eva's e-mail. Which is even more repulsive, if you ask me. And as she noted, it's still funny how no official reason was given for the cancellation, although if you read between the lines, you should be able to smell what they're stepping in.

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