Sounds Like Paper = Sounds Like Failure

New Yorkers, you guys already know the story. Rest of the world here goes. It's been a week (last Tuesday) since June 15th. Paper Magazine hosted a free kickoff concert by the South Street Seaport. This concert was to include Hanson, NinjaSonik, and their cover boy Drake. Now I say was because if you don't know already, this concert never got a chance to happen. Most people blame the crowd for why this concert was abruptly stopped. I blame a completely different group of individuals.

You see, I was present at that Drake concert. Like thousands of other Drake fans, I went prepared to start chanting out lyrics like I knew them all my life. The concert was to start at 6:00 PM but there was already a heavily packed audience when my friends and I reached to the Seaport at 4:00. And it is here where the problems start.

For those of you that did not attend said concert, imagine being under the hot sun for several hours, crammed next to thousands of other people, with nothing to do but wait. Yeah, it was that rough. And this is why I blame Paper Magazines for the horrible planning on their part.

The news wants people to believe that the show was cancelled due to the riotous activity that took place while waiting for the concert. Let me just say that this riotous activity only started due to the boredom of 25,000 fans waiting for at least some sort of music. They kept shorting out Hanson's mics, and when NinjaSonik seemed like the perfect way to end the boredom they cut their mics off as well. So what else do you expect teenagers crammed next to each other in the hot sun to do? Sing kumbaya?

And I've repeatedly read comments stating that African Americans were the main rioters in the crowd, the main ones throwing bottles and even catching a black girl throwing a chair down below. The people who STARTED hopping on top the kiosks and throwing water bottles, slushie cups, and the like were white and spanish. Most of the black people I saw there were more concerned about getting to the front of the crowd. Black people only got involved when things started landing on them. So stop placing blame on us, please and thank you.

Nonetheless, none of this would have happened if there were more security at hand and they continued the music...that's all we wanted. Standing 3-5 hours in the burning sun crammed into thousands of people with nothing to do, would piss off anyone. They should have kept the DJ playing beats to keep us entertained, end of story. Who the hell would want to undergo that torture, that's complete bullshit.

Am I upset, that Drake didn't get to come out on stage? Damn right. Did I forsee craziness at this concert? Damn right. But what really pissed people off was that Paper Magazine didn't even have the balls to come out and tell us the show is cancelled. They just let as assume it was over. They at least owe that to us and not let us stand around hoping for a miracle.

Oh well, Paper Mag, you failed epicly. I'm sorry. The way you carried out this concert was destined to come out the way it did. I saw no security, you underestimated the crowd, and you couldn't even keep us entertained. Two thumbs down. And no matter who you promote next, you've lost the trust in thousands of New Yorkers.