Detroit rapper Skilla Baby had plans to host a big all-ages birthday bash at the Masonic Temple Theatre this weekend, but they were derailed when the concert was abruptly canceled, forcing organizers to find a new venue for the event.
The rapper alleges the Detroit Police Department brought concerns of potential violence to the venue, causing the Masonic Temple to shut down his “We Eat The Most Birthday Bash” show before it even happened. The concert, slated for Saturday, Sept. 30, was supposed to be a fun gathering for Detroit youth, with artists like Baby Money, Sada Baby, Tee Grizzley, and many others also on the bill.
In an Instagram video, Skilla Baby expressed his disdain for the cancellation, saying, “Some officers from DPD went up to Masonic [Temple] and told them I was a gang banger and all this, knowing damn well I wasn’t a gang banger. The show’s still gone be on Saturday, I’m just finding a new venue. They talking ‘bout all these threats and all this. I don’t know nothing about that. This a kid-friendly venue, kid-friendly concert. We’re just trying to have fun.”
The concert has since been relocated to the Riverside Marina at 11000 Freud St., though it’s still unclear exactly why the Masonic Temple show was canceled. Metro Times spoke with both DPD and live music company AEG Presents, which operates the Masonic’s Cathedral Theatre and Masonic Temple Theatre, and neither gave any answers.
Metro Times asked DPD six times if there was a specific threat of violence or safety concern that caused the concert’s cancellation and got no answer after repeatedly being put on hold.
Instead, they offered this statement: “The decision to cancel Skilla Baby’s concert was the venue’s own decision. As with all large-scale events, the DPD offered personnel resources and technology support to help ensure the venue’s patrons remained safe and that traffic flowed smoothly. At no time did the DPD encourage or even suggest the event should be canceled. We have only recently become aware of the venue’s decision to do so.”
Justin Miller, vice president of operations for AEG Presents’ Great Lakes Division (which includes Detroit), deferred all questions to DPD and declined to provide further explanation.
“If that’s the statement [DPD] gave, we’re going to stick to that... I don’t want to contradict the Detroit Police,” he says.
Skilla Baby’s manager D-Juan Wiggins, who also goes by Eastside Juan, alleges that DPD scared AEG Presents into canceling the concert with false accounts of gun violence that had nothing to do with Skilla Baby or any of the other rappers booked to perform.
“It was basically a bunch of lies. They came and showed them videos of shootings all around the city with high school students and threatened if we have the show, they were going to come and shut it down,” Wiggins tells Metro Times. “It was an all age-show and we’re just trying to do something good for the community so the kids can get together and we can conversate with them. We’re doing this for the kids, not for the adults.”
Typically, concerts at the Masonic Temple have a security checkpoint with a metal detector.
Detroit rap has occasionally had a history of violence over the years. In 2004, Wipeout of the Detroit rap group Eastside Chedda Boyz was shot and killed outside of a nightclub. In 2005, rapper Blade Icewood was shot and killed at a car wash, with some speculating that the two shootings were related. In 2006, Eminem associate Proof was shot and killed after a fight broke out at a club.
Chanel Domonique, who manages Detroit rapper Icewear Vezzo, says one of his shows was once canceled due to fear of violence.
“Our concert for him was maybe two weeks after there was a huge fight at Saint Andrew’s at a rap show,” Domonique says. “So it was like, I get it, because they’re trying to protect things, but in the same breath, it’s a hindrance to the artist. So we need to figure out how to work better with them.”
Domonique says that while show cancellations do happen in Detroit hip-hop, usually it’s because of things like low ticket sales or booking issues.
Still, the fear of violence is preventing Detroit’s hip-hop scene — which is revered around the world and has seen a number of local players sign big record deals in recent years — from reaching its full potential, she says.
“It is a hindrance because we’ve worked so hard to get the entertainment ecosystem built to a point where our independent artists can thrive and major labels and corporations can look to our market and collaborate with our artists,” she says. “But there are different things that occur that [are] unbeknownst to [us] and the police can see, or it may come across their desk and they feel for various reasons they need to shut something down. So I just hope at some point we could come to a medium with the city of Detroit, Detroit Police, and the artists on how we can get them involved early and make things happen, to where we don’t need cancellations when you’ve got all of these industry eyes looking, and it doesn’t create a hindrance — like, ‘Whoa, this show is being canceled, do I want to be a part of this business?’”
Miller, of AEG Presents, says staff will be on hand at Riverside Marina to ensure all tickets for the Masonic Temple Theatre show are honored.
Doors open for the “We Eat The Most Birthday Bash” at Riverside Marina at 5 p.m.
Kahn Santori Davison and Lee DeVito contributed to this report.
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