New York rapper A$AP Rocky had quite a literal mic drop during a recent gig in Shanghai after police reportedly shut off the power in the middle of his set.
Rocky (real name: Rakim Mayers) and the A$SAP Mob were in Shanghai last week for the Innersect Festival at Shanghai Expo Center, presented by Hong Kong star Edison Chen. The music and lifestyle event also featured supporting acts like Indonesian viral sensation Rich Chigga, Busy P, Scott Campbell, Nosaj Thing and more.
In various videos circulating on social media, whistles could be heard off stage just prior to the shutoff. After the lights and background music went out, A$AP appeared to be communicating with someone off stage (“turn that sh*t back on, f*ck that,” he told the DJ) before getting frustrated and slamming his microphone to the ground in a fit of rage — ironically just after proclaiming "they not gon’ cut us off" (while getting cut off before he could even finish his sentence).
As the audience gasped and jeered, Rocky and crew then stormed off stage.
Watch the video below - the performance gets interrupted at around the 35-40 second mark (VPN off, slightly NSFW language):
Outside of China? Watch on Youtube here.
Reddit user smokinjoints, who posted a separate video of the incident online, explained how it all went down on October 5:
"This was at a fashion event so not a regular venue. I'm guessing the venue hadn't pre-approved with the police. Then the police came and didn't care about who it was and just cut the power. This kind of sh*t happens all the time. Police do what they're told, no excuses. It's a shame because the hip-hop scene in China is picking up a lot lately and an occurrence like this will give it a bad reputation for touring artists."
The user further added:
"It was a 3 day festival for [Innersect]. Rich Chigga also booked to play. Someone just said on wechat that live music wasn't allowed after 11pm which is why they cut him off. A$AP Nast has a gig at another venue tonight in Shanghai called Arkham which always goes late, people are expecting Rocky to turn up [more on that below]. Never issues there, Knxwledge played until after 3am [on October 4]. Think this venue just messed up with getting authorization."
Another user who claimed to be involved with the event said police had repeatedly tried to shut it down:
"Was there last night, involved with the event. Asap had a dope visual element and all those blank screens were lit up with graphics during the bulk of the performance. They really could have just played 5-6 songs and bounced but they clocked in back to back bangers and played a few Ferg joints even tho he wasn't there. The staff running the event kept saying the police were trying to shut down event and I didn't believe them till this happened."
But in the end it seems the incident wasn't much of a f*ckin' problem for Rocky, who ended up performing again briefly later that night. A Facebook post from local promoter SHFT Asia confirmed that he indeed turned up to Arkham later in the evening to crash A$AP Nast's gig. And it was lit:
Images via SHFT Asia's Facebook page
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