Thursday, November 12, 2009

New Boyz at Genesee Valley

Genesee Valley mall sounds a lot more exciting than it was back in the eighties when the biggest attraction was the giant frog and the chance to buy Smiths tickets.


The Flint Journal reports:

Police from five departments responded to the mall’s J.C. Penney wing just after 4 p.m. Sunday to control an unruly crowd of about 1,500 that had gathered for a free concert by the Los Angeles-based hip-hop duo New Boyz. The event was arranged by Club 93.7 in conjunction with a CD signing at FYE.


The act, known for racy and misogynistic lyrics, was slated to rap “Tie Me Down” and “You’re a Jerk” before signing autographs after the show, but fights broke out, there were medical emergencies and people started climbing on the stage causing promoters to pull the plug on the act halfway through the second song.


Police shut down the mall at 4:30 that day, an hour and a half before its normal closing time.


Things got so out of control some stores pulled down their gates even before police orders.





6 comments:

  1. Depends upon your definition of exciting. The planners of this event were sadly mistaken to think that only 300 people would show up for a free concert.

    To think that this would be an orderly event with the participants spending money in the mall before or after was flawed thinking.

    I worked at the mall up until about 5 years ago. The mall management tried everything they could do to discourage teens from congregating in the mall on the weekend nights.

    Then to plan, and poorly plan, an event with an up and coming group to perform for free was a huge mistake from the beginning.

    How many dollars were lost by the merchants that day and how many sales will be lost in the future due to the bad press from this event. The older folks of the community will now be afraid to shop at GV. Granted teens represent a huge amount of spending but is that worth losing future business??

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  2. I think the older folks have been afraid to shop at GV for about 10 years now... all it took was a mugging at 6pm outside of Hudson's to do that...

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  3. First of all that song 'you're a jerk' sucks bad enough to incite violence all by itself. Secondly, I still hope these guys go huge, as they could bring about the end of the saggy pants era

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  4. New Boyz appear to be the Hannah Montana of hip hop. This song did make me want to tear up a mall, but by the time I found one in San Francisco my angst would have subsided and I'd just be frustrated over the lack of parking.

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  5. LOL Gordie... :)

    But Jim's right. This song sucks.... oh, and you're a jerk. :D

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  6. I made it through 40 seconds of that garbage. No wonder there were fights, that crap would make anyone crazy.

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