Times Square turned into a war zone yesterday morning when thousands of angry young rappers clashed with police after MTV canceled a widely promoted talent contest because too many people showed up.
Helicopters hovered over Midtown, as cops on horseback and in riot gear beat back a crowd of about 3,500 aspiring performers from all over the country who had descended on MTV’s Times Square headquarters for an open casting call. Cops called the disturbance a Level 3 alert – on a four-level scale.
The popular music channel had promised to judge 1,000 rappers during the week and give a Def Jam recording contract and $25,000 to the winner.
“I’m disappointed,” said Don Sanborn, 27, who flew to New York from Seattle for the contest.
“I saw people falling down. There were some calm cats, but not others. This is a sad day for hip-hop.”
Rappers from as far away as Honolulu began lining up outside MTV at 1515 Broadway on Sunday night to take part in the contest. By 7 a.m. yesterday, the crowd had grown to about 3,500.
At that point, MTV canceled the event at the cops’ request because of overcrowding, said Jeannie Kedas, a spokeswoman for the channel.
A police source said cops were forced to shut the event down because MTV failed to come through on its promise – to distribute ID bracelets to guarantee people’s place in line and to provide adequate security to police the event. MTV’s negligence put public safety at risk and created an “out of control” crowd, the cop said.
Disappointed rappers stormed crowd-control barricades and trampled over those at the front of the line. Four people were arrested for disorderly conduct – three of the four were charged with inciting to riot – and two cops received minor injuries, cops said.
“The cops became crazy,” complained Eliezer Ruiz, 20, of The Bronx, who had lined up outside MTV at about 4:30 a.m. yesterday.
“They didn’t have the lines set up properly. Everybody was pinned in like a bunch of animals. The cops rushed the line. It made people crazy.”
A police spokesman denied that cops behaved badly.
“If there are complaints, they should report them,” he said.
Kedas said MTV believes it was properly prepared to deal with the crowds and was disappointed it had to cancel.
“We apologize to anyone who traveled far or waited long,” she said. “We really tried to make it happen and are rescheduling the contest.”
CM+NT But rappers on the streets weren’t buying MTV’s line.
“First they said they’d see 1,000 people, then they canceled it,”1/8 said Moo Shareef, 18, of Union, N.J. “People came from all over the country.”1/8
CM+NT But rappers on the streets weren’t buying MTV’s line.
“First they said they’d see 1,000 people, then they canceled it,” said Moo Shareef, 18, of Union, N.J. “People came from all over the country.” (p. 23 Metro)