The Breaks Volume II at Toyota Park
Talib Kweli at The Breaks Volume II (more by James Richards IV)

watch Talib Kweli go off on a fan at Euro show (after cancelling a gig due to 'nazis')

Talib Kweli stopped a show and started angrily addressing the staff and audience after an alleged incident between a security and his DJ. A fan-shot video — that you can watch below — was posted (and given the time it was posted, it may have been at Talib’s Amsterdam show at Melkweg last night) that shows Talib pulling a man on stage to discuss the incident, and asking: “Where’s the security guard — no don’t touch me Dennis, don’t touch me — where’s the security guard that put his hands on my DJ when it was somebody in the crowd that had the fucking problem? Get him to the stage. I wanna talk to you, I wanna see the security guard. […] Was it a mistake? Bring him here to apologize.”

After the man left the stage, Talib began addressing the crowd about the situation. A crowd member said something (that you can’t make out in the video), to which Talib responded: “Come on, what? What you gotta say? What’s your point that you wanna make right now? Oh you’re in charge now? You’re in charge? Oh, you get to decide which way is the only way? You just said ‘there’s only one way to reconcile this.’ How do you know that? You don’t know that, so shut the fuck up. I don’t care what you want. See that’s the whole problem. You keep telling me what you want. I don’t care what you want my n****, I don’t work for you. I’m not here to please you. I don’t care what you want. I don’t care what you want. I don’t care what you want. What you want is not important to me. You wanna get kicked out? Do you wanna get kicked out? Do you wanna get kicked out? Then shut the fuck up.” Talib then turned to the security, and said: “Security, please escort him out the door. Please escort him out the door. He gotta go. We gotta go.” Then he turned back to the crowd member: “You gotta go. Bye! This is to teach you you don’t get what you want all the fucking time.” The video then cuts out before we find out how the story ended. You can watch the video below.

Talib also just cancelled the show he was scheduled to play at Norway’s Rockefeller Music Hall on Monday night (11/19) because the venue is hosting a Taake show in April 2019. This followed Talib cancelling a Kansas City show earlier this year after the venue’s “[refusal] to apologize” for booking Taake, who had been having some shows cancelled due to resurfaced allegations of Nazism caused by frontman Hoest performing with a swastika painted on his chest in 2007. (Taake eventually cancelled the full tour, insisted Talib Kweli didn’t “[bother] to check the facts,” and said “Taake is not now, has never been, and never will be a Nazi band.”)

Talib’s publicist sent out a press release about the Norway cancellations, which reads:

Legendary artist/activist Talib Kweli and Javotti Media artist NIKO IS have cancelled their Norway date after learning that the venue John Dee / Rockefeller is promoting a show that white nationalist and islamophobic band Taake is playing at in the spring. Taake has been well documented bearing Nazi symbolism and repeatedly written/performed anti-Muslim lyrics. Earlier this year, Kweli cancelled a show at Riot Room in Kansas City where Takke was slated to perform, stating, “I find it appalling that the Riot Room refuses to apologize for booking this band. I wouldn’t feel safe bringing my team, family and fans into a venue that is sympathetic to white nationalism.” Once Talib cancelled his show, Riot Room cancelled their date with Taake along with many other venues, until Taake’s whole American tour was cancelled. This sets a precedent that puts Rockefeller on the wrong side of history.The team at Rockefeller refuses to have a conversation with Kweli regarding the incident.

Alex Hardee, one of the partners at CODA, the agency that represents Talib states, “This has just been brought to my attention…if the venue is putting on Nazi bands then CODA wont be using this venue moving forward.”

NIKO IS will be continuing on the rest of his European tour, performing songs from his forthcoming album UNIKO, out later this month.

Talib also posted several tweets about the cancellation, including one that said “Rockerfeller is inviting Nazis in their home. If you invite Nazis in your home you support Nazis” and another that said the venue refused to speak to him:

https://twitter.com/TalibKweli/status/1064492428571230208

https://twitter.com/TalibKweli/status/1064494546350788608

Here’s the above-mentioned video:

https://twitter.com/big_business_/status/1065042455316164608?s=20