![]() Indeed, the incident at Chop Suey is extraordinary in the sense that-unlike rap/R&B club nights (which feature only DJs)-rap shows (which feature live performers) rarely end in bullets. In fact, the last thing a gangster rapper wants is a real gangster disrupting his show, his career, his mic dreams. He may rap about smoking a nigga, but that is not the same as doing it. If this were not the fact, if hiphop and violence were totally unrelated, then why is it if I go to a show featuring Too $hort, I'm patted down for weapons, and if I go to a show featuring Neil Young, I only need to show my ticket? Indeed, it is rumored that the man shot dead at Vito's was there to attend Too $hort's afterparty, following a performance by $hort and the Pack at Studio Seven, a new trouble hot spot for hiphop-related disturbances.īut hiphop is still just music a rapper does not go onstage and start shooting people (a Schooly D fantasy). Nevertheless, hiphop has a real history of violence-to say there is no such connection between the two is to talk crazy. Yes, so far it seems that the rappers performing that night (Young Soprano, Fatal Lucciauno, No Clue, Dividenz, and Anonimous) had no direct connection with the killer and the killed (a rapper who was not performing that night). The only solution was to shut down Mantra (it's now a quiet furniture store).īecause the shooting at Chop Suey happened during a hiphop show, it will be impossible for the public to separate the music from the murder. And then came the sirens-then silence and sleep. Sometimes the disturbance would end with a car angrily burning rubber (a good night) on other occasions it would end with the pop, pop, pop of a pistol (a bad night). After Mantra closed its doors at 2:00 a.m., shouting and fistfights broke out on the sidewalk and in the parking lots. As one who lived a block from the Mantra Lounge in Pioneer Square, a club that had several shootings, stabbings, and fights in 20, I know very well that guns are not the only problem generated by the booze and beat-heat of R&B/rap nights. Some of these clubs were closed, and with good reason. Lucky's in April 2004, the shootings outside of I-Spy in 2002, and so on and so on. There was the shooting at Sugar nightclub in November 2007, the shooting outside of Tabella Restaurant & Lounge in July 2007, the shooting outside of Tommy's on the Ave in June 2007, the stabbings and shootings inside and outside of Larry's Nightclub in December 2005, the shooting outside Mr. ![]() The incident at Vito's was not only a part of the recent wave of gang-related shootings but also the long, long history of violent disruptions within or outside clubs that regularly host rap/R&B nights. And on November 23, Nathaniel Lee Thomas was shot dead inside of Vito's Madison Grill, which had become a popular spot for rap/R&B nights. Cheatham, a high-school basketball star, was shot in the face after an argument that erupted in front of the Garfield Community Center. Coleman, a 15-year-old rapper, was shot and killed not far from where, a month later, Donnie P. On August 5, Pierre Lapoint was fatally shot while walking down Rainier Avenue South. Where is this trouble coming from? In the past six months, Seattle has seen an escalation of gang-related shootings. We didn't know where the trouble was coming from. Instead of running to the front, we ran to the back and got behind some furniture. Next thing, my girlfriend says there's shooting. Well, 1st Black Prez-the guy in the hospital-after hosting the show, goes backstage, hears a knock on the door, opens it up, and there it is. "If you've been backstage at Chop Suey," says Manier, "you know people are always knocking on the door to get backstage, and you think it's one of the artists who needs to get in. ![]() In the early morning of Sunday, January 4, a man knocked on a side door at Chop Suey and, when the door was opened, shot three people in the club's backstage area, killing local MC 29-E and wounding Trama and 1st Black Prez.ĭeVon Manier, owner of Sportn' Life Records, whose rapper Fatal Lucciauno was performing that night, was backstage when the shooting occurred.
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