It’s a given that people shouldn’t throw objects at musicians performing on stage but alas, here we are in 2015 and it’s still frequently occurring. The most common trigger for this occurrence could perhaps be presented as a venn diagram with ‘Party riot atmosphere’ in one overlapping circle and ‘Music about being invulnerable or extremely tough’ in the other. Just last Friday, I witnessed Flosstradamus lower a giant net flag between them and the audience to protect them from flung objects (and presumably also for aesthetic purposes). I then got punched in the throat by a stranger while trap music played. It was a jarring experience but probably not as jarring as the scenario witnessed by Glasgow rap fans over the weekend.

Danny Brown was in the Scottish city for the Red Bull Music Academy Tour, apparently slaying the crowd with hit after hit when he was limply struck with a plastic cup of water. It was enough to throw Danny over the edge and, after realising he had been doused, he threw the mike down and walked off stage. The crowd reportedly chanted his name for a while afterwards before realising he was gone for good which is a shame because, if other reports are anything to go by, everyone besides the dude who chucked the cup were absolutely loving the show. Regardless, Ol’ Danny Brown reportedly said he “would never play Glasgow again” after leaving the stage. The culprit was thrown out by security and is described as being white, male and in his early-to-mid twenties which sounds exactly like the sort of person you might see at a hip-hop gig in Glasgow.

This brings up the age old discussion of performer tolerance vs expectation of audience behaviour. There’s always the argument of aggressive music = tolerance towards rowdy audiences, but even that isn’t remotely relevant anymore after punk alumni Fat Mike got mad for getting the boot onstage late last year. The only time I’ve ever thought chucking shit at a performer was ever appropriate was the time Andrew WK trolled an entire audience by appearing at Gathering of the Juggalos and even that rapidly descends into overly dangerous behaviour quicker than I think WK expected.

I suppose the best way to set an example of how an audience is supposed to behave is to deprive the wider group of the performance in order to incite frustration towards the perpetrators of antisocial conduct but announcing you’ll never perform in that city again prevents a wider fan base of being able to enjoy your music or consider your point of view on the matter. I guess the best thing we can hope for in this scenario is that Danny Brown realises there are a lot of well-behaved fans in Glasgow that still want to see him live and that maybe, one day, people will stop thinking that chucking shit at someone you paid to see is acceptable behaviour.

[Via.]

More Danny Brown

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Watch: Danny Brown and Hannibal Buress drive a cart around Bonaroo and talk shit