Gym Class Heroes Travis McCoy, was arrested in St. Louis on municipal assault charges because of an an altercation with a fan while on the Warped Tour. Apparently the fan was in the crowd taunting Travis with racial slurs.The bands manager Bob McLynn told People.com. "Travis invited him onstage with the intent of calling him out in front of the crowd, with absolutely no intention of a physical altercation. When he tried to help him onstage, the guy hit Travis in the knee area, forcing Travis to defend himself. At this point, a scuffle broke out."
After the fight, McCoy apologized to the crowd, saying. "I'm sorry you had to see that. But when someone calls you something that's ignorant and that offensive, you have to bash their head in with a microphone." McCoy was released on $500 bail
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As an artist who performed at the warped tour in 2004, I am sad to say that this type of incident occured multiple times during my 4-state experience with the tour. Firstly, the warped tour was not supportive of its hip-hop acts at all. The fans were largely white teens and more than once incidents of disrespect and racism occured. In one instance, security forces, along with the politically concious group Anti-Flag's tour crew (ironically enough) banded together against "all Africans" after an altercation with a black merchant who refused to move his stand. The warped tour seemed a hotbed for racism. Unfortunately, hip-hoppers are somewhat forced into appeasing these types of racist fans who are now claiming ownership of hip-hop as more and more white artists emerge. Obviously, white artists are not the problem as hip-hop is a culture based on multiculturalism. However, the fans often misconstrue hip-hop and as their money dictates what is marketed and therefore the message of the music, their negative influenece harms the culture to a high degree.
-DJ Pain 1
myspace.com/djpain1
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