I hope you're kidding. 'cause you haven't fracased until you've brawled with these characters.
Posted on 06/26/2003 7:14:34 AM PDT by rattrap
A group of hip-hop fans invited to hang out at MTV's beach house in the Hamptons was jolted back to the real world - busted for a wild melee at a nearby club. Four young men were arraigned yesterday in Southampton Town Court on charges ranging from assault to robbery for the Tuesday afternoon brawl at Summers Beach Club.
One person was badly hurt in the fracas, and it took cops from three different departments to restore order at the popular party spot in East Quogue.
"There were 100 to 120 people involved in various fights," said Detective Sgt. Randolph Hintze of the Southampton Town Police.
He described the atmosphere as "very tense" and said that had cops not arrived so quickly, things could have exploded.
"It really got out of control," said Kareem Sharpe, 19, one of the men arrested. "It started with a lot of drinking, then play-fighting and it went from there."
The clash happened after MTV bused dozens of its viewers from the Smithhaven Mall in Lake Grove to its beach house on Dune Road in East Quogue.
They were recruited to be audience members for the "Direct Effect" show, a daily countdown of hip-hop video requests.
Fists fly
Some recruits apparently didn't want their MTV, and headed down the road to Summers Beach Club, a waterfront watering hole crowded with regulars.
The MTV crowd became "aggressive and confrontational" with Summers staff and customers and the "combative atmosphere" sparked a series of fistfights, police said.
Southampton cops rushed to the scene and called in backup from the Quogue Village police and state police.
In the chaos, one bloodied victim just wandered away, and cops were only able to identify four suspects, Hintze said.
Sharpe, a stock clerk from Brentwood, said he wasn't even at Summers. He was heading back to the bus at the end of the taping when trouble started.
"I saw everyone running and then I saw a black kid get hit on the head with a bottle and he fell and everyone was kicking him," he said.
Out on bail
Sharpe said he stepped in and got into a confrontation with a man who turned out to be an off-duty cop trying to break up the free-for-all.
"I hit him. I didn't even know he was a police officer," said Sharpe, who was charged with assault and released on $250 bail.
David Callender, 24, of Farmingville, also was accused of assaulting the off-duty cop and stealing from a tip jar.
Pandelis Theodosiou, 21, of Port Jefferson allegedly swiped a bottle of rum and threatened the club owner. Police said he fled and hid on one of the buses when cops tried to arrest him.
The fourth person arrested was Greg Romine, 22, of South Setauket, for interfering with another arrest. After he was busted, police found he had a warrant for an unpaid fine.
A 24-year-old man, whose name was not released, was treated at Central Suffolk Hospital for cuts and bruises on the head, officials said.
In a statement, MTV said only that it was cooperating with the investigation. The club did not return phone calls.
There is a hard rock bar here in Denver that used to host a hip/hop night every Tuesday night.
Every Wednesday morning the bathrooms were vandalized and "tagged" and the fixtures were broken.
The crowd that showed up on Tuesday night was not the crowd of regulars who showed up the other six nights of the week. They were rude thug gangstas who acted belligerent and threatened the staff. The regulars knew well to avoid this place on Tuesday night.
Well, hip/hop night lasted only a few weeks before the owners said, "Screw This!" and resumed playing hard rock, metal and punk seven nights a week.
I sure miss the 80's, back when MTV was actually WORTH watching...
I occasionally turn on VH1C (classics) for old videos from the 60s, 70s, and 1980s. It brings back memories from the days when MTV actually played a diverse range of music.
Now they are almost exclusively hip/hop (for the few hours a day that they actually play music).
VH1 has also turned almost exclusively hip/hop (except when they play a bunch of E! -type programming like "celebrity marriages" and such). MTV2 is just as bad -damn near all hip/hop.
Fer cryin' out loud! I might as well watch BET! There is no difference.
There is no place for rock music on TV anymore. MTV hates rock. It is too white and they won't play it (except for maybe briefly during the middle of the night).
MTV glamorizes and crams this gangsta-thug music down kids throats and then wonders why their parties turn violent.
Yo rite! Don't be da niggaz dat playa-hate! Be da niggaz dat playa-participate!
Actually, that's not true at all. Less than 10% of what they play is hip/hop. And its generally stuff that's a hip/hop and R&B mix. When I catch their "Top 20 Countdown", there is no rap like they play on "Direct Effect", the show this article referenced.
It seems that everytime I turn on VH1 it is playing "Driven" with P. Diddy or "Behind the Music" with Biggie Smalls or Tupac. Then there is the ad nauseum broadcasting of "House Party" during their "Movies That Rock"
You are right though, it isn't nearly as bad as MTV. Though why does VH1 even need to broadcast 10% hip/hop when MTV is virtually 100% hip/hop? (And I'd say VH1 is more like 40% --watch VH1 on the weekends sometime. I've seen entire weekends dedicated to nothing but hip/hop.)
Can't there be a haven for those of us who dislike hip/hop (besides CMT)?
I hope you're kidding. 'cause you haven't fracased until you've brawled with these characters.
It is the America that Sumner Redstone (owner of Viacom) wants to see.
Yeh, I almost mentioned that those types of shows are about the only time you see rap. They do play those types of shows too much. I do, however, enjoy their "I Love the '80's" series, although I have seen them all about three times.
Can't there be a haven for those of us who dislike hip/hop (besides CMT)?
I understand that if you subcribe to Direct TV or other satelite services, there are other MTv and VH-1 channels. I got regular cable so I miss out. I think MTv even had a channel dedicated to hard rock, but canceled it.
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