- Austin Police Department
Unfortunately South By Southwest (SXSW) — the annual gathering of seemingly every single, solitary important person in the music industry — should be referred to as South By Sad West this time around. Gaga stole the scene by getting puked on, some asshole killed two people and injured 23 more when he drove through a crowd Thursday night, and now we're hearing about Los Angeles-based emcee Tyler, the Creator being arrested for starting a riot at his own SXSW showcase earlier in the week (via Mashable).
Austin Police arrested the 23-year-old MC, born Tyler Gregory Okonma, without incident on Saturday as he waited for a flight at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. He is charged with inciting a riot (Riot-Class A Misdemeanor according to APD) at his sold-out Thursday afternoon SXSW show at Scoot Inn. If convicted, Okonma faces up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine. He was released on $25,000 bail, however, and played a sold-out, asthma-shortened show at a Dallas nightclub later that day.
According to local NBC affiliate KXAN, the Scoot Inn, located at 1303 E. 4th St in Austin, Tex., has their capacity listed at 999 people. Tyler, apparently wanted to get that 1,000th person in there, and then some.
"All y'all outside the gates, just push through," he is reported to have said, "y'all push through — get in, come on."
And that's exactly what those folks did.
An arrest report details just a few punches thrown in the melee, but no serious injuries. The Austin Chronicle shed a little more light on the incident, reporting the venue was at "soft capacity" and that only about 100 extra people pushed past the gates and into the venue. Mr. the Creator, for his part, did apologize, according to an affidavit, and he even released this Twitter message:
He is scheduled to play The Ritz Ybor (1,114 standing room capacity) tomorrow. Doors are at 7 p.m., and tickets start at $25. The Ritz is located at 1503 E. 7th Ave in Ybor City. Watch some video from the incident below, and then cheer yourself up by watching Tyler on his sketch comedy show, Loiter Squad, by clicking here.
