Paul Bass Photo
Underground hip-hop’s Joe Ugly: Clubs encourage entourages.
Police Thursday afternoon identified a suspect in a double shooting that took place at Toad’s Place — a melee that began with rival neighborhood-based rap groups engaged in an updated version of “the dozens.”
The shootings took place at 10:42 p.m. Wednesday while Toad’s hosted a showcase of local hip-hop groups, an evening that until the end was a peaceful family affair.
Here’s what happened, according to an account pieced together from interviews with an eyewitness present that night (who had performed earlier), the club, as well as police:
Toad’s did not, as is the custom at larger events of this kind, check people for guns when they entered the club. They didn’t use a wand or pat down most of the patrons or performers, because they expected a small crowd. Indeed, only 50 – 75 people were estimated to be in the club at any one time. Toad’s has some 700 patrons at a major event.
Most of the night was peaceful. Local performers, some getting their first big gig, came with their friends and family. No one caused trouble.
A group called CMS/Main Event took the stage around 10:30 p.m. (The group is composed of two formerly separate acts.) The five-member group came onstage with an entourage of some 10 fans. The sound man working the booth asked the fans to leave the stage. They did. For a while.
The group was performing its last number when a fan — not a member — of a rival group jumped onstage. He grabbed one of the five microphones, the only one that didn’t have a performer using it.
He started insulting the rappers. That happens regularly at hip-hop shows: rival groups or their supporters sling insults at each other in a mock “battle.” Occasionally that can get out of hand — as occurred Wednesday night.
“They go back and forth, like opposing sports times. We’re rivals,” said the eyewitness (a local performer who asked to remain anonymous). When the fans get involved in the taunting, they sometimes “try to prove a point to get down with us, to get our acceptance,” he said.
The rival group and its fans apparently come from New Haven’s Newhallville neighborhood; CMS/Main Street is from the Westville Manor projects.
CMS/Main Event tried to ignore the taunts Wednesday night. It tried to get through the number.
The rival taunter was having none of it. Soon more people climbed on stage. The taunts grew more serious. Young men and women alike started pushing and shoving.
Then Toad’s sound man got back on his mic.
“The dude said, ‘If you’re not up there performing, you don’t have a mic, get off the stage,” the eyewitness said.
This time no one followed the order. It was a melee. A 29-year-old Toad’s barback named Fitzroy Ford (whose job it is to assist the bartender) jumped onstage. He tried to break up the fight.
A man onstage pulled out a .380-caliber handgun and started firing into the crowd. Two of those bullets hit Ford; one passed through his elbow and hit his leg.
Another bullet hit a man a patron named Antonio Streater, who’s 20, in the left arm. He was onstage at the time.
The bullets sent the crowd scrambling for safety. The eyewitness ran downstairs. “People don’t know how to shoot!” he explained.
Streater and Ford went to the hospital for treatment. Their injuries were non-life-threatening.
The police department’s Major Crimes Unit initiated an investigation. By Thursday afternoon, it had a suspect, reported the unit’s chief, Lt. John Velleca. The suspect had not yet been taken into custody.
Light Security, No Wands
Meanwhile, questions were raised about security at the club that night.
Toad’s had a lighter staff on duty than usual. No extra-duty cops. And it didn’t check for weapons they way it might on bigger nights. Toad’s did have four security staffers on duty.
Jim Segaloff, the club’s attorney, said these local showcases usually draw only 50 to 75 people. And they haven’t produced any problems in the past. Lt. Velleca confirmed that.
Joe Ugly, a New Haven underground-hip hop promoter, said clubs encourage the rap groups at these events to bring along entourages.
“This stuff [trouble at events] usually comes from entourages,” not the bands, since the bands are looking to build careers through successful gigs, Ugly said in an interview at the downtown studios of uglyradio.net, the internet station he runs.
“People want to bring supporters. The club wants you to bring people to support you. That’s who they’re going to make money selling drinks to.
“I’m not blaming the club for it. It’s a great business move.”
Segaloff said that given the small crowds, the local hip-hop showcases “aren’t money makers. It’s an opportunity for these young people to show their stuff.”
Toad’s owner Brian Phelps “is not going to say , ‘No more hip-hop,’” because of what happened Wednesday night, Segaloff said. “He did say, ‘Let’s look at this.’” If the club puts on more such shows, it will definitely plan for more security, he said.
Big Night For Moe Dollaz & Reese Nice
For two of the young New Haven MCs showing their stuff earlier in the evening Wednesday, the shootings were a sad ending to an exciting opportunity.
Risa Duff finally got the chance to perform her “cuss-free” rap on one of her hometown’s big nightclub stages — only to see the night end in a hail of bullets and their music get a bad name.
Duff, who’s 18, grew up in New Haven. She graduated from Wilbur Cross last year. The daughter of a schoolteacher, she waited a year to start her studies at UConn so she could volunteer at a New Haven public school, Wexler-Grant.
She’s also an aspiring performer. Under the stage name “Reese Nice,” she writes and performs “appropriate-for-all-ages” numbers. She got her break Thursday night: Toad’s Place put her on the bill for a showcase of regional rap artists.
The word went out over Facebook; some 20 friends showed up. They comprised almost half the crowd around 8:10 p.m. when Duff took the stage to perform songs like “Call Me” and “Party in the Basement.” (Click on the play arrow above to watch the latter number.)
She and her buds stuck around for a few hours to watch other acts. Duff had just left Toad’s by 10:42, when Main Event Squad/CMS was performing. It was a fortunate departure: She left just before the bullets started flying.
The bands on the evening’s bill came from throughout New Haven. The night’s violent end was a particular disappointment to homegrown performers like Duff who says she pursues a clean, safe brand of entertainment that all too often gets tarred by incidents like Thursday night’s.
“I try to keep my music as positive as possible. Rap has a bad name. People think of rap and think of gangsters and people who are constantly cussing and don’t have any common sense. I don’t cuss at all in my raps. I try to keep my raps appropriate for all ages,” Duff said Thursday.
“I felt very disappointed [by the shootings]. It was such a great event. I really enjoyed watching the other rappers as well and how many talented people there are in our town. For somebody to ruin the night like that and give us a bad name” was a disappointment.
Gwyneth Shaw Photo
Moe Dollaz.
Wednesday night was also the first real performance for local MC Moe Dollaz. His mother and a host of family and friends were in the front of the stage at Toad’s Place for his 15-minute set with his brother, known as Rone, and a third artist, Too Vicious. They wrapped up, hung out for a little while, then left just after 10 p.m.
In an interview at his Fair Haven home Thursday, Dollaz (who asked not to have his real name published) was tired after a night without sleep — nervous relatives kept calling to check on him. He said he knew nothing about the shooting until someone at Poor John’s Pub, where he went after Toad’s, pointed to the television; the 11 p.m. news was broadcasting about what happened at the club.
The shooting didn’t dampen Dollaz’s enthusiasm for his musical career.
He said he’d been writing lyrics since he was about 9 years old, but he’s just started recording in a real studio. He’s in the process of registering his own record company, Young Trapperz Entertainment, and is focused on perfecting the business side of musical success as well as the artistic elements.
He said he’s shooting his first video next Friday — at Poor John’s — and is scheduled to do another next month.
Dollaz said he’s driven to make it in the music business the right way.
“My father, he passed away when I was 2, and it really messed me up,” he said. “I want to make him proud.”
Dollaz, who turns 19 April 3, has spent his life in Fair Haven. He went to Fair Haven Middle School and Wilbur Cross High School, where he knew Reese Nice.
For years, Dollaz said, he’d mostly stuck to performing for an audience of school friends, rhyming during lunch or breaks in gym class. He started taking things more seriously almost exactly two years ago, when his godbrother died and the dead man’s father asked him to say a verse at the funeral.
After that, others in the family started encouraging him, eventually prompting him to contact Toad’s.
“My stepfather said to me, ‘How do you think you’re going to get a buzz if you don’t start performing?’” Dollaz said.
An initial email contact led to Dollaz being booked for Wednesday night’s show, one of a series of events that he called “kind of a talent show without a winner.”
Dollaz said Toad’s is really the only place in town to hear good hip-hop, whether it’s from local acts or big-time stars like Lil Wayne. He said he hopes Wednesday’s incident doesn’t prompt the club to stop hosting the local events.
“I have a bad feeling that they’re not going to have any more hip-hop showcases,” he said.
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Another example of hip-hop providing the soundtrack to violence in New Haven clubs.