Brooklyn’s Market Hotel sometimes gets wrapped up in controversy. The latest drama involves In Tha Fest, a North Carolina-based music festival focused on underground rap. They booked a NYFW show at the venue for Monday (Sept. 14) featuring Percaso and EA TJ. Market Hotel canceled it, and the promoters moved it to Hello Meadow, where it was canceled again. In Tha Fest’s NOAHH took to Instagram Stories to call Market Hotel racist.
“@market.hotel just called me and said they had a show last night with ‘ignorant black people’ & don’t want anymore there for the time being,” the creator of In Tha Fest wrote. “Working on finding a new venue rn but no promises. Never dealt with such racism.”
The accusations got picked up on social media. In Tha Fest’s Bryce made Instagram Stories calling the venue evil: “I put thousands of my own dollars into doing it big for the city and they spit in my face. Evil ass venue,” he wrote, adding that Market Hotel taxed them “$3k extra a few weeks ago for no other reason than feeling like it.”
The event had been in full swing at Hello Meadow when a fight broke out, causing security to shut the whole night down. Bryce posted a video explaining what happened, pointing out that security was standing to the side watching without intervening. “I really blame that guy more than anything,” he said. The show ended up happening in the streets.
On Instagram, Market Hotel addressed the accusations of racism with a statement. “We find it especially troubling that a white promoter would take to social media to misrepresent the words of a Black man as racist based on something he did not say and a conversation that had nothing to do with race,” it reads. They clarified that the reason the show was canceled was due to low ticket sales, specifically stating that only 40 tickets sold, which didn’t cover the expenses of the 500-cap venue. Here’s the full statement:
This week we made an operational decision to cancel a show.
Our general manager, who is a Black man, had a straightforward conversation with the promoter about the reality of the show: he hadn’t sold enough tickets to justify the cost of putting the event in such a large room, and moving it somewhere with lower overhead simply made more financial sense for everyone involved. It had become clear that ticket sales would not be able to pay for the staffing expenses required to put on this show in such a large venue.
At no point was race part of that conversation. Our GM simply expressed the facts: the number of tickets sold as of that morning 40 did not cover the expenses of a 500-capacity venue, and the finances and the vibes for a small crowd would work better in a smaller space. The promoter pressed our GM whether this had to do with a different promoter’s recent show, which he’d heard had issues, and our GM made it clear that this was unrelated. Our GM promised to immediately send the promoter all the advance ticket sales money from the show, which we did within an hour.
The promoter then took that conversation online, falsely labeled our GM “racist,” and fabricated a disgusting quote that was never said, in an attempt to make the situation look like something it wasn’t.
It’s incredibly disappointing to see someone take a normal business conversation, completely misrepresent it, and weaponize an accusation of racism for attention and ticket sales. Calling someone racist is a serious accusation, and it shouldn’t be thrown around simply because you’re unhappy with a business decision.
We find it especially troubling that a white promoter would take to social media to misrepresent the words of a Black man as racist based on something he did not say and a conversation that had nothing to do with race.
Market Hotel exists to serve our community. We reject and despise racism, classism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia, and every form of discrimination. Booking diverse artists and pulling diverse crowds from across New York, the country, and the world is core to our ethos. We’re always open to real criticism and know we can always get better but we reject these untrue claims about Market Hotel staff and our venue.
On Twitter, Market Hotel shared another statement, specifically from the general manager:
I’m not the type to make public statements, I like to keep my job and my personal life as separate as possible. But for some reason accusations of racism from a white guy from North Carolina against a black man are gaining traction, so I’m forced to say something.
A post went up where a promoter that we unfortunately had to cancel a show with accused me of saying on a phone call with him that it was because of “ignorant black people”. A white guy said that about me (a black guy) so he could get more eyes on his event when he found a new venue.
It’s crazy to me for white people to weaponize the actually serious problem of racism in the music industry; against me. Probably one of the few black people running a club of that size in New York.
A club that is one of the few that hosts rap shows catering towards the underground. MUSIC I’M ACTUALLY A FAN OF!!!!
If you know anything about Market Hotel you know that’s a fact. If you’ve been there you’ve probably seen me working those events.
I probably look stressed as hell because they are some of the most hectic events we do. But we keep doing them because we believe in supporting music by the youth, regardless of genre.
And we’ve done that for years
We had to make a tough decision to cancel an event. It just didn’t make sense for the venue. It’s a decision that venues and promoters make all the time.
You can criticize that as much as you want, and we could have had that conversation.
Instead I came to work today and had to clean off graffiti calling me a racist
Left by our best, brightest, and whitest civil rights leaders.
Brett, Tanner, and Dustin (i’m just guessing)
Thank you for all you’ve done for the culture
