Thursday, July 27, 2006

Dallas DJ Says Lil' Wayne Song Sparked Shootout Not Lil Jon

A Dallas DJ who authorities claim to have played a Lil Jon song that sparked a nightclub shooting between rival gangs leaving two people dead and four others injured last weekend, has denied playing the song.
"That song wasn't even in my record crate or my
CD case," DJ Drop told The Dallas Morning News.
As previously reported,
two gangs -- one from East Dallas and the other from South Dallas -- were at the El Angel nightclub on Sunday (July 16) to attend a birthday party and had agreed to put their rivalry aside for the evening.
An hour later, Dallas police said Lil Jon's "Put Yo Hood Up" was played and the two gangs begun fighting, quickly emptying
the club. The skirmishing between the two groups continued outside and guns were eventually pulled out.
22-year-old Lendl Carey and 20-year-old Kenneth Haggerty were shot and killed. The injured were rushed were to a nearby hospital where they were treated and released.
Drop admits that he did play a Lil Jon song on the aforementioned night, but it was Jon's current hit ,"Snap Yo Fingers". According to Drop , the scuffle began when he played
Lil Wayne's "Money on My Mind".
"Any time that song plays, people start throwing money," said Karisten Brunfield, a friend of DJ Drop who was at El Angel that night. "There is a customary mad scramble for the loose bills. That happens every week when I'm there. If you throw it, you don't expect to get it back."
As soon as the crowd began to rustle, Drop claims he threw on the lights and told everyone to calm down. He said that when he noticed the security escorting the troublemakers out, he resumed playing
music for about a half-hour before the shootings occurred.
Despite Drop's denial of playing of the song, police insist that witnesses revealed to them that the playing of "Put Yo Hood Up" started trouble in the club.
"Multiple witnesses told our detectives that that song was what started the fight," explained Deputy Chief Alfredo Saldana. "How would we have gotten that song title if people hadn't told it to us? And the people at that club ought to know what they're hearing."
"Put Yo Hood Up," urges listeners to represent their neighborhoods via hand signs, has been linked to another murder in Arkansas.
A day after the shootings, police held a press conference and handed out copies of the song's lyrics and expressed frustration with Drop for playing the song in a club filled with gang members.
"There wasn't anything to indicate there were gang members in the club," emphasized Drop. "You couldn't look at anybody and say, 'That's a gang banger.' If that was the case, they wouldn't have been let in."
According to Drop , the fact that he was the DJ at El Angel that night has hurt his business. Two recent gigs have been canceled, he said.
"They didn't want the heat," he said. "They didn't know when it will blow over."
Authorities are still looking for shooters and no arrests have been made.