Following the rapper's latest arrest earlier this week on marijuana charges in Atlanta and questions about the appropriateness of booking a gun-loving rapper with known gang affiliations at a "Stop The Violence" event, 618 Live has canceled Chief Keef's Saturday concert, TMJ4 is reporting. According to an update on the venue's website, Free Bands Casino, a rapper with a much less loaded image who had been scheduled to open for Keef, will perform that night instead.
The cancellation came after TMJ4 put a little heat on the venue with a report about the 17-year-old Keef's gang-friendly image and troubles with the law—anchor Mike Jacobs, in classic local-news anchor form, referred to him as a "rap star with a lengthy rap sheet." This wasn't just another case of a local-news broadcast trying to sensationalize hip-hop, though. Unlike the false scare over Ludacris's 2007 Summerfest performance, which remains an all-time low for Milwaukee media, Keef's performance really would have come with some risk of trouble, and the concert's trolling "Stop The Violence" tag was in unquestionably bad taste. Factor in Keef's age, and the age of the crowd he was likely to draw at an 18+ event and it's easy to see why 618 opted to cancel.
