Harsh Tweet Gets Fan Kicked Out Of Nerd Rapper's Show
from the disconnecting-from-fans dept
We talk an awful lot about the need for artists to connect with their fans in order to succeed. One of the easiest tools to use in this effort is Twitter. In fact, Twitter is so easy to use, it has almost become the default method for many artists to communicate and connect. Unfortunately, it has an equal ability to cause strife between an artist and a fan. This is the lesson that one nerd rapper, MC Chris, learned recently.It all started when one fan, Taylor, sent a tweet complaining about the opening act of an MC Chris concert. This tweet was then read by MC Chris while he was preparing to go on stage. It all went down hill from there.
"I was in my green room checking on my Twitter," he said. "During the show, someone tweeted something negative about Richie. And I don't have a problem with stuff like this. I get made fun of and called all sorts of name every day. But if someone messes with my friend I have this weird reaction that happens, and I do things that probably are kind of not normal, abnormal. I just become extremely protective.Taylor relented and left the show. Then it got even worse, but mostly for MC Chris. Not only did Kotaku get ahold of the story, but Taylor also posted his story to Reddit. It was this widespread dissemination in the online community that eventually led to MC Chris apologizing on video and breaking down in tears while doing so.
"I marched onstage, and in between songs with Richie, I grabbed the microphone and I said 'Who is this person's name,' he came up, and I said, 'You're going to have to go off with somebody with the venue and tell them to escort you off for talking shit on Twitter.'"
There are a number of lessons to learn from this. The internet provides a way for us to quickly express our opinions. Not all of those opinions are going to be well received, particularly by those we criticize. However, the best response to something like that is not to attack the source of the criticism or the tool those people use. The lesson that MC Chris has learned the hard way is that by responding to online criticism with an attack on the person behind it, he has not lost just one fan but the respect of a whole lot of others. While his apology seems sincere, such things tend to not heal wounded fans very easily.
That said, it is great that MC Chris was taking an interest in what his fans were saying about him and his opening acts. Doing so can be a great way to gauge the how well recieved you are and how you can improve. However, lashing out when negative opinions are shared will do nothing but harm your reputation and your ability to monetize your work. We know that if people like you and your work, they'll pay.
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Filed Under: back firing, communications, connecting with fans, mc chris, twitter
Reader Comments
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Talk about a jackass closing line. I don't even have to tweet it to prove you are an idiot.
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Talk about a jackass line. I don't even have to tweet it to prove you are an idiot.
(Oh look, I can not bother to make a point too!)
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lol, good thing you list this under failures, it is exactly what you are, people love the music, why illegally download shit all the time??
why should he apologize, you go to HIS show, and talk shit about him, his act whatever, you should be asked to leave, you don't like the show, don't stay
need to learn you words have consequences, but todays child doesn't think that
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Making statements about how we've all been bullied, and thats not allowed at your show. So you bullied a guy out of your bully free show, because he wasn't impressed with your opening act.
Yeah I don't think the youtube video is actually sincere, the comment attributed to the tour manager sorta sums it up...
"The tour manager apologized, saying that Chris has thrown out fans from his concerts before for other slights."
So I am sure he is tearful because he went to far and it went public rather than someone slinking away after the star threw them out.
MC Chris - "I hate passive aggressiveness, I hate people insulting my friends and thinking they can get away with it. This guy insulted my openers and thinks he can go and see Powerglove and MC Chris afterwards. That's not how it works. You have to be polite for the people who are performing for you. It doesn't sound crazy to me when I say it out loud."
And if you eject the people paying to see your show who dislike an opening act, you will end up with no one to perform for.
I was kinda interested in finding out about his stuff, but now I've lost interest. I might say something mean online and get banned from his shows. I expect to see him in his robe and boxers screaming about the kids getting off his lawn in the next 5 years as a newer act doing something similar hits it big.
You might think your a star, but when you think your more important than your fans its going to be fun watching the fall.
And as it seems many people are "rude" to your opening acts, you might want to ask them what they disliked rather than throw them out of your shows so you can improve your show for your fans.
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Uh huh. And if you go to a restaraunt and they over cook your filet mignon, you better just keep your mouth shut and take the charred nonsense on your plate like a good little consumer.
You want to explain to me the logic of a paying customer at a concert not being able to express his opinion without the main act telling him he has to leave?
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Time to meet?
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It's not "his show" it's the audiences show. They are literary paying his wage. By throwing the guy out Chris has effectively taken the guys money to render a service that he then does not render for utterly personal reasons.
There are lots of reasons why some one could or should be removed from a show by the venue. There are terms of conduct that are agreed to and a venue has a duty to make sure people are safe and that one person is not disrupting the enjoyment of others with their conduct. Tweeting "I do not like the opening act" is not one of those reasons and an the main act should have no say what so ever on throwing people out of a venue if they are not also owner of the venue or promoter of the night and even then they have to justify their actions with more than "they hurt my feelings".
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But maybe he doesn't care, because he's the big artist and people should shut up and respect him...
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If my band plays like shit I fully expect to be told, if some one does not like my band that's up to them and so long as they are not heckling or otherwise being disruptive has nothing to do with me and nor should it. If they want to voice that view that's up to them and actually when they are able to provide constructive criticism it can be vastly useful and of more value to my bands growth than "you guys are awesome".
Thinking that I can be kicked out of a show 'cus the main act is back stage monitoring twitter and get's their panties in a bunch 'cus I said something they don't like is kinda sicking.
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What the story suggests is that being human is a very bad thing, and instead of the filtered, padded, and politically correct stars from the labels, twitter and such enforces a filtered, padded, and politically correct indy star.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
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P.S. Are you David Lowery in disguise?
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As for the rest of your post, you are a flippin moron. kthxby
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Also, you're an idiot with a severe case of not being able to read articles apparently. Go read the article. The guy DID NOT talk shit about MC Chris. He said the opening act sucked and that was it. MC Chris overreacted. People are very much entitled to forming whatever opinion they want and expressing it. Unless of course you don't believe in the Constitutionally protected first amendment right to free speech.
And he should apologize because it's the right thing to do. With the exception of security and the owners/operators of a venue, no one has the right to kick someone out of a venue for saying, "Meh, that band sucked." Especially not when the person being kicked out paid to be there in the first place. Look at you talking about illegal downloads, which I'm sure you consider to be theft. So what would you call taking money for services not rendered? That is actual theft. MC Chris was in the wrong and he got called out for it. A few tears aren't going to change the fact that he did something he shouldn't have. The music only gets you so far, it's your fans who get you the rest of the way. By doing what he did he hurt himself far worse than someone saying, "Hey that band that opened for you sucked."
As for "need to learn you words have consequences, but todays child doesn't think that". Oh yeah? Hey, Anonymous Coward, I think you're a fucking idiot who can't read an article, much less make an actual point. [waits a few seconds] Hey, would you look at that! My words have no consequences, beyond making you look like the idiot you are. (But that doesn't take much effort.)
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MC Chris from the sounds of it may very well be a bit of an asshole. That means his going to have a hard time being awesome. So what can he do? Well as you suggest he can hide that part of him self an attempt to control his public image but that is being unhuman and closed (and would likely backfire) or he can actually change.
The point being that part of successes in the new way of doing things is simply coming down to being a good person as well as a good artist because people will always want to support some nice who's work they like over some one not nice who's work they equally like.
That's nothing new, it just so happens that we now live in a world where finding out if an artist is nice or not is a matter of time rather than a matter of PR.
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Re: Time to meet?
Douchebag does something Douchey, Internet as an entity pounces. All he needs to do now is to 'Double-Down' and the Carreon Effect is in full play.
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Also, we have to give props for when someone publicly admits that they got it wrong, and horribly so.
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Line about the "new boss?" Check.
Unwillingness to make an actual point? Check.
I'd say it's probably him.
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MC Cries?
The chance that he would learn from this mistake is close to nil. Throwing people out from his concerts is kind of his thing, he's done it many times and will almost certainly do it many more. The reason he had to apologise and cry is just because he realized he was losing fans and income rapidly, not becuase he's sorry.
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What ever the reasons behind it all I simply hope that his learnt his lesson and acts better towards the people who have paid to see him in the future.
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no one has the right to kick someone out of a venue
You don't get out much, do you? Proprietors (and agents thereof) CAN and DO kick people out of their establishments for all kinds of reasons, including personal reasons, and it's up to the proprietors whether to honor the request of a guest (in this case mc chris) to kick out another guest (random customer). Generally whoever is running the venue is a bit more likely to listen to "the talent" than to a random customer, "the talent" is bringing in a ton of customers (hundreds to thousands of drinks bought), whereas the customer is just one customer (a handful of drinks, possibly dozens of drinks over time if you lose a regular). The decision is pretty straightforward.
Something a lot of people are missing here is the possibility that the ejection is supported by the fans. I see many comments along the lines of "if he keeps this up/since he did this, he isn't going to have many fans left pretty soon". He's been doing this for YEARS, this is just the first time it lit up the blogosphere since twitter was involved. In general, his fans don't care, mc chris fans are absolutely rabid.
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He is a bully, and his music sucks.
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Re: no one has the right to kick someone out of a venue
I do get out quite a bit actually, and I guess you ignored this part of my comment, which led directly into what yo quoted to try and rip apart a bit of what I did say:
"With the exception of security and the owners/operators of a venue..."
See that? That's me saying who has the right to kick people out. MC Chris doesn't. The owners and security do. MC Chris can request someone be kicked out, but he can't just decide for himself to kick someone out. Unless he has a very valid reason. And someone saying "the opening act sucked" (which I've said myself numerous times, with a handful of exceptions) is NOT a valid reason.
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Are you really saying that we should give money to artists, gracefully take what they give us in exchange, and if we aren't satisfied just shut up?
If MC Chris just wants to hear nice things, then he should do his shows for free. Then you might have a case that criticizing his show is unfair.
As long as I'm paying you a single penny, then what you give me in return is not a favor you are making me, it's business. Deal with it.
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Wait, no there aren't.
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The point is that (ignore adding "on the internet" on the end of things) this is pretty much the same old story for as long as we care to look back.
It's why bands have always had PR flaks and spokesmen and official statements. They can't risk being human in case people find out they are really a prick (or just hate dealing with idiots). What happens? They don't run their twitter accounts, they don't run their personal websites, they don't write their own press releases, and all of their public interaction is filtered out to make sure that something like this doesn't happen.
Is Mc Chris more or less of a dick that, say, Madonna? I know which one has a better PR team and better control over their message, even as they tweak noses and such.
I don't see anything new or different here, except that perhaps the internet makes it even more important for artists to just shut up and do nothing, for risk of being called out for their opinions or actions while being human.
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Re: MC Cries?
The story went viral (Penny Arcade was first to pick it up and add fuel to the fire) and the guy, after being a smartass about it, eventually changed his attitude and begged for forgiveness. But as Penny Arcade pointed out, there's a difference between being sorry for what you've done and being sorry for getting caught.
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I'm sorry. You think being a jerk and kicking out fans is the proper way to build a good relationship with said fans? Or is it just that you do not think that people actually care about who it is that creates the music they love?
Being a jerk online has certainly alienated me from several people. There is an article on this site about a game developer who could not release a patch for his game because of the high cost. The fact that the guy is a real jerk has prevented me from caring a lick about his plight. I might have even bought the game had he not been a jerk.
Now you say that things like this would happen less frequently if it went through a PR filer. That is probably true. However, such filters tend to create content that is stale and devoid of personality. People are smart and can tell the difference between a bull PR statement and a human moment from an artist.
Of course another lesson to leran from this is that of restraint and personal responsibility. Something like this would never have happened if MC Chris had exercised a little person restraint in fan interactions. Sure he could have been upset. He might have even posted a tweet to defend his opening act. That is the kind of stuff people like to see. A personal response. Doing what he did caused more harm and disconnect than he would have seen otherwise.
All this means, that if people don't like you, you will not see a cent. That is why I posted that last line. The lesson to learn is to be a person people like or, at the very least, create a persona that people like and they will gladly pay you money.
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They end up being worse than what they are against.
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Re: Re: MC Cries?
Paul Christoforo ran Ocean Marketing and was an idiot.
I often reference his name and an imaginary school of PR when PR people do stupid things.
Its not as popular as the Streisand Effect, or the Carreon Effect... but I live in hope.
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In the old model shutting down an artist and hiding them behind a wall of PR people is something you could do. In the new model you can't. What's changed is simply that if you are an asshole you are going to have a much harder time creating the new kind of interaction with your fan base that you need.
Either you shut your self down, be less open and less human, or you end up showing that you are an ass and not awesome. In other words you just can't be an ass because you can no longer hide.
You are saying that nothing has changed because artists can't "risk" being human? Well in the view of the new system that techdirt seems to promote (and I agree with and you seemingly are not bothering to acknowledged as our given logic) you just as much can't risk not being.
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The internet makes it even more important for artists treat their fans with respect, for risk of being called out for their opinions or actions.
Nobody owes musicians a living or a fanbase. These must be earned by your actions, and can be lost by your actions.
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Sure you can. One of the great things about the new model is that you can hire people to be you online, and nobody will know. They can keep you entirely isolated from what's going on, so that you don't get upset.
Remember, MC Chris lost it because he was reading tweets before going on stage. If he had "people" to do this, he likely would have never been in that position to do what he did at that show.
Filtering, sanitizing, and padding the artist away from the fans is key. You only let them interact when they are on stage, or at reasonably carefully crafted "social" events.
What you aren't understanding is that all the tools of social media can be controlled by third parties, by hired flunkies. The artist can be "real" and still have their tweets filtered and cleaned before use.
"you just as much can't risk not being."
MC Chris was human, and pays for it. Not really a good lesson, is it?
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Considering MC Chris, made his career by giving his music away online, it is a great lesson. Just because he got fans by giving music away does not mean his fans want to be shit on while watching him live. His fans are not expecting (a metaphorical) GG Allin concert.
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And what about in person at gigs and meeting fans? Can you pay some one to be you then? In this day and age, as proven by the reddit thread, it's very easy for all the people who have see your behaviour to get together and talk about it.
If we go with your view and imagine that the response to this issue has been handled by Chris's PR rather than him self and that his crying on camera was directed by his PR people to try and regain the fan base he is losing.
In your world there is no way for us to know or even make a guess at if the apology is honest or not. You say we have to presume that it's real and heart felt and move on. Yet that's not what's happening is it? What's happening is that the reddit thread attracted people who also had a story about Chris being a dick to come out and tell it. While of course there is no way to confirm if most of it's true or not there is enough there to cast doubt on the integrity and honesty of his apology.
In other words his online PR can be handled in a flawless manner by a 3rd party from this point on but not only do I think you give PR people to much and fans too little credit in working out when an artist is being handled so but the only way his "apology" is ever going to be accepted is through his direct interaction with his fans changes.
"MC Chris was human, and pays for it. Not really a good lesson, is it?"
And again you miss the point I'm trying to make. Yes Chris paid for it but the lesson is not "don't be a human" it's "don't be an ass" because if you are not human you can't connect with your fans, and if your not an ass you can't be awesome. Both of those things are equally important in getting the most out of the new model.
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This is different, though. Tweeting is not being disruptive. Even if you blast expletives, hyperbole, and all-out lies into your feed, you're not detracting from the collective experience of anyone else attending.
Billed as a "nerd rapper", I'm sure that mc feels very strongly about bullying and people picking on his friends. Sticking up for your amigos is a good thing, but this is a terrific example of a good intention going way too far.
Sorry, mc... I'm a fan, but you've let me down.
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Diss track response video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJkihaRQl5o&hd=1
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