Here’s a taste of how artist-to-fan beef typically works within the nerdcore hip-hop crowd.
Tuesday night, beloved nerdcore rapper Christopher “MC Chris” Ward threw a longtime fan out of his Philadelphia performance for tweeting an insulting message about Richie Branson, the evening’s opening act.
The fan, Mike Taylor, went home and blasted the rapper for his actions on Reddit, writing that it was “immature” to “publicly humiliate someone for something tweeted to just my hundred or so followers.”
“I don’t regret sending the tweet,” Taylor wrote to the Daily Dot on Wednesday. “Even at the moment I was standing in the lobby at Union Transfer, having just been humiliated in front of that crowd, I was soaking in the ridiculousness and disbelief over what had just occurred. The whole night regret never crept into my mind, just disappointment that the event went down.”
Ward remained confident that he did the right thing by kicking Taylor out. He told the Daily Dot that his decision was rooted in his desire to maintain a strong semblance of togetherness within the nerdcore community.
“People make fun of me every day, and I rarely do anything about it,” Ward said. “I just take the negativity just like everyone else who gets bullied on a regular basis.
“I usually don’t have a problem with anybody saying anything on Twitter. I’ve never done this before or acted like this before, but I reacted the way I did because it was about my opener, Richie Branson. This is his first tour. He’s a little nervous, and he needs a lot of support, regardless of what my fans think of him. That’s a favor for coming to my show.”
Ward said that he understands that fans have the right to express their opinions on show performances, especially on a somewhat guarded medium like Twitter, but that the circumstances surrounded Tuesday’s incident are different.
“This is different from the other rap shows that you see, and you have to act differently,” he said. “This is not a normal show. This is a nerdcore show. Everyone’s a nerd. Everyone’s been through difficult situations.
“The reason I kick people out of shows is because they’re causing a problem. The last thing that I want to do is kick someone out of my show. I want them to come up to the merch table after the show and shake my hand. But if they’re ruining it for other people, I have this protective instinct. If they’re messing with my fans, I get all angry dad on you.”
Taylor wrote on Reddit that he has been a “diehard mc chris fan since 2004, with plenty of fond memories of listening to Life’s a Bitch and I’m Her Pimp and Eating’s Not Cheating on repeat” but that last night’s dustup “kinda sullied those memories.”
“I’m a fan of MC Chris the musician, the artist, the comedian, and the voice actor,” he told the Daily Dot. “As for MC Chris the man, I don’t think I’ll be supporting him any time soon.
“You can’t judge and dismiss a person for one tweet. I’ve been a fan of his for years and hope that relationship can continue.”
Ward said that he tries to extend an olive branch to all the individuals he offends during the course of a show but admits that the Taylor situation may be different.
“I would like to say ‘Hey, I’m sorry. It obviously bothered you a lot,’” Ward said. “When he was removed from the venue, he was extremely apologetic. He said, ‘I know what I did was wrong.’ He was apologetic to my tour manager. understood that he did something wrong. But then he went home and went online and acted like I was Hitler. So I’m not in the biggest rush to try and make him feel better.”
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