The title says it all. Traxx Girls party promoter Melissa Scott says she booked the homophobic convicted woman-beater Chris Brown for her biggest event during Black Gay Pride but he was a no show. Brown took to Twitter to say that he was never booked at all.
This past Labor Day weekend, the city of Atlanta hosted the annual Black Gay Pride event attracting thousands of LGBT individuals and their supporters. This is probably the biggest weekend of the year for gay party promoters here in the city. They’re all competing for the same dollars over the course of 3 days.
Traxx Girls, on the other hand, doesn’t have the same level of competition as the men. The Lesbian owned and operated company is one of the best known (and only) games in town for women. So it’s odd that Melissa Scott would need to book Chris Brown, of all people, to attract a predominately lesbian female crowd.
Wouldn’t lesbian attendees from all over the country prefer to see a sexy singing Diva or hard-hitting female rapper on stage moving the crowd?
Or how about booking one of the many LGBT artists out there making noise on the national scene like Siya, Cakes Da Killa, Big Freedia or even Fly Young Red (who has opened for Trina)?
Let me back up a bit for context. According to The Georgia Voice, here’s what happened over the weekend:
Chris Brown doesn’t give a damn about his gay fans.
Brown failed to show up at The Georgia Freight Depot nightclub as thousands of his fans waited to see the ‘Loyal’ singer at his scheduled Saturday appearance during Atlanta Black Gay Pride Weekend. The event, sponsored by Traxx Girls, a lesbian owned and operated entertainment company, was billed as the “biggest girl party in the country with over 4,000 women in attendance.” Brown, who was also in Atlanta to perform on his ‘One Hell of A Nite Tour’ at Aaron’s Amphitheater at Lakewood, had been prominently displayed in the center of Traxx Girls flyers promoting the event, but when the time came for Brown to fulfill his contractual obligations he bailed along with the fee he was paid by Traxx Girls as a retainer. The reason: of the estimated 4,000 women in attendance, Brown refused to enter the building once he learned that a handful of gay men were present.
Melissa Scott, party promoter and founder of Traxx Girls, tells Georgia Voice she’s “baffled” by the entire turn of events.
“I think it’s unfortunate for mainstream artists to take people’s money with the complete prior knowledge of knowing what the event is and being very clear about what the event is about. I’m completely baffled. You know it’s gay pride. You knew you agreed when you sent the contract in and took the money.”
Scott says she knew there was “trouble in paradise” when she and Brown’s team were exchanging text messages (which were verified by Georgia Voice) at 2am and he still hadn’t arrived at the venue.
“I was being told to take his (Brown’s) image down because he looks a little feminine in that image, an image that he took. As a promoter I should be focused on my crowd. I had to send text messages of pictures of my crowd to say, there’s nothing but girls in here man.”
Brown was not scheduled to perform at the Traxx Girls event but had agreed to introduce R&B singer Teyana Taylor prior to her set. Taylor is currently on the road with Brown as one of his opening acts on the ‘One Hell of A Nite Tour.’ Scott was able to secure popular rapper Fetty Wrap, also on tour with Brown, as a last minute replacement after Brown’s fragile masculinity stood in the way of making an appearance for his gay and lesbian fans.
“We called Fetty Wap who is the hottest artist in the country right now and he was five minutes away (from the venue) and asked him if he could come,” says Scott. He said “hell yeah!” I said it’s a gay party. It’s tons of people here. He said he didn’t care and was on his way.”
This isn’t the first time Brown has proven himself to be homophobic. He got into a heated Twitter exchange in 2010 after former B2K singer Raz B tweeted praise of singer and Brown’s ex-girlfriend Rihanna and actress Halle Berry by taking a dig at Brown. “I’m just sittin here thinking how can ni*** like Eric Benet and Chris Brown disrespect women as intelligent as Halle Berry, Rihanna,” Raz wrote.
In true Chris Brown fashion he replied: N-you want attention! Grow up n****!!! Di-in da booty ass lil boy.” Brown later apologized.
Scott says what transpired between she and Brown has never happened to her.
“It broke my heart to do that to my crowd. Some people flew in from LA. I had 100 girls who flew in from the UK to hang out with this guy in an environment they’re comfortable in, says Scott”
Here’s the message to Brown’s gay fans: support artists who support you.
As previously stated, after the backlash and accusations of homophobia, Brown took to Twitter to tell his side of the story:
I’m leaning more towards giving Melissa Scott the benefit of the doubt here. I believe that Brown was booked, likely paid in advance, and still didn’t show up. If this is the case, we should be expecting to hear about a lawsuit sometime soon.
Either way, why would Scott book Chris Brown in the first place? I get that she’s a promoter and attracting a large crowd for “the biggest girl party in the country” sometimes means that you have to book a big celebrity, regardless of gender.
But this was for Black Gay Pride…PRIDE!
Of all the people to book for our marquee event, why Chris Brown?
Also, think about this: The owner of a large LGBT company in Atlanta was willing to enable his homophobia, even on the night of the event!
According to Melissa Scott (pictured above), Brown refused to come into the building once he learned that some gay men were present. Upon hearing this, Scott says that she went out of her way to assure him that NO gay men would be there to offend his homophobic sensibilities. “I had to send text messages of pictures of my crowd to say, there’s nothing but girls in here man,” she told writer Darian Aaron.
So a black gay party promoter holding an event during Black Gay Pride was desperately hoping to convince a homophobic artist (who at this point was obviously bailing on her on the night of her biggest event) that there were NO gay men present….during BLACK GAY PRIDE!
Imagine if a heterosexual party promoter did this regarding homosexuals?
Look, this is not to turn the blame away from Chris Brown, he’s clearly the one with a long record of homophobia and misogyny. I have no doubt that Melissa Scott gave someone in his camp a retainer fee on the promise that he would attend. I highly doubt that a promoter with this much experience would put the image of an artist on a flyer for an event this large without having some assurances that the artist was booked.
However, I do have to question why this particular artist was chosen in the first place.
This is further proof on what Fly Young Red and other LGBT artists have stated: Pride Promoters need to book LGBT artists for main events, especially those that are primarily based on celebrating Gay/Lesbian Pride.
“So a black gay party promoter holding an event during Black Gay Pride was desperately hoping to convince a homophobic artist (who at this point was obviously bailing on her on the night of her biggest event) that there were NO gay men present….during BLACK GAY PRIDE!”
I thought the exact same thing when I first read about this several days ago.
This debacle emphasizes the hatred that many in the hip hop/rap community have for gay men.
It’s important to keep in mind that some lesbians (like Melissa Scott) are more than willing to cosign this hatred of gay men in order to gain favor with homophobic straight men.
I will never understand why the LGBT community doesn’t support their own artists who do actually make good music. There are others that could be booked. I hope more people understand that they should support their own.
Let’s see what happens over the course of the next few days because if he really was booked, a lawsuit needs to happen!
Why is it so hard for us in the LGBT community to support our own?! This reminds me of how black people look for validation from white people. We see it all the time.
At the end of the day, some heterosexuals (especially in hip-hop/rap community could careless about the LGBT community so why the hell should we give them our money or support them?!
In my mind I can understand the concept of inviting Brown because its like inviting Monica/K. Michelle/Tamar to the Gay (Male) Pride event. In the sense that his hardcore fans could be more lesbian women like their hardcore fans could be more gay men.
Also, from how I read his tweets each time he uses the word “show.” In the entertainment industry with millions of dollars you have lawyers who are there to back you in controversy etc and that word being used each time was not just to be said. Those tweets also don’t seem like tweets he would personally tweet. In what was quoted from the promoter was that he wanted Chris to introduce Teyana and to me that would be weird for a person who is headlining a tour to go to a club to introduce on of their opening artists.
That’s my two cents on how I view this situation with all the information provided here.
Meanwhile I’d say 70% of this mans fans are gay men. So are you all going to keep spending your dollars to support someone that for years has expressed disdain for the community or are you going to ignore this because you don’t expect anything better?