De La Soul’s DJ Maseo allegedly threatened to “kill” the production manager in charge of the group’s disastrous Sydney show last week, it has been claimed.
In a post-mortem of Friday’s gig – dubbed the ‘shoddiest ever’ by fans – Dig Deep Productions, the company in charge of the show’s sound, lighting and staging, says De La Soul failed to show up for a soundcheck, were late for their set and abusive to staff when the sound was cut off.
PSV Touring, the hip hop trio’s Australian tour management, have also blamed the group for the show’s late start and the cancellation of two gigs in Melbourne over the weekend.
“The behaviour of DJ Maseo was unprofessional and totally out of order, the De La Soul fans deserved better from their idols, and the fans need to know exactly why this show turned into such a bad experience for all involved,” said Dig Deep director David Leeson in a statement today. “Passing the blame to the promoters, the venue and us the production company was unfair and unjust. Artists that behave this way towards their fans need to be accountable for their actions.”
According to Leeson, De La Soul had originally agreed to run a soundcheck at the venue at 7:30pm, but failed to show.
PSV Touring explained the group’s absence in its own statement today, saying that “drivers were waiting in the foyer of De La Soul’s hotel from 7:30pm but the band did not set off until after 11pm”.
Leeson added that: “Several phone calls were made to touring staff when the band had not turned up on time, at 8pm the production manager was advised that De La Soul would no longer be doing a soundcheck before doors opened and would have to do this live while the crowd was present.”
Despite being due to perform between 10:15pm and 11:30pm, giving the group a half-hour buffer to run over time ahead of the venue’s midnight curfew, De La Soul didn’t arrive at the venue until 11:15pm.
“DJ Maseo then took another 15 minutes to set up his laptop and earphones, and appeared to be in no rush to get the show started. At 11:30pm they then started the live soundcheck, this took a total of 15 minutes before they were happy to begin,” Leeson said in the statement. “At 11:45pm DJ Maseo began to complain to the crowd about the tour and the promoters he had been dealing with, and said they were the reason they were so late…this speech lasted a total of eight minutes!”
In his onstage rant Maseo said the equipment had been provided were “Tonka toys” and the kind on sale at “Best Buy”. However, both PSV and Dig Deep have defended the set-up, saying that all equipment was as per the band’s technical rider and agreed weeks in advance. Leeson added that the other DJ’s performing on the night had “no issues” and the “sound was perfect”.
“The terrible sound that the crowd heard was indeed the live soundcheck at 11:30pm, something that should have been done at 7:30pm as arranged by both the promoter and band,” he said.
After their opening song, De La Soul were informed from the side of the stage that they had two minutes remaining, at which point Maseo “abused” production staff, Leeson claims.
“The audio was turned off right on the venue curfew time of midnight and Maseo again abused the production manager and threatened to kill him if he didn’t turn the sound back on and get off his stage,” he said.
Following the Sydney gig, De La Soul had been due to play two shows in Melbourne over the weekend. These were cancelled after PSV were unable to contact the band.
“The promoters contacted De La Soul on Saturday to confirm that the remaining shows would go ahead, but with no response, PSV Touring had no alternative but to advise that De La Soul would not be playing,” PSV said in its statement.
De La Soul are yet to make any statement about the Sydney show or cancelled Melbourne gigs. They have been contacted for comment.
