Baltimore pulls plug on Kanye West video events; events happen anyway

by Sheme Jobs

Update: It looks like West was able to prevail, to an extent: At about 9 p.m., Def Jam Records tweeted that a projection would take place on the Walters Art Museum, 45 minutes earlier than the originally scheduled time in what appeared to be an attempt to buck the cancellation announced by city police earlier in the day. Twitter user @Milly_Esquire posted several pictures that appeared to show just that.

“Attention Baltimore: Let’s beat the cops,” Def Jam then tweeted at 9:40. “We are headed to the Bromo Seltzer tower. See you at 9:50!”

Kanye West may be projecting his new video onto buildings around the world, but it won’t be happening tonight in Baltimore anymore.

Just hours before West’s video “New Slaves” was to be beamed on the Bromo Seltzer tower, the Walters Art Museum and Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore Police tweeted that the event had been cancelled.

Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi confirmed that the cancellation was on the city’s part, saying the organizers did not have proper permits. He cited the use of electricity and anticipated crowds.

Guglielmi noted that showings in Houston on Friday night were also cancelled; here’s a report from the Hollywood Reporter.

Baltimore and Houston were to be part of a second wave of screenings after West debuted the song on 66 buildings across the globe. To get a taste of what Baltimore’s missing out on, here’s video (warning: explicit language) from a projection in San Francisco.