Singer T-Pain Arrested During Performance In Miami
Published: Sunday - April 29, 2007
Words by Miles Bennett
T-Pain (Photo: Jive Records)
Singer T-Pain was arrested in Miami on Saturday evening (April 28) during the annual Radio One Springfest concert where he was performing.
The singer (real name: Faheem Najm) was a scheduled performer at the event, which took place at the Bayfront Amphitheater.
Witnesses in attendance told BallerStatus.com that T-Pain -- who was the closing act -- became furious when he was asked to cut his set short, despite chanting fans wanting a show from the singer.
"He started telling the crowd they were trying to shorten his show and that he wasn't going for it," the source told BallerStatus. "He was told he had 30 [minutes] and he wasn't getting off that stage until those 30 [minutes] were up. He said a lot of other things to the crowd in reference to what was going on. During all that the whole backstage area was blanketed by 20-plus police trying to cut the sound off to stop the show."
The singer ignored requests to cut his performance, continuing to put on his show, all while the backstage area began to fill with police officers.
An eyewitness said that T-Pain's manager ran off stage, pushed down a female police officer while trying to make his way to the DJ booth, which is when he was surrounded by authorities before running back to the stage.
While this was going on, other officers argued with event organizers backstage to shut down T-Pain's show, but the singer continued on.
When the singer finally broke into "Buy You A Drink," his latest single, T-Pain's music was finally cut. He then tossed his mic and became furious, jumping up and down, while throwing middle fingers at the police and screaming "f--- you."
Before chaos could ensue, T-Pain and his entourage exited to their van outside the venue, followed by police who proceeded to pull all members from the vehicle including the singer.
"The police immediately ran up to the van and pulled T-Pain's crew out of the van," the source said. "His road manager Boogie's shirt was pulled up and around his face as the grabbed him out the van. Tay Dizm, one of T-Pain's performers, got pulled out the van and thrown on the ground. T-Pain got pulled on too. The officers took all of their jewelry off, even J-Lyric's who was not even in the van and didn't get arrested.
"The police were very angry and seemed like they had a point to prove as they dragged T-Pain and crew to the office away from everyone else," he continued.
Although it is unclear what the charges were, he was arrested shortly afterward and taken into custody.
Calls to the Miami Police Department were not returned at press time.
T-Pain was one of many acts who performed throughout Radio One's Springfest weekend. Others included Trey Songz, Mims, Jim Jones, Rick Ross, Yung Joc and Rich Boy among others.
Stay tuned for further information as it becomes available.
[story was edited February 29, 2007 at 2:44 p.m. EST]
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