A streetfight that broke out on the streets of Stockholm, Sweden on June 30th came into the limelight the following day.
The brawl received undue attention thanks to the celebrity involvement of rapper A$AP Rocky. On July 1, TMZ shared a video of A$AP and his entourage thrashing two fans in the street in broad daylight. The video showed Rocky literally tossing one of the men across the street like a rag-doll and a couple of people from his crew hitting and kicking him after that.
As it would, this video clip went viral, but right after that Rocky himself released two videos on July 2 of how the incident went down right before that short clip shared by TMZ. The near 3 min clip shows the two boys following A$AP and his crew around for over 4 blocks before getting violent and hitting his bodyguard on the head with a pair of headphones. Even after this, the video shows even A$AP himself trying to peacefully tell the two boys to just lay off and stop following them. He even goes on to say they don’t want to fight, just stop following us. The clip ends with a female voice mentioning that the same two men had harassed her and her girlfriend and slapped their butt.
After watching this video, one glaring question which strikes is why was someone from his crew recording almost the entire altercation? It even shows A$AP saying this is for the cameras as proof that these guys have been following us. What made him feel the need to document the entire incident? Did he foresee this blowing up or was it as a precautionary measure in case it did? It was he who even took it to the authorities himself, which eventually led to the tables turning and he himself getting arrested.
It has now been over a week that he has been in a Swedish detention center which a lot of sources claim as being “inhumane living condition.” Multiple reports have stated that he has been kept in a “disease-ridden, insanitary” facility and given nothing more than an apple a day to eat. TMZ also reported that the person from the U.S. Consulate who visited Rocky in the jail reported back saying, “Walking into that place was like walking into a toilet.”
Since court proceedings in Sweden are closed to the public and the media, all we currently know is that the case is in the hands of prosecutors who claim such a case usually takes about 14 days and the rapper will remain in custody at least till then. But the consensus remains that the rapper acted in self-defense.
In the light of his imprisonment though he has been forced to cancel a number of tour dates and festival appearances scheduled for July including the famed Tomorrowland. As a result of the cancellation, he will have to miss performances across Europe in Belgium, Germany, Norway, Italy, Ukraine, Poland, Ireland, UK, and Spain. The rapper has also been receiving immense support from the community. While a petition to get #JusticeForRocky receiving support from the who’s who. Industry leaders like Diddy, Justin Bieber, Meek Mill, Post Malone, and a host more have posted in support of the petition which has already reached over 560,000 supports in a very short period of time.
Gaining support in more ways than that his collaborators and friends are also canceling shows and boycotting performing in Sweden in his support. After Tyga called off his recent show in Sweden in support for Rocky, Tyler, the Creator Schoolboy Q, and T.I. called out for a complete boycott when it came to Sweden. Sheck Wes also recalled an incident he had at the hand of Swedish authorities in which he was allegedly strip-searched without consent in the light of this harassment and injustice towards Rocky.
While the rappers alleged attackers are now also under investigation for molestation and assault, Rocky will remain at Kronoberg, the detention center he is currently at, until at least July 19 when the prosecutor “must decide whether to file a prosecution or ask the court for a longer detention period in order to finalize the investigation,” according to the Swedish Prosecution Authority. If convicted of gross assault, Rocky faces six years behind bars.
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