Camp Flog Gnaw, a rap festival created by Tyler the Creator, was held this year and sparked some uproar with its attendees. According to articles written by Buzzfeed and USA Today, fans were informed that “the headliner spot was kept a surprise- the official lineup included ‘???’ in lieu of a name”; there were several speculations that the performer would be Frank Ocean (Yasharoff, 2019). Due to Frank’s very rare appearances in public, this caused many fans to be excited due to its mysterious reveal. Because of this, people expected him to perform at the festival. However, Frank Ocean did not come out; instead, Drake did. Drake is a professional rapper known globally for his music. Although he is a respected artist, the crowd was majorly upset. Drake was booed off the stage at Camp Flog Gnaw by the crowd in response to their frustration and disappointment for the absence of Frank Ocean.
The crowd surrounding Drake’s stage at the festival were angry and acted out on Drake because of displacement. Displacement is when anger is placed on someone or something else that is not the direct or actual cause of a problem. Because the fans were mad at the fact that Frank Ocean did not appear, they took their anger out on Drake and booed him. Instead of being mad at Frank, they decided to target Drake for the source of their frustration.
Because fans were angry that Frank was not there and took their anger out on Drake, in addition, they acted out in catharsis. Catharsis is the way in which people attempt to relieve their anger through action or thought. People booed Drake off the stage; even “after Drake left the stage, the crowd started chanting, ‘We want Frank!’” (LaConte, 2019). By booing, shouting and chanting, this provided the crowd to believe that they were relieving the anger and frustrations they had. However, though it seemed as if acting out would help their feelings of disappointment, it did not change their mentality or help them to feel better about the situation at hand.
Though it was disappointing that Frank Ocean was not the surprise headliner, it is incredibly rude and unfortunate that an artist was treated this way. Drake came out of his way to headline a festival and people were rude enough to boo and shout him off the stage. Though it is frustrating to expect one artist, it was never promised or confirmed. Because of this, it is awful to see that people were so ungrateful to be in the presence of another great artist.
References
LaConte, S. (2019, November 13). Drake Got Booed Off The Stage At A Concert And Now There’s Big Drama On Twitter. Retrieved from https://www.buzzfeed.com/stephenlaconte/drake-booed-camp-flog-gnaw-frank-ocean-tyler-the-creator.
Yasharoff, H. (2019, November 11). Music festival curator Tyler, The Creator slams fans who booed Drake off the stage. Retrieved from https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2019/11/11/drake-booed-off-camp-flog-gnaw-stage-surprise-headliner/2560244001/.
Britney Cantel
Hi Brittney,
Great job on this blog post! This story definitely swept the nation and left people very confused – a good choice! The two concepts you talked about in this story were displacement and catharsis, which I think are perfect concepts that tie into this story. Your explanations of both were very well-done, as just from reading your article I was able to understand the definitions of each. While reading, I learned that displacement means when negative feelings are transferred from the original source of the emotion to another safer or socially acceptable source. In addition, from reading your post I also learned that catharsis is the idea that aggression is reduced by releasing aggression through behavior or thoughts.
Another concept that we learned that I think also ties into your post is the idea of the need to belong. In this article, being denounced by the crowd most likely deprived Drake of positive interactions within that moment. Therefore, causing Drake to lack the motivation to bond with the crowd over his music when he arrived on stage. This evidently lead to Drake not feeling accepted and almost ostracized, for which is an example of how humans need to feel like they belong. Not feeling belonged can also lead to aggression, as well. I just want to elaborate on what you said in regards to it being disrespectful of the crowd to denounce Drake like that. I also thought it was disrespectful and want to mention how important it was for you to say that. If you did not, it would have probably seemed like the concepts you used to explain the behavior was positive – for which it is not.
Great work on this post!