Updated: Over 20,000 people showed up!
(Drake at his CD Release signing at Best Buy in NYC, earlier on Tuesday..
why must he always wear a grey sweatshirt?? ughh lol)Senseless violence made NYPD shut down Drake's FREE concert, Tuesday night, on the South Street Seaport in NYC!
Over 10,000 people showed up, which caused a lot of drama, prompting police to pull the plug on the show before the rap phenom ever had a chance to grab a mic.
The raucous crowd massed on the Seaport's cobble-stoned streets spun out of control as opening act Ninjasonik performed.
"Everybody was pushing up, trying to get to the front,"
said Tamika Johnson, 31, of East New York, Brooklyn.
(Over 10,000 Drake fans at NY's, South Street Seaport)Johnson and her 6-year-old daughter were among thousands who turned out for the free show, part of a publicity blitz marking the release of the up-and-coming Canadian rapper's debut album,
"Thank Me Later.""People in the front started leaving because they were getting crushed,"
Johnson said.
"Then they started throwing bottles from the balconies."
Fights broke out as rowdies tossed flower pots from the upper floors of the Seaport down onto the crowd on the street,
said Jasmine Arroyo, 23, of Brooklyn. You can actually see the flower pots on the balconies they are referring to in the above photo.
Arroyo said the scene turned into "a madhouse" as people on the street began firing plastic bottles and "any object they could find" at the flower-pot-hurlers.
"A lot of people were drunk and falling down ... fistfights within the crowds,"
she said.
"There were people jumping onto token booths and hopping over fences."
The smiley-faced Drake was anything but after his gig was canceled, telling the Daily News the NYPD put the kibosh on the festivities due to "overcrowding."
"I am humbled by the crowd that showed up in support of my performance,"
he said through his spokeswoman.
"Unfortunately, the show was canceled by the NYPD due to overcrowding, leaving me without the chance to give my fans a real show."
He also took it to Twitter:
Police officials said they received a flurry of 911 calls, but they would not immediately confirm Drake's claim that cops cleared the stage and sent thousands of fans packing.
"The crowd wasn't going anywhere,"
Johnson said.
"If he would have came out, that would have calmed everything down."
Johnson said her daughter was devastated she didn't get to seeDrizzy star perform.
"She started crying because he didn't come out,"
Johnson said.
"She got dried up tears on her face."
Earlier that day, more than 500 crazed Drake fans lined up to meet the Lil' Wayne protégé at his album release inside the Best Buy store at Union Square.
The ladies love Drake!
Guess 4th time is a charm.... because Bey has decided to name her 4th album, "4."
