NIAGARA FALLS: School district calls off hip-hop concert

District cancels “urban music talent show” over “security concerns.”

By Rick Pfeiffer/pfeifferr@gnnewspaper.com

A planned hip-hop concert at a Cataract City middle school was abruptly canceled late Thursday afternoon amid what Falls School Superintendent Carmen Granto called “security concerns.”

“I just found out about this (Thursday) and as far as I’m concerned there are security issues and a few other things,” Granto said. “The principal (of Gaskill Middle School) didn’t recommend it and I support him. I do think the principal felt (the event) was misrepresented to him.”

Falls police also said they had concerns about the concert.

“I was concerned and I couldn’t believe (the school district) was allowing something we thought was dangerous,” Superintendent John Chella said.

The event, described by its promoters as an “urban talent show,” was set to feature up to a half dozen rap and hip-hop artists, headlined by DNA, a group made up of Falls residents Tyree “Peezy” Walker, Bashir “Bobby Paparazzi” Price, Andrew Timmons and Dartanian Howard.

Chella said the school district told them the show had been pitched as a “fashion show,” but Walker, the group member and principal promoter of the event, said his request clearly described the event as “an urban music talent show.”

“(The school district) stereotyped this,” Walker said. “They looked at our name, which stands for ‘Dey Not Your Average’ and (the district) was informed that we were affiliated with gangs. But that’s not true because we got jobs and graduated from Niagara Falls High School.”

Walker did admit that the group had changed the meaning of its (DNA) name. At one time, the group’s initials stood for “Deez N-----’s Amazin’.”

“That was our name in middle school, when we formed,” Walker said. “But now we’re a business and we had to change our name.”

Still, police gang experts said there are links between DNA and one the Falls’ more notorious street gangs — Highland World — also known as “H-Dub.” On DNA’s MySpace page the group explicitly mentions that they are “reppin for Highland World.”

“That’s where I grew up,” Walker said. “I’m just saying, ‘Shout out to Highland.’ It’s where I grew up. If I grew up in LaSalle, I’d shout out to LaSalle.”

Price also objected to being linked to H-Dub.

“Just to say I’m affiliated with gangsters so that makes me a gangster is defamation of character,” Price said. “It doesn’t mean members of our group (are gang members).”

While Price said neither he, Timmons nor Howard had any serious criminal histories, he admitted that Walker has had some problems with the law.

“(Walker) is trying to change from that,” Price said.

Walker’s criminal record stretches back to at least when he was in his early teens. In November 2004, at the age of 16, he was charged with two counts of second-degree robbery, a felony.

In 2005, he was arrested multiple times on charges including disorderly conduct, obstructing governmental administration and drug possession, all misdemeanors. Walker, along with his cousin Christopher, was charged in September 2006 with two felony drug possession charges for possession of marijuana, crack cocaine and suspected opium. He has been arrested twice in 2007 on drug possession counts.

Court records show he faces a sentencing on Nov. 28 for one of his drug charges. A Gazette review of other court records showed that Walker has usually been given suspended sentences or fines for his criminal convictions.

Walker expressed frustration that his criminal record may have played a role in the cancellation of the concert.

“It’s like once a criminal, always a criminal. I don’t think that’s right,” Walker said. “I didn’t know I needed a background check to rent a forum.”