T-Pain blasts Wisconsin State Fair Park officials for alleging event would draw 'gangs'
Among the fair's alleged concerns: that the event would attract gangs.
The 40-year-old Grammy winner born Faheem Najm aired his grievances in a pair of videos posted on his TikTok and Instagram pages late on May 1 that, combined, ran for nearly 20 minutes.
In the videos, he said Wiscansin State Fear would no longer be happening at State Fair Park, and instead will take place at Road America in Plymouth, with additional details to come.
In the first video, T-Pain says he first had communications with Wisconsin State Fair officials in February — including an in-person meeting — about his vision for the car-drifting event, including karaoke and carnival games and rides. Park officials approved the plans, even offering the contact for a carnival ride company, T-Pain said, and provided a contract that they signed.
The event — put on by T-Pain's Nappy Boy Automotive, and scheduled for the day before his fourth annual Wiscansin Fest at the Rave in Milwaukee June 14 — was announced in March.
Soon after, T-Pain says in the video, fair officials protested the name's similarity to Wisconsin State Fair and expressed concerns the event wouldn't be "family-friendly."
T-Pain alleges the seven-page agreement made no indication that park officials would need to approve the name of the event, saying in the second video that he still apologized.
Nevertheless, T-Pain says, fair officials raised more issues and pulled the plug on the plans. The performer says he was told they were no longer permitting karaoke "because they don't want the artists coming" that were booked for Wiscansin Fest, even though they weren't going to attend, T-Pain says.
T-Pain says he also was told the event could no longer have rides and carnival games because "when I bring the rides there, that's when the gangs come," despite the fact that the Wisconsin State Fair has carnival rides and games.
"You're doing it, and not Black T-Pain," he says in the second video.
T-Pain also says in the second video that he was told the "chief of police" would not be able to adequately staff the Wiscansin State Fear event as planned because another event, Greek Fest, is scheduled at State Fair Park the same day.
T-Pain doesn't specify in the video which department the chief of police was from. Robert Fletcher, deputy chief of the West Allis Police Department, told the Journal Sentinel via email "we do not have primary jurisdiction at the fair and have no say in any events being held there." The park has its own police department.
T-Pain says he offered to pay for 100 licensed security officers to work at Wiscansin State Fear, but fair officials declined the offer. He also says in the second video he requested to speak with the park's CEO, but that request was denied — although he said fair officials "had the audacity" to request to "get together on messaging" about the event's cancellation at State Fair Park.
"No, you don't get to control the narrative," T-Pain says in the second video, later uttering an expletive directed at officials.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reached out to the media relations and marketing teams at Wisconsin State Fair Park May 2 but didn't hear back as of early afternoon.
T-Pain started Wiscansin Fest at the Rave in Milwaukee in 2022 as a nod to one of his most famous lyrics, from his 2008 hit "Can't Believe It," in which he rhymes "mansion" with "Wiscansin." The Florida rapper has gotten a lot of mileage from that creative choice, launching a "Wiscansin University" merch line, complete with a funny fake-college website, in 2018.
In 2023, T-Pain told the Journal Sentinel he plans to open a real-life Wiscansin University, a music school, in the Milwaukee area, but no details have been revealed since.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: T-Pain blasts Wisconsin State Fair Park officials over car event
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