On Friday, with less than 12 hours notice, Richmond received notice that it was to be one of the latest stops on the worldwide guerrilla marketing tour for Kanye West’s latest album, Yeezus. Specifically, Richmond would play host to three different projections of a special video for Yeezus‘s first single, “New Slaves,” which had already been broadcast on the walls of several dozen cities around the world.
On Friday, with less than 12 hours notice, Richmond received notice that it was to be one of the latest stops on the worldwide guerrilla marketing tour for Kanye West’s latest album, Yeezus. Specifically, Richmond would play host to three different projections of a special video for Yeezus‘s first single, “New Slaves,” which had already been broadcast on the walls of several dozen cities around the world. We reported this information to you when we got it, but in truth, we were just as in the dark about what to expect as anyone else in Richmond. Friday’s projections in RVA were three of 22 different projections planned for various cities around the country, and not all of the events planned for the first two waves of projections (which occurred on May 17 and May 24) had actually happened. Police in Baltimore and Houston shut down earlier planned projections for those cities, citing “permit issues and public safety concerns,” according to SPIN. I had no idea whether to expect the projections planned for RVA to actually happen, but as the final projection was happening only six blocks from my house, I decided to at least wander by the site and see what went down.
The first projection, at the Museum of the Confederacy, had been planned for 9:30 PM, with the second planned for the Seigel Center at 10:30 PM. As I was walking to the corner of Robinson and Floyd, planned site for the final projection, I started getting texts from RVA Mag contributing writer Joseph Genest. He told me he was pretty sure the city had shut down all of the projections. He’d headed to the first two locations and seen nothing, and that RVANews had run an article stating that the projections were cancelled due to lack of permits. Joseph was upset that Richmond’s government hadn’t made it easier for an innovative promotional campaign to take place within the city, an opinion I heard from a lot of people over the past few days. While in some ways I find myself agreeing, I can also understand why the city can’t forgo permit requirements just because an artist is innovative.
By the time we’d reached this point in our conversation, I was at the corner of Robinson and Floyd. It was about 11:15 PM, but there were already quite a few people gathered on all four corners of the intersection. I immediately ran into RVA Mag’s sales manager, Dan Anderson, and a couple of other friends, and we settled in and prepared for a wait. There were at least four Richmond Police cruisers at the location, with around a dozen police officers monitoring the situation. A uniformed officer that Dan spoke to said that he hoped to see the video, but an officer in plainclothes (who we assumed was of a higher rank) said that it wasn’t going to happen. However, the police weren’t trying to make the crowd disperse, and we hung out at the intersection for at least half an hour waiting to see what would occur. By 11:45 or so, there were several hundred onlookers hanging out at the intersection–crowds of confused barhoppers were having some trouble navigating the sidewalks–but after a while it became obvious that nothing was happening. By 11:50 or so, my friends and I gave up and headed into a nearby bar for drinks. The rest of the crowd dispersed soon afterwards.
So none of the official, planned projections went down on Friday night. But there is an interesting postscript–I learned Monday morning that an unplanned, spontaneous projection occurred in the Shockoe Slip area sometime Friday night. Evidence of the projection, pictured above and below, appeared on Instagram as well as on the Planet 804 blog (there are also brief videos of the projection posted to Vine, here and here). Channel 6’s website mentions a rumor that this projection occurred at 1:30 AM, but we can’t confirm that. We aren’t even certain how official this showing was–though it seems that it must have been somewhat official, because while videos of the projections taking place in various cities have hit Youtube over the past few weeks, the actual video that has been projected is not publicly available. The comment on the above photo, posted by Instagram user rpryor804, says “We put the Kanye West new vid on the building downtown,” making this seem at least semi-official. Planet 804 referred to the old theatre saying, “The show must go on.” Presumably, this projection took place without a permit, but as it was broadcast from E. Cary St restaurant Kai onto the wall of its across-the-street neighbor, Restore, and since Instagram user rpryor804 appears to be Kai chef Rhian Pryor, it all makes sense in the end.
Crowd in front of Kai watching the Kanye West projection
Sadly, the end result is that most Richmonders who wanted to see the projection didn’t get to, while those who did get to only had that opportunity due to happenstance. No official word on who should take the blame for this situation is available at this point–no one’s definitively confirmed any lack of permits. However, if permits were required for an installation like this, one would expect that the reason would be for purposes of crowd control. And yet, crowds were allowed to form, and not told to disperse by officers that were present on the scene, at all of the announced locations for the projection. If the city’s authorities were going to allow crowds to form, they may as well have allowed the projections to go on. There were no riots at any of the projection sites when the fans that had gathered were disappointed, which makes it seem highly unlikely that they would have rioted if they’d actually gotten what they’d come for. At more successful showings taking place last Friday night, the “New Slaves” video was also accompanied by public playbacks of several songs from Yeezus. In Detroit, fans danced in the streets to the sounds of “On Sight” and “Black Skinhead.” Everything there apparently went off without a hitch. So why can’t Richmond handle what Detroit manages to deal with quite well?
As we all ponder that question, we leave you with this video of the “New Slaves” projection, filmed May 17 in New York City’s Soho neighborhood.
Kanye West’s Yeezus is out today. Check local retailers, or grab a copy from Amazon HERE.
