The R. Kelly & Jay-Z headlined "Best of Both Worlds" tour has canceled two shows. Sunday night's concert at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee was nixed a few hours before show time, and Tuesday's show at the Civic Center in Hartford, Conn., is now off.
A news release from the Kelly camp said the tour will resume Thursday at the Nassau Coliseum in New York, and it blamed technical difficulties for the cancellations.
Add that news release to reports that Saturday's concert at the Saavis Center in St. Louis was cut short because of an emotional outburst by R. Kelly, it begins to look like the tour is unraveling.
Saturday's problems started following Kelly's performance of "Step In The Name of Love, reports pop music critic Kevin C. Johnson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
"Kelly went into 'Happy People,' but he jumped off the stage onto the arena floor. He kind of made a mad dash, surrounded by security, from the stage to the rear of the arena, where the soundboard was.Once he got there, he was really up in the soundmen's faces -- he was very angry and agitated, and it looked like he was probably cursing," Johnson said. "He was definitely very upset."
Incredibly, the whole scene was projected onto the arena's giant video screens. After a while, Kelly ran back to the stage and basically said goodnight," Johnson said. "The problem was, the show clearly was not over."
Johnson said that the two men, who have a hit single on the radio together, shared the stage for about 15 minutes.
“They never addressed each other and didn't appear to look at each other,” Johnson revealed. “After their set together, the show was broken down into several mini solo sets.”
Jay-Z ended the concert following a solo set and a tribute to dead hip-hop and R&B heroes.
"The artists want to apologize to everyone who bought tickets to the Milwaukee and Hartford shows," a Kelly spokesman said Sunday in a written statement.
"They are as disappointed as anyone that they won't be able to perform as scheduled. These concerts are extremely complicated stage shows with a multitude of special effects, dance numbers,
and lighting and sound cues, and unfortunately we need to take a few days off to work out some
technical problems."
Meanwhile, in the R. Kelly child pornography case, the troubled musician is scheduled to
appear in court on November 5.
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