Suggesting that he might not have a perfect grasp of how to show respect to an ex and her attempts to get on with her life—or possibly that he’s just watched Love fucking Actually too many goddamn times—rapper Offset decided it would be very cool to crash his separated wife Cardi B’s headlining set at Los Angeles’ Rolling Loud festival last night, begging her to take him back. The intended “romantic gesture” does not appear to have gone to plan; although she later issued a series of requests to fans asking that they not rip Offset apart for the bone-headed move (“At the end of the day, that’s still family”), Cardi doesn’t appear terribly happy about it in video of the incident, which sees his “Take Me Back” props get swiftly cleared from the stage. Her stage.
The most upsetting thing about this whole debacle, though, is that—as noted by our sister site The Root (and a whole bunch of folks on Twitter)—Rolling Loud appears to have known that something was up with Cardi’s set, having since deleted a post in which they suggested the evening was likely to go “viral.” Which is, if true, incredibly fucked up, since it’s pretty clear that, of the people who knew what was coming on that stage, Cardi herself—who was, again, trying to do a show that’s a milestone for her rapidly escalating career—wasn’t one of them. That’s a hefty violation of the basic protections a performer can hope to expect from a venue they’re performing at, and it’s a real bummer that people might have conspired to take that moment away from her in the interest of “going viral.”
Update: Rolling Loud co-founder Tariq Cherif has now issued a statement, denying that the festival had any involvement in Offset’s stunt (beyond knowing that “something” was going to happen during the set).
“Headliners and their teams have full control of the stage and who is allowed on it during their set at Rolling Loud. The festival does not interfere with or influence a headliner’s set list. We have never and will never do anything to change a headliner’s set. We were tipped off that something was going to happen, but had nothing to do with the organization or execution of it.
Rolling Loud is proud to provide the platform for a queen like Cardi B to absolutely slay her performance. Despite the stunt, she performed hit after hit and electrified the crowd with her talent, energy, choreography, and set design. Cardi B proved herself as a top tier headliner last night, and that should be the story. We look forward to continued business with her in the future.”