Grand Hustle/Capitol recording artist Alfamega has opened up about the chain of events that led to the chaotic early end of last week’s Dirty Awards in Atlanta.
In a recent interview with AllHipHop.com, the rapper issued a heartfelt apology to the organizers of the event and explained that he was acting in self-defense during his much publicized altercation with members of Atlanta rapper Shawty Lo’s camp.
“First I wanna apologize to [Radio One Atlanta Operations Manager] Steve Hegwood and all of Radio One, and to all of the fans, for the incident that occurred,” Alfamega told AllHipHop.com. “The fans, they came to see a show, they shouldn’t have been subject to the beef that we had. I not only embarrassed myself, I embarrassed them also.”
According to the rapper known as the “Grand Hustle Muscle,” previous accounts of the melee at the Dirty Awards last Monday (November 24) were wrong on several points.
He stated that the conflict was actually initiated by members of Shawty Lo’s entourage during his impromptu performance of the diss song “Don’t I.”
While some witnesses identified Alfamega as having thrown an object, alternately described as a bottle or chair, from the crowd, he revealed that a bottle of water was actually thrown from the stage.
The object hit Grand Hustle artist Bola of the group Xtaci in the face, prompting someone else to throw a chair, Alfa said.
The more violent conflict, which left Shawty Lo’s brother on the ground, was an instance of self-defense, the rapper claimed.
“I was out on the floor and Tip and LA were up there performing, and I was dancing around, I jumped up on a table,” he recounted. “And Shawty Lo picked up a drink like he was gon’ toss his drink on me. He was on top of another table. Just like with any human being, if you in the club and I’m looking at you like I’m gonna throw a drink on you and we already don’t like each other, your first reaction is to [defend yourself].
"When he looked at me like he was gonna toss it, I got down off the table, cuz one of the cops came over and told me to get down.”
According to Alfamega’s account, that is when the situation began to escalate.
“When I looked around, it’s not just this dude, it’s three more of his people coming up too behind him and one of the security dudes with Shawty Lo,” Alfamega stated. “The first thing I’m thinking is I’m gonna be in bodily harm, and I’m not gonna let you harm me. So I smacked him. I didn’t punch him, I slapped him. Everybody thinks I punched and that’s how he fell out. Then I started swinging on the other dudes, that’s when the cops started spraying the pepper spray.”
By the time Alfamega was escorted out of the venue, the responding officers were approached by several other artists who vouched that he had not started the fight.
He was released free of charge.
According to Alfamega, no one in the Grand Hustle camp has any intention on continuing this beef.
The rapper, who’s Capitol Records debut I Am Alfamega is due out in January, explains that this was an isolated incident provoked by months of tension.
“When I think about myself, I’m not just thinking about me, I’m thinking about my children,” he said. “They’re subject to this when they get to school. Same thing on [the other] side. We gotta be grown men, and not grown males about this thing. I feel like we’ve exhausted everything. It didn’t work. Every time we tried [to squash it], it didn’t work. We’ve been eating the disrespect for like a year, being the bigger men. And it just totally got out of hand that night there. We not tripping. We living our life, we doing our thing.”
Shawty Lo has denied starting the fight as well and claimed that members of the Grand Hustle camp were starting trouble and menacing him when he performed earlier in the evening.
