Bobby Shmurda has addressed the sudden cancellation of his US tour, which was set to begin in roughly a week. In an Instagram post, the rapper apologized to fans and said he took “full responsibility” while also calling out his booking agent.
The agent, Philip Stengel, subsequently responded by claiming the tour was canceled due to poor ticket sales, averaging only 10 tickets per show.
“I have to go through lawsuits with these guys @philipstengel works at @halotouring @igetgwop that I knew better to do business with,” Shmurda wrote in the caption of his post. “Let this be a life lesson to all business owners and affiliate. Don’t leave nothing in no one hands don’t matter how much you gotta work.”
He continued, “Nobody’s gonna treat your work like it’s you except if you got a top pause, done expert, but that happens once in a blue moon because you have money does not make you a boss… I might have to go through some lawsuits and lawyer fee money a.k.a. The industry most wanted ain’t nothing new I been fighting”
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The Brooklyn drill pioneer attached screenshots of contentious text messages purportedly between Stengel, a booking agent at Halo Touring, and Sergio Patillo (aka Go Gwop), founder and CEO of Oakstreet Media. In the exchange, the two appear to engage in a heated argument over the tour’s promotion and marketing.
“Hey bitch lmk if you need the book mailing address to sue me,” Stengel wrote in one message. “And anytime we can run the fucking fade ain’t no bitch here you ain’t gonna talk to me like you have been.”
Attempting to de-escalate the situation, Gwop responded, “[Tempers] flared and things were said from both sides call it even as men and lets follow through with what we started.” He also expressed frustration about needing to “go through weeks of emails and calls” to ensure the tour was “being promoted correctly.”
While the shared screenshots initially suggested cooler heads prevailed, with Gwop apparently discovering that some promoters didn’t “[run] the ads right,” Stengel later told his side of the story in an Instagram post of his own.
“Let’s be clear: the tour was canceled because average ticket sales across markets were 10 per city. That’s not viable under any circumstances — no matter the artist or budget,” Stengel wrote. “Bobby Shmurda chose to publicly vent rather than acknowledge performance metrics. His frustration is understood, but the numbers don’t lie. The problem wasn’t promotion — it was demand.”
As further evidence, Stengel posted screenshots to his Instagram Story allegedly showing only five total tickets sold for Shmurda’s scheduled show in Washington, DC, and none for dates in Denver and Hampton, Virginia.
“10 tickets per city. No ads. No promo,” he added. “But the booking agent gets blamed?” He continued, “I advised a reschedule. The artist canceled then went public.”
It has been more than a decade since Bobby Shmurda’s 2014 breakout hit, “Hot N*gga,” and follow-up single “Bobby Bitch.” His musical comeback since being released from prison in 2021 hasn’t produced any subsequent hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
His canceled “Still Alive Tour” was set to hit 19 cities, including Boston, Houston, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and DC.
Content shared from consequence.net.