Quick Dance For Soulja Boy

The organizers of a recent Soulja Boy show at the Prairie Capital Convention Center in Springfield, Ill., seem to be at odds about what exactly went wrong during the concert.

While the show promoter claims he’s received complaints about the artist’s "unprofessional and amateur adolescent behavior" after inviting the audience up to the front of the stage, the venue GM said most of the complaints the venue’s fielded have focused on the fact that Soulja Boy played a 20-minute set.

Terry Byrd of Off Da Chain Entertainment told the State Journal-Register that less than a minute into his first song, Soulja Boy asked concertgoers to "come on down and kick it wit’ me to the front of the stage."

"It was almost like somebody fired the starting gun at the Boston Marathon," Byrd said. "He almost incited a riot by calling the kids down."

GM Tom Margedant told Pollstar a VIP seating area was in front, and when Soulja Boy invited the concertgoers up to the stage, "the crowd of course pushed forward and rushed the stage and people in the seating of course got pushed around and shoved."

He said there were no injuries.

The real issue may have been the fact that Soulja Boy was only on stage for about 20 minutes following a series of local opening acts.

"I think the problem was he really doesn’t have much of a repertoire yet," Margedant said. "I mean, he’s brand new and they brought him in as a headliner and he really probably should be an opening act right now. He really wasn’t prepared to put on that long of a show.

"We’ve probably received 30, 40 complaints from people who think that they should get a refund because he wasn’t onstage long enough and he came on late," he said. "Usually, we just refer them to the promoter."

But Byrd disagreed that the show failed to live up to expectations.

He told the Journal-Register Soulja Boy "danced all over the stage," and that with urban artists he’s dealt with, "any standard contract with any artist, you’re going to get 25 to 35 minutes."

Soulja Boy is not only a performer, but a dance. The performer’s signature dance routine is widely emulated.