DMV Music Awards Turn Ugly

It wasn’t the best of nights for the DMV Music Awards. Not with a brawl breaking out between rival crews.

Taking place March 5 at the Hyatt Regency in Crystal City, Va., just south of Washington, D.C., the fifth annual event celebrating the area’s hip-hop music scene appeared to be trouble free at the onset of the program. That is, until losing factions began booing the winners. Add in plenty of booze and not enough seats for the estimated 1,500 promoters, artists and bloggers, and things suddenly took a turn for the worse.

At approximately 9:45 p.m. a fight broke out between two crews that quickly turned into a brawl, reports the Washington Post, citing witnesses’ accounts that 20 to 60 people were involved in the clash, breaking bottles and flipping over tables when they weren’t throwing punches. The newspaper reports five people, including a hotel employee, were sent to the hospital for treatment of injuries.

(Video here. Brawl begins at approx. 1:35)

“The idea was to bring people together, and this is so sad,” the event’s publicist, Natasha Brown, said, according to the Post. “It took us back in a year where we were really moving forward.”

Organizers apologized for the fracas, and posted the following message on the DMV Music Awards website:

“The committee is truly saddened by the unfortunate events that took place, and most importantly, we send prayers and apologies to those who were injured last night. This program was designed to be a positive effort on behalf of various people in the local entertainment industry who were planners, judges, power player voters, artists, and fans.”