Dollar And A Snafu

J. Cole now knows the power of Twitter.

Photo: AP Photo / seattlepi.com, Jordan Stead
Bumbershoot Festival, Seattle Center, Seattle, Wash.

The hip-hop star announced a $1 concert at the 1,600-capacity House of Blues in Dallas via Twitter June 21 as part of his third annual “Dollar & A Dream Tour” and as many as 4,000 people showed up, prompting police to close off much of the downtown area.

The show became more of a nightmare when streets were closed off for about four hours and lined with dozens of police cars. One person reportedly fainted and some isolated fights broke out, but there were no major incidents and no arrests, according to the Dallas Morning News.

One fan told the paper people “started going crazy and took off running and piled up.” About 50-70 officers from across the city were reportedly dispatched to the scene. Even after Cole tweeted that the wristbands for entry to the show were sold out, about 200 remained and chanted “We want Cole.”

Cole had tweeted he would announce a location for the show at 4 p.m. but fans figured it out for themselves and begin lining up well ahead of time. Once the location was announced, it was re-tweeted more than 6,000 times.

“I don’t think that many people really even know J. Cole, they just heard [admission] was $1,” one fan told WFAA-TV. “I think the people that were really ‘Cole World’ fans since the beginning … are the ones that should be able to be out here.”

After playing New York’s Irving Plaza Monday, the next stop on J. Cole’s “Dollar & A Dream Tour” is Atlanta June 24. The outing concludes in Los Angeles June 26. As with Dallas and New York, venues will be announced via Twitter on the day of the shows, with admission granted on a first-come, first-served basis. The tour features J. Cole performing his 2010 mixtape, Friday Night Lights, in its entirety, backed by musicians as well as DJs.