Las Vegas played host to the annual Electric Daisy Carnival this past weekend (June 16-18) — a three-day electronic music experience featuring artists like Diplo, Yellow Claw, Major Lazer, and many more. Among the who’s who lineup of EDM artists, DJ Khaled was scheduled to bless the audience with his chart-topping brand of uncontrollable hype. But things didn’t go as planned — and his set was eventually cut short after being fraught with technical difficulties.
How does EDC mess up on @djkhaled sound for almost an hour?? ?
— Denisee +x (@denisesalgadox) June 19, 2017
Khaled, whose new album Grateful is virtually guaranteed to rock Billboard charts this summer after its June 23 release, took to Instagram to explain what happened. “They tried to sabotage my sound,” he claimed. “I still stood on stage wit no sound, and when they got the sound to work they want cut my set short … I still rep for my people,” he continued. “Anyone else would walk off stage.” The sound issues ended up eating up eight minutes of Yellow Claw’s performance, and a video has since circulated showing fans of the group booing Khaled.
@WORLDSTAR DJ KHALED GETS BOOED OFF STAGE AT EDC ? he says "DJ KHALED" , the people scream "Yellow Claw" ? I'm dead pic.twitter.com/Wo8WIKCFVi
— Nick (@k8terh8ter) June 19, 2017
As his second post shows, he tried to play to the situation, telling the audience, “They want to cut my shit … but this is California,” before 2Pac’s classic “California Love” came on — to the cheers of the seemingly engaged audience. However, at least one user was quick to point out that Las Vegas isn’t actually in California, but Nevada. Ouch.
Does DJ Khaled know Las Vegas is in Nevada and not California ??? He just said this is Cali while @ EDC lmaooo ?
— Jose (@Jgx94) June 19, 2017
While he still secured a bag for the performance, Khaled made it abundantly clear there were no hard feeling. “THEY DONT WANT US TO WIN SO WE WIN MORE FOR THERE HEAD TOP,” he wrote in all caps. “Love is the [key emoji] … I forgive them … love is always the answer!”
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Khaled never defined who “they’ were at the event, but has traditionally characterized anyone who opposes his success with the pseudonym.
EDC doesn’t seem to have made an official public statement about the issues, either on their website or social media accounts.
Khaled, who revealed last week in an interview with Yahoo’s Katie Couric that he hopes to one day work with Eminem, is having a great run right now, despite this performance. So far, the first two singles from Grateful have made a splash, with “I’m The One” topping the Hot 100 chart and the Drake-featuring “To The Max” debuting at #53.
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Check out some Twitter reactions from EDC below.
Real footage of @djkhaled at EDC ? pic.twitter.com/X7shmgKejc
— jen (@jennifermyle) June 19, 2017
I think it's safe to say dj khaled will never come back to edc ever again ?
— Audrey (@audge4l) June 19, 2017
I don't really understand why you'd pay $400 on an edc ticket and waste your time going to see dj khaled ?
— Rain (@Kelsierainx0x0) June 15, 2017
Things learned tonight… DJ Khaled is not actually a DJ and having him at EDC was probably a bad idea.
— ORɅNGEMɅN ? (@DJOrangeman) June 19, 2017
What the hell is this… just saw DJ Khaled live stream at EDC worst set ever… all he was doing was talking on the mic.. fucken trash ???
— AVI ♛ (@Jayy_Killsz23) June 19, 2017