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Chris Brown And Drake's Bloody Club Clash Gets Tabloid Treatment
By
Jen Chung
Published Jun 15, 2012
Modified Jun 15, 2012
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By
Jen Chung
Published Jun 15, 2012
Modified Jun 15, 2012
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The early Thursday fight between Chris Brown and Drake—or at least their entourages— is tabloid gold, with the Daily News offering the new classic headline, "R & BEEF." The Post goes for a less-successful Helen of Troy reference to bring Rihanna, into the fold. But now the brawl is taking other victims, besides Chris Brown's bodyguard and an unsuspecting Australian tourist: Now the manager of Soho club WiP (Work in Progress) has been arrested.
According to the News, "Jonathan Cantor was busted after police responding to complaints from neighbors complaining about the noise at his other SoHo club, the Greenhouse, discovered he had two outstanding warrants, they said." While he was charged with the noise violations and other matters not connected to the fight, "Police are likely to use Cantor’s other legal woes as leverage to pry information out of him about the bloody, bottle-throwing battle between the entourages of R&B singer Chris Brown and rapper Drake on Thursday."
Word of the fight trickled out when Brown Tweeted—then deleted—a photo of his gashed chin and the message, "How u party wit rich n**** that hate? Lol... Throwing bottles like girls? #shameonya!" Then cops confirmed that they did respond to an incident at WiP and five people were injured. While Drake's spokeperson said, "Drake did not participate in any wrongdoing of any kind last night at W.i.P. He was on his way out of the club when the altercation began. He did not engage in any activity which resulted in injury to person or damage to property," many accounts claim he started the confrontation.
The Post reports, "'I am f--king the love of your life,' read a note sent from Drake’s table to Brown at about 4 a.m. after Brown ordered his rival’s table a bottle of pricey Armand de Brignac Champagne — commonly known as Ace of Spades, a witness said." The note was referring to Rihanna, the singer who Brown admitted to beating in 2009.
A witness, Ingrid Gutierrez, who was at Brown's table said, "I saw [Brown] tell the waitress to send a bottle to Drake’s table. I then saw a waitress come back with a piece of paper and gave it to Chris. He looked upset and just threw it on the floor."
Drake and a posse that included rapper Meek Mill and all their bodyguards then walked over to the table where a shirtless Brown was seated.
“They were giving him [Brown] the middle finger. They got into each other’s faces and were shouting at each other,” Gutierrez said.
“Chris told Drake to f--k off, and the next thing I could hear is the sound smashed glass and mayhem started.“Somebody in Drake’s group — I don’t think it was Drake — swung at Chris, but missed.
“Chris didn’t swing back, he just tried to brush them off. He told us, ‘Let’s go,’ but there were bottles flying at us. I saw one bottle was thrown, it looked like a vodka bottle, and hit Chris on the face,” she said.
“The anger from Drake’s entourage was terrifying.”
, "Independent eyewitnesses have told detectives from the New York Police Department that Drake absolutely started the fight by throwing a bottle at Chris. It was intended to hit Chris and no other person. None of this would have happened if Drake hadn't thrown the bottle. It was extremely loud in the club and there was a lot of yelling. Once Drake threw the bottle at Chris all hell broke loose. There is no evidence that Chris instigated the brawl, he only acted in self defense and he got out of the club as quickly as possible."
Gutierrez said she wants to sue, because she was hit by a bottle, "I was on the couch, covering my face, because I’d been hit on the head by a bottle and my head was bleeding. I thought I was going to die.” She added, "I was drunk, Chris was drunk, we were all drunk. We were about to leave the club and go to an after-party at Chris’ hotel room."
Brown's spokesperson said, "Chris, [his girlfriend] Karreuche [Tran] and his friends were victims of a brutal attack last night at W.i.P. They sustained several injuries. Chris and his party are cooperating with New York authorities, who are pursuing the incident further."
Tagged
beef
bottle fight
chris brown
drake
fight
rihanna
wip
work in progress
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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