Kid Cudi Tasered for Sneaker Choice

Again, you can't make this shit up.

At a music event last month, the commercial rapper Kid Cudi was stunned with a Taser by police officers, following a scuffle with employees of the clothing-company Reeboks. The news accounts detail an altercation between the rapper and the employees, but more troubling are the explanations offered by sources as to the cause of the scuffle. Kid Cudi, who was booked at the event by the apparel company, reportedly “physically and verbally confronted a pair of Reebok employees,” after they refused to let him wear a pair of Nike shoes on stage during his performance. He wanted to wear Michael Jordan sneakers (Nike) on stage, but the Reebok representatives apparently preferred to have him humiliated and stunned with a Taser than give potential promotion to a fellow enterprise.
For the full article see Racelines

Racelines writes:
The Kid Cudi incident reveals a troubling secret. It confirms the theories of those who perceive hip-hop as the new wrestling ring for corporate America. It shows that both Reebok and Nike, known for their indulgence in slave labor, are so blinded in the raging turf war over hip-hop that they fail to recognize commonality on the grounds of worker exploitation. Kid Cudi later dismissed claims that his altercation was the result of the alleged conflict of interest, but keen observers know better than to lend credence to a rapper with corporate ties.

This brings up a whole host of questions for me and I'm not sure pointing fingers at hip hop is the road I'd like to go down. It just doesn't seem useful and becomes a scary trend... Instead, as Racelines brings up, how can we look at this incident as a part of a capitalist and racist system - how is this incident NOT surprising and how can we combat that system or the conditions that make this event possible?