One More Chance

Everything started smoothly.

It was Memorial Day, the hottest day of the year so far -- nearly 90 degrees. And though this part of the country is blessed with very few beaches, that didn't stop Chancellor Cochran from putting on the Mayday Beach Concert and Party 2000. The man's nickname isChance, after all, so why shouldn't he have taken a gamble and put on a "beach concert" at the Kansas City International Raceway on Noland Road, a treeless, wide-open facility with no cooling stations or tents for shade -- and, as everyone would discover soon enough, no water.

"It's so hot even the devil is looking for shade," said one person in the crowd that day.

The concert had been heavily promoted on KPRS 103.3 (Hot 103 Jamz) in a spot produced by DJ Fresh, whose futuristic beats thundered under super-hip narration that appealed to hip-hop lovers all across town. Chance had also distributed fliers throughout the city. They were crude and barely readable, with two of the headlining acts' names spelled incorrectly. Still, the message was effective: Be at the Kansas City International Raceway on Memorial Day at 2 p.m.

The radio spot may have been hot, but the most effective form of advertising had been word of mouth. For weeks, everyone had been talking about the Mayday Beach Bash.

When the day finally came, the speedway's grassy parking area was loaded with cars, many with license plates from Iowa, Nebraska, and even Illinois. Once the lot was full, some people ended up parking two miles from the entrance.

The line to get into the track snaked several hundred yards along a metal fence. People at the head of the line had been waiting for hours to get in. The crowd -- almost all teenagers, mostly black, but with some whites and Hispanics -- stood while Crowd Systems staffers searched everyone, scanning them with metal detectors before allowing them inside. The process was slow and tested the crowd's patience, but everyone remained orderly, even after rumors started circulating that some people had avoided the line by paying ticket-takers at the front gate $50 to $100.

People slowly spilled into the raceway, bypassing a car show -- 28 low-riders, luxury cars, SUVs, and sports cars with music blasting -- because they were in a hurry to stake their claims to the prime real estate in front of the stage.

Chance had hired some of the area's best urban DJs to keep the early birds entertained. Turntablists DJ Fresh, DJ Mike Scott, DJ Dink, DJ Hank, and DJ Def took turns spinning the latest hits, songs that had been played over and over on the radio. They didn't display any turntable wizardry, but people in the audience were familiar with the tunes and showed their appreciation by reciting lyrics and jumping around enthusiastically.

At 2:30 p.m., the concert began with a performance by the Marching Cougars, an independent drill team. Then, 20 local rap groups that had paid for the opportunity to perform delivered second-rate sets. Only rap soloist The Incredible Zig, who spat out several energetic bars of clever lyrics, could create any hype. None of the groups, including rap veterans DVS Mindz from Topeka, captured the crowd's attention. They paced the stage, spewing out unintelligible lyrics. The audience wasn't rude -- but it clearly was unimpressed.

As they tried to capture the crowd's attention, most of the artists began calling the people in the audience "motherfuckers" and yelling "Suck my dick!" They started talking down to people in the audience, calling them "haters" for not responding to their music, and they invited women to dance explicitly on stage. The crowd briefly got excited as young women flashed their breasts, but the strip-club antics grew tiresome as each group tried the same stunts.

"There were too many local artists. I didn't pay 20 dollars so I can watch people I can see everyday," says 17-year-old Tosha Carter. "The local groups were bad. They used a lot of profanity, degraded women, and had too many people on stage. It was a mess and lasted too long."

After about an hour, the audience completely lost interest. The young, unsupervised attendees began looking for other entertainment options -- and that's when they started openly drinking and smoking dope. Beer vendors carded everyone who purchased a beer, but those who were of age weren't identified with wristbands, so the beer often ended up in minors' hands.

Since the event had been billed as a beach party, many people wore swimwear -- but even that began to come off. "I think a lot of people were taking their clothes off because it was extremely hot," says 17-year-old Shawna Williams. "There was no shelter from the sun."

On stage, women were shaking their backsides while men slapped their butts. Many of the women were pantyless and eager to display their private parts -- several of them tried to take off all of their clothes -- and a male dance troupe performed a lewd dance routine. "I couldn't believe it; it was like the concert was one big sex show," says 19-year-old Lisa McDaniel. "Every time you looked around, somebody was getting naked."