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Home > Atlanta Music Scene > Archives > 2008 > February > 10 > Entry
“I wrote the check, and I can’t get in?”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
LOS ANGELES - It’s the business of champions, this partying on the west coast.
Patient, athletic, champions.
Curiously enough, even if it’s your own party.
Shortly after 1 a.m., Atlanta R&B singer-songwriter Ne-Yo’s all-black and tinted SUV pulled up alongside Hollywood’s Hollywood 86 for his Grammy’s-eve midnight brunch. A gaggle of well-dressed women with headphones on ran to the barricade just before the red carpet and each of them were repeating the same thing: “We have to get Ne-Yo in here. We have to get in Ne-Yo in here.”
1:22 a.m. PST. Ne-Yo still is not in. Instead, the somewhat diminuitive multi-Grammy nominee appeared swallowed up in the bigger, taller men around him. Security, perhaps. But security would not be pulled through the throngs by the arm onto the red carpet. Just Ne-Yo and a small trail of other well-dressed, headphone-less, women.
Minutes later his bigger manager makes his way to the same barricade and challenges the two security guards before they even suggest that he has to walk around to the back of the line: “Oh I can’t get into my own party?! Oh I can’t get in?!”
Of course, he does.
Part of the problem outside of what was billed as a low-key and intimate celebration of “The Carter Administration” - a nod to the recent head of Def Jam, hip-hop mogul Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter - was that the very important people on the list’s entrance was the same entrance of the very important people celebrity-watchers know, and the media was lined up to shoot. And not once in almost two hours was that list observed to be checked.
That’s because of the larger problem: The fire marshall had arrived some 30 minutes after this brunch’s start time, and the door was basically shut. Even apparently, for a time, to Ne-Yo.
So folks like George Gore of “My Wife & Kids” and “New York Undercover” were waved to the back of the line. Movie and video director Bille Woodruff - same thing. That “Hitz” guy that used to be on BET - him too.
Currently-popular actor-comedian Nick Cannon actually bent over the barricade behind the photographers - causing many of them to do a 360 and shoot him - before he was finally acknowledged and allowed in.
R&B legend Stevie Wonder and his lone guest didn’t have to perform any Cannon-like acrobatics. Nor did Nicole Scherzinger of the Pussycat Dolls, or Marsha Ambrosius. But when Atlanta producer Polow Da Don and his burgeoning local talent Keri Hilson got to the barricade, they were held there as Missy Elliott and her guests were waved through.
Then two more all-black and tinted SUVs pull up alongside Hollywood 86 - Ne-Yo’s labelmate Rihanna in one, and teen R&B sensation Chris Brown in the other. Rihanna is, again, tugged in by her arm - with Brown right behind her. But instead of hitting the red carpet, Rihanna stands just beyond the barricade and makes sure her few guests get tugged in as well.
Brown had just left Atlanta rapper-singer’s T-Pain performance at the House of Blues; which, at least in the beginning, was an unfortunate exercise in hubris where the inescapable hitmaker of the moment made the poor decision of letting his Nappy Boy artists start off the show as he did things like change grills on stage. (Charge it, perhaps, to the near-empty bottle of cognac he walked into the venue with).
Meanwhile, back at Hollywood 86, a woman claiming to be from Microsoft - one of the sponsors of the party - had made her way to the front of the barricade; and was stopped. “I wrote the check, and I can’t get in?” she protested.
Immediately, at least, she did not.
Has there ever been a party - on either coast - that you’ve had to fight to get into? And is it ever worth it once you get inside?
Comments
Commenting is now closed for this entry.
By ATLien
February 10, 2008 5:14 PM | Link to this
Most parties are only as fun as the trouble it takes to get into them! Once inside…it’s the same ole same ole!
By ATLien
February 10, 2008 5:16 PM | Link to this
Most parties are only as fun as the trouble it takes to get into them! Once inside…it’s the same ole same ole!
ATLien of Straight from the “A”
By ATL mama
February 11, 2008 5:33 PM | Link to this
If I’m on the list and have to fight to get in, it doesn’t even get that far… 180 and I’m out. It’s insulting!
By ATL mama
February 11, 2008 5:33 PM | Link to this
If I’m on the list and have to fight to get in, it doesn’t even get that far… 180 and I’m out. It’s insulting!
By ATLmama
February 11, 2008 5:34 PM | Link to this
If I’m on the list and have to fight to get in, it doesn’t even get that far… 180 and I’m out. It’s insulting! and OMG, NEVER lcok out a SPONSOR!
By ATLmama
February 11, 2008 5:34 PM | Link to this
If I’m on the list and have to fight to get in, it doesn’t even get that far… 180 and I’m out. It’s insulting! and OMG, NEVER lcok out a SPONSOR!
By ATLmama
February 11, 2008 5:34 PM | Link to this
If I’m on the list and have to fight to get in, it doesn’t even get that far… 180 and I’m out. It’s insulting! and OMG, NEVER lock out a SPONSOR!