2016 was supposed to be the year of the Slumerican revival. Yelawolf, after publicly breaking up with girlfriend, alternative singer Fefe Dobson, shifted his focus back into his label. There was a website revamp and EP releases from both himself and Bubba Sparxxx, who was equally as eager to get back in the rapping saddle.
To literally get the show on the road, the subsequent tour Trial By Fire Tour was announced and Catfish Billy & Co. blitzed through cities such as Los Angeles, Boston, Detroit and Chicago without a hitch — but all that came to a screeching halt yesterday before the Tucson, AZ leg at the Rialto Theatre could even take place. Yelawolf and his team have yet to put out an official statement on what happened and requests sent from HipHopDX have gone unreturned.
Despite the mute treatment from Yelawolf’s camp, erratic behavior, evidenced from some recently surfaced tour footage may have played a big part in the tour’s cancellation. During the show at Eugene, Oregon’s WOW Hall on November 16, the 36-year-old rapper, who is still signed to Eminem’s Shady Records, was spotted destroying equipment on stage and giving a speaker to the audience to destroy at will. Then a few days later in Santa Cruz, the volcano fully erupted when Yelawolf cut his set short to begin a rant before slamming the mic on the stage and angrily engaging a fan who immediately got passionate when he realized the curtain had closed.
“Keep going? Because I’m a slave?” he growled. “I gotta keep going for you because you paid me muthafucka? I’LL FIGHT YOU.”
That’s usually how fan/rapper concert business transactions go, but not in Yela’s world. After a few moments of hesitation, he lunged into the crowd before Struggle Jennings and others pulled him back on stage. After a rambling rebuttal, the show ended unceremoniously, leaving the audience confused and dejected.
The good folks over at Roughstock did a bit of digging and confirmed that the remaining Trial By Fire dates had been nixed from existence, noting that he had also changed his Instagram handle to his government name: @micheal_wayne_atha. They also captured some Instagram screenshots of Slumerican rapper Struggle offering up a bit of insight in his comments.
“Tour was cancelled..We tried to do remaining shows but not in our control,” Struggle wrote before adding “When things don’t go as planned you must focus on the good that came from it and learn from the bad.
In a completely separate Instagram post, the grandson of country great Waylon Jennings seemingly addressed the unraveling of the tour writing, “What do you do when it feels like life is spinning out of control?? Maybe you expected everything to work out the way you planned.. Maybe you weren’t prepared for things to get rough.. But when that storm hits you’ve got 2 choices.. You can either cut your losses and jump ship.. Or you can get up in that captain’s chair and sail it back home.. I’ve never been afraid of rough seas.. I never gave up just because the future seemed uncertain..”
The news of Trial By Fire Tour’s abrupt shutdown comes on the heels of Kanye West’s meltdown-turned-hospitalization from his own Saint Pablo Tour last week.
Check out Struggle Jennings’ Instagram commentary down below.
U know i tried for a long time to like this guy but the truth is that he is a poser and a jerkoff. Oh well.
This guy has gone so far with his posing shit that now hes accusing people of treating him like a “slave”. I guarantee the choice if words was not a coincidence. Its ok to be white lol. This dude is not black and never will be and if he would just get off his high horse and rhyme he coulda been successful but the truth is hes a poser and cant help but stand in his soap box and try to attract attention from african americans no matter how pathetic his act has become.
You don’t know shit about yelawolf. Ome of his best freinds Shawty Fatt literally just died anf he has lost his girlfriend Fefe… Wanna trade positions with the guy??? Shut the fuck up. Your the poser punk bitch. Btw Yelawolf has never acted black. Lol
You sound stupid ?
Ignore the negativity Yela. Clearly going through some shit, but keep your head up. The music you’ve been putting out keeps getting better, I’ve been a fan for years. Really looking forward to the new album.
Oh yea! I’m pretty sure he’s reading this!!! FOOL!
DRUGS
Never been to a Yelawolf or Action Bronson show but are there nothing but hipsters, rednecks and weedheads there usually?
Be strong Wolf we all go thru shit dig deep homie and take your own time do you bro. Hope you make another classic album for all us true fans !
Fuck Yela, drug attic ass loser. Get your shit straight and give your fans what they spent their hard earned money to see you do what you claim to love and thats perform music…… the worst show I had ever been to at SXSW was Yela because he was too fucked up to even perform his own songs. Looking like his Eugene show there.
there was a guy on facebook sad because he spent his last $300 to get tix to a show and it got cancelled
I’m a huge fan of Yelawolf’s music, but it appears the booze is starting to get to him (he’s admitted that he’s an alcoholic). I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s doing hard drugs as well now that he’s making more $$$ off of his music and shows.
Fefe single? It’s on
Yes my dude, yes! “And that’s what you took from this?”. Luv it!
Lmao in the second video he reminds me of Bad Santa when he shows up coming up the escalator basically on the floor and tries to walk to the set up and trips over the reindeer and just breaks it for no reason.
White people can’t rap
Thats why Em killed it in sales and still is, and why legends like snoop, dre, Game etc, see him as a GOAT. Not to mention drake bowed to him on stage in detroit this summer. Think before opening your ignorant mouth.
Didn’t ur mother tell u if u don’t HV anything nice to say don’t say anything!!! God don’t like ugly !!!n usually the people talk shit r jealous, n they r so busy talk shit about other people they don’t take time to stop n look at themselves, all u haters need to b socked straight off in ur dicksuckers
Drugs are bad
I never knew this guy was still around….
they need to lock him in psych ward like they did with Kanye
yelawolf is def. in the same market of musicans i listen to and i probably had 2-3 chances to seem him but it never worked out. After all this im kinda glad cuz who knows how that show would have ended up. Reminds me of when Hopsin said your going to get an “auto pilot” concert out of me and I was literally a month out from going to that show, but remarks like that made me save my money. Im a firm believer in supporting an artists by buying their albums, merch and concerts but u gotta give it all for me to give you all the support i possibly could. Sure i own yelawolfs albums, but i dont have any merch of him, nor have i seen him in concert. Artists need to straighten up in order to receive the full support of me.
Slum scammed their fans with struggles kick starter. Check it and the comments out sometime
I love Yelawolf and shit happens
I’ve bin to 3 shows from yelawolf myself. And he always put on a great show! He’s just in a dark place right now. People like to talk… he even came out to the fans and had a talk after one of the shows i’ve bin to. Really a down to earth guy.
Yela is trash. Nobody will remember his music in 10 years. What pyscho loser.
Who are you? NOBODY and wrong GREAT combo troll face
Before you go throwing bullshit around about the Slumerican CEO how about you understand the fact first. YELAWOLF as an artist always went 200% at the 10 plus shows I saw him in. It never once EVER was a waste of my money or time. The man is a great artist. Get your facts str8 before you bash the man who literally came from nothing. Fist off in a less then two week time frame the man’s best Friend Shawty Fatt passed away VERY unexpectedly. He was unable to get to the funeral because of some missed connections in Iowa. Secondly the man been trying to focus on his sobriety as the entire year of 2017 was going to be off tour to work on his multiple business ventures here in Nashville. Sobriety is not a challenge that is easy especially living that life. Bones and Kelver who with him formed the ultimate performance team spilt for a private reason so that was/is tearing him apart because of the fact those guys are pretty much brothers. Lastly if anyone cares from a fan standpoint didn’t care to notice everything else I just mentioned he was sick as hell and barely had a voice left to perform. He reached his boiling point and lost it. I’m not saying he had the best reaction in the world. But everyone deals with pain differently. The man is a legend and has always always always put every inch of his life into his shows, his music and his love for his fans.
Have some respect before you trash someone without knowing the facts.
Wow,i knew shawty passed,so sorry for his loss n his bros to,i really feel for him n no matter what support him it takes time to heal n he didn’t get to say goodbye n that totally sucks, truly sorry for his loss.. Slumerican for life
Should have mentioned this in the article, this breakdown came after one of his good friends from Alabama died Shawty Fatt. That’s probably what triggered everything especially since he wasn’t even able to go to his funeral due to his tour.
I’m hoping his music career doesn’t start to go downhill from here. His Love Story album is great, and I’m looking forward to his Trial by Fire album. Unfortunately, some of these artists just can’t handle the mixture of personal issues with booze and (possibly) other drugs while on tour. An ex-lead vocalist of a rock band I was a big fan of growing up became addicted to heroine, cocaine and alcohol while touring the states, and he eventually left the band, and now his music is sub-par. Hopefully Yela gets better and continues to make music!
I believe that people don’t always understand what artists in this industry go thru to please their fans. Even I will never understand fully what they will do to make fans happy. I believe that like any other hard working citizens out there, everyone needs a break. If you know what it’s like to work your ass off everyday going from work to home and back feeling burnt out trying to please everyone except yourself it’s only a matter of time before it gets to this point in your career,no matter what your career is.and I believe that people expect a lot and maybe sometimes to much from performers. These individuals are very talented, just like yelawolf and his crew. But people seem to forget that they are still only human like the rest of us. All fans see is what they want to see, and hardly ever take a moment to realize talented or not, there is more to these performers than they know. They too, go thru everyday struggles. And stress can get to anyone. I know many of people who have felt like a slave, have worked sick, have lost a love one, etc. And have struggled with their own personal reasons and or problems on a daily. I think this is where the fans should show more support to help out individuals such as yelawolf to show him it’s ok. To let him know that no matter what your there to support him. Nobody is perfect, and nobody has to be perfect for anyone. I’m a huge fan of you yelawolf! And I still support you in whatever decisions or career choices you make. Seeing these videos is not going to stop me from listening to your music. Or showing my support. You have worked your ass off to get where you are today. You have worked hard to get thru your daily struggles that most of us will never know of. And I’d say if some of these claimed to be “fans” want to throw in the towel on you then just let them. I don’t think a TRUE fan would see you any different from any of this. I still give you my support on whatever you choose to do in your lifetime and I for one will not throw the towel , because I am a TRUE fan. Just remember, they are your alligator boots, and your hard earned coronas that are sipped under umbrellas. And you were right when you asked” who am I Elvis ?” Cause your not my friend, your Yelawolf. The one and only “Yelawolf ” And I’m still a huge fan and will always be! 🙂
If yela is trying to clean hiself up and detox off of alcohol or anything else for that matter leave him alone let him do it because if he keeps getting put down and shit he can go bsck and relapse we just had a best friend passed away from alcoholism because he kept kept relapsing and hiding it from everyone he was only 30years old with two kidshe left behind yela needs positive thoughts & vibes nothing else especially being put down and other dumb petty shit.
Yelawolf fighting his fans and treating them like crap is nothing new. In fact he went off on me on Instagram earlier this year. This guy is not grateful for anything that he has. Look at how he treated Fefe. This “breakdown” could very easily be insurance fuard so that the tour gets paid out without him having to actually do a tour. I used to be a really big fan but he treats people like dirt. There is so much more I will not say here.
Well, if you act like a little bitch to him on Instagram, can you blame him? Don’t be so down on the guy and assume shit. None of us really know what’s going on his life. It could be a mixture of alcohol/drugs and personal issues; it could not be. Keep your irrelevant, judgmental opinions to yourself, unless you have something constructive and positive to say.
He still a dick friend died or not you dont bite the hand that feeds you thats a no no
You are a condescending little puke.
I almost went to the show in Santa Cruz but had to work. I didn’t know this happened… Till this morning. Why are people shocked by this? Yela has been telling people thru his music for a long time that he was a product of an unstable environment. That can make people volatile. So he kinda snapped. He clearly has problems like the rest of us. He’s not a superhuman. I imaaaagine he uses drugs to achieve ends most people can’t comprehend doing themselves though. Those don’t always keep working though. If you don’t understand… You may never. Ask yourself maybe for what reason do you listen to his music anyway?