What happened at Dave East Montreal concert? Details explored as Rapper reported gets pepper sprayed by police

Dave East performed at the Le Rouge nightclub in Montreal, Quebec (Canada) on December 19, 2023. After the performance, the singer reportedly got into an argument with the local police. Allegedly, the rapper declined to undergo a search without a clear reason, leading to the police using pepper spray on him.

The incident was caught on live video and later posted to social media. The video shows Dave East attempting to shield his face from the toxic spray with his hand at the end:

No further details are available regarding the reasons behind the presence of the police at the venue. Also, the reason for conducting a search on the rapper and his entarouge is unclear at the moment, and no further statements from the Service de police de la Ville de Montreal (SPVM) or the rapper have been released as of the writing of this article.

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More about Dave East Montreal concert and police incident

Dave East performed at the Le Rouge club in Montreal, Quebec as part of his tour Soiree Pablo. The rapper performed songs from his second studio album, Fortune Favors the Bold, which was released earlier this year on July 14, 2023.

While there have not been any statements made by either side, the incident draws attention towards the present issue when there is a growing acknowledgement of the systemic racism and discrimination plaguing Canadian society, including Montreal in Quebec.

A recent independent report reveals that racial profiling, arbitrary police stops and other forms of discrimination targetting black communities in the country continue to occur continuously, despite years of effort to bring reforms to the system:

"There is a significant, widespread and persistent disproportions of racialized people stopped by the police (SPVM) as well as systemic biases within the system of police interventions."

According to a CBC News report, the Quebec Autonomous Region Police, including the SPVM, have received over 100 complaints related to racial profiling in recent years. The Montreal Police alone accounts for more than half of these complaints.

Dave East was on tour to support his second studio album, Fortune Favors the Bold, which was released on July 14, 2023. He discussed the album's creation in an exclusive interview with Hip Hop DX. During the interview, the singer elaborated on the writing process, stating:

"I’ve always been a fan of Pablo Escobar, and I mean, not the destruction and all that or whatever, but just his mindset as far as hustling. I’m a big fan of Pablo. So me going out there, I felt like, ‘Bro, why we don’t just do some music out here? This is a different environment, different everything. It’s not New York, it’s not L.A., it’s not Miami, it’s just different."

The singer continued:

"We actually stayed in one of Pablo’s stash houses. Pool inside the crib, some flavor, flavor, flavor crib. In Medellín. I did maybe 12, 13 records off the album in that house, right in the crib.They had the chefs in there making breakfast, wake up, Mike already be in there making beats. We’d get to that pool in the crib, jump in the pool."

Dave East is best known for his debut studio album, Survival, which was released on November 8, 2019, via Def Jam Records, Mass Appeal Records, and the label From the Dirt. The album was a major success and peaked at number 11 on the Billboard 200 album chart.