Machine Gun Kelly Arrested After Inciting Flash Mob (VIDEO)

STRONGSVILLE, Ohio – Authorities say rapper Machine Gun Kelly organized a flash mob at a suburban Cleveland mall and was charged with disorderly conduct.

Strongsville police say the group gathered Saturday, and mall management asked three people standing on a table near a second-floor railing to step down. Kelly was among the three. When they refused, police were called.

Police say they're no longer in custody. Kelly tweeted later that "today was a statement."

The incident took place in front of a Panera Bread, as screaming high school kids ran through the mall and surrounded Kelly.

Kelly posted a video on his official YouTube feed that follows him during the flash mob and after he'd been released from police custody. It begins with an artsy intro in black and white, as MGK and his crew roll up to the tune of P. Diddy's "Bad Boy for Life."

The rest seems to happen pretty fast, at least on camera -- they enter the mall, rile the crowd up, and the police intervene.

Kelly, who hails from Cleveland, explained in the video how important his hometown fans from home are to him as his car drove away from the police department.

This whole flash mob thing that we did today wasn't necessarily about looking all funny, like flash dancing, it was more of a chance to like, you know, it was the first appearance we've done in Ohio since we announced a major label deal, and it was kind of a chance to show all the kids that we really care about them and that we're still here and we're still grounded and we're gonna be Ohio boys and Cleveland boys till we're six feet under.

Sean "P. Diddy" Combs told MTV this month that he signed Kelly, an Ohio native, to his Bad Boy Records label.

"Machine Gun" was the nickname of George Kelly, a Prohibition-era gangster.

The Plain Dealer reports that Cleveland's mayor recently vetoed an ordinance that would have criminalized some uses of social media and was aimed at curbing flash mobs.

WARNING: Video contains graphic language:

Comments

[realitycheck101a]

11:52 PM on 08/22/2011

It was a publicity stunt that went horribly awry...

[kimmmm]

09:22 PM on 08/22/2011

I live in this city. One of Cleveland's morning radio shows was discussing this today, and some 18-year-old kid called in saying that after the arrest, he and his friends continued to "rage" and knock over mall property. What a winner.

[Mr Board]

06:55 PM on 08/22/2011

Instead of a Flash Mob they should call this one a Trash Mob.

[KeepLeft]

12:23 PM on 08/22/2011

Darned rock-and-rollers will be the end of this great nation. Now, step away from Pandera and lemme eat in the food court in peace!

[jm2200a]

11:37 AM on 08/22/2011

The lack of discipline in the youth is exemplified by this incident. Kids raised by Hollywood morals and anti Christian sentiment has led to an undisciplined and disrespectful youth who are destined to help provoke more unrest in America. It is primarily the Government Socialist reforms that make people more dependent and less proud to Americans. Handouts weaken America and the catering to these underprivileged and unruly kids in schools by passing poor work and sympathizing with bad behavior. A good sign of reversal of this trend is to get kids to pull up their pants and turn their caps around so they can walk without having to hold their pants up.

[Kosmogonia]

12:49 PM on 08/22/2011

I will agree insofar as to say that an efficient society has to have social mores. Also, discipline is indeed important, and there is nothing positive to come out of this kind of mob behavior except further restrictions (possibly) to internet freedoms, which some might view in a positive light. However, I find your idea of equating this type of behavior only with the "underprivileged" and "unruly" (both are entirely separate) youth disheartening, even dangerous.

It seems as if you are blaming both an entire generation and economics when it is much more complex. Not to mention government with its "socialist" handout programs (like medicare, if we are to be fair.) The problem is much more fundamental, and you can't blame the youth without pointing a very serious eye at the adults who are supposed to be the watch-keepers of the younger. And don't tell me privileged people are more apt to behave any better.

[realitycheck101a]

11:51 PM on 08/22/2011

AMEN to THAT ! ! !

[rangersusa]

10:00 AM on 08/23/2011

Way too uptight. Nobody was hurt! Much worse could have happened instead of kids showing up just trying toe get famous. Your disconnect with your children is what drives the underlying social problems that you talk about. In a nutshell, this was not that big of a deal.

[Rhuda]

01:40 PM on 08/22/2011

There there, old timer:

In youth the days are short and the years are long; in old age the years are short and the days long. ~Nikita Ivanovich Panin

[PlutocratsSuck]

11:26 AM on 08/22/2011

Straight outta the hardcore streets of suburbia.......in front of Panera bread......at the mall. :/

[realitycheck101a]

11:54 PM on 08/22/2011

LMAO ! ! ! That's why I'm a fan ! ! !

[django707]

12:40 AM on 08/23/2011

F&F, Big Pluto!

[MMJones]

11:05 AM on 08/22/2011

I love the idea of musical/entertainment flash mobs...
This is just a stupid mob.

[Arbogast85]

10:24 AM on 08/22/2011

This is the type of stuff you pull for attention when your rap skills can't carry you.

[Sh00Fly]

10:49 AM on 08/22/2011

That's why he was playing PDIDDY'S music when he rolled up and not his.

[mdgentsch]

09:31 AM on 08/22/2011

How does rapper gets arrested qualify as a news story? Are there any rappers who haven't been arrested?

[RiffRafferty]

09:30 AM on 08/22/2011

Another white kid succumbs to Thuggery! Wannabe Eminem. Wiggity Whack Yo! Damn Dummies!

[Sh00Fly]

10:51 AM on 08/22/2011

Why are you obsessed with race?

[PlutocratsSuck]

11:32 AM on 08/22/2011

Wiggity Whack Yo? Lol, calm down grandpa.

[Michael Spinney]

09:30 AM on 08/22/2011

This had to be staged. I have never been in a mall food court with THAT many people so congested together. They knew he was coming to be there. All fake..............

[ksmith4463]

09:29 AM on 08/22/2011

"It seems that the youth of today are infected with terminal silliness." A quote from my father in 1959.

[Michael Spinney]

09:25 AM on 08/22/2011

Like MOST all other want to be gangsta rappers he will be dead in 10 years. Is there any reasonable answer why verman like this joke should make money off rude, crude and attn seeking behavior.

[rangersusa]

10:05 AM on 08/23/2011

Don't hate. It's it just because you don't have the young rapper's skills and instead you have to struggle with your mundane job, so now you want to try to bring this young man down? It sounds like you're old and cranky.

[Michael Spinney]

12:58 PM on 08/23/2011

Old? no way, I'm 43. It is just a fact that he wants to follow the like's of li'l wayne and such. For skill's, he has none. He needs to get a job and most likely an education. Mundane? not hardly. I'm a self made business man who employs others to better themselves. Nice to see the the ghetto has you for its voice, now say something that is to betterment of the Hood rat he is.

[rangersusa]

03:19 PM on 08/23/2011

I see where you're coming from. But in all fairness, I'm in media and I used objective reasoning, too. I'm from Detroit, also a businessman and nearly worked with Em before on a project (Non Rap-related). Well I spoke my mind similar to how you did and was shunned by many young Detroit people. And the project never moved forward. I was just saying the particular mall incident does not seem as bad as what some folks here are making it out to be.

[Michael Spinney]

08:42 AM on 08/24/2011

fair enough, have a great day

[garycooper12]

09:19 AM on 08/22/2011

Just another wannabe keepin' it real.

[Ossit]

09:02 AM on 08/22/2011

I'm a Clevelander and what an insult this guy and his lackeys are is to my city and Strongsville. Disruptive, flashing gang signs. Now, people are going to get the impression that Ohio mall goers are all savages.