Sexyy Red has cancelled dates on her upcoming tour following reported low ticket sales.
In July, the rapper announced that she would be going on her own ‘Sexyy Red 4 President’ headline tour later this year. However, rumours soon emerged claiming that Red’s second headline tour wasn’t selling as quickly as planned. According to The Art Of Dialogue and Touring Data, only 37.11 per cent of the 85,217 tickets had been sold.
Red disputed the claims shortly after, quote-tweeting the blog site’s post to set the record straight: “My fans are buying tickets [and] we’re doin’ just fine. We not cancelling no tour. Dis cancelling shit all cap [hat emojis].”
Now though, a handful of shows of the tour have been cancelled without explanation. Billboard have reported that the tour’s first date in Seattle last night (August 22) was called off, and planned dates in Portland and Oakland have been quietly removed from the itinerary.
Red is yet to issue any explanation for the cancelled dates and the tour will now start on Saturday (August 24) at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta.
The news follows a growing trend of acts forced to cancel tours this year as a result of low sales.
Earlier this summer, it was reported that The Black Keys‘ entire ‘International Players Tour’ had been abruptly scrapped, with no explanation provided. Shortly afterwards, following speculation that the move was done in light of low ticket sales, the members opened up about the cancellation, saying it was axed and re-planned in favour of smaller theatre venues as featured on their recent European dates.
Similarly, earlier this week, ’90s alt-rock heavyweights Helmet announced that they had cancelled their upcoming US tour following financial concerns and low ticket sales.
Lauryn Hill and The Fugees also quietly cancelled their US tour recently, with Pras Michel later coming forward to confirm the decision came as a result of poor ticket sales.
In an interview with Vulture, Pras suggested that the band’s chequered past with touring – namely Hill’s reputation for showing up to shows hours late – may have impacted the poor sales.
The high cost of touring also has led to acts having to cancel tours. Earlier this week, Rachel Chinouriri announced that she has dropped out of the upcoming Remi Wolf tour and several festival slots due to the financial strain becoming “too much”.
Hardcore collective The Armed also recently announced they had to cancel their scheduled US tour this year as a result of similar financial stress.
Even established acts are feeling the pressure, with The Chemical Brothers revealing they skipped the US because “the costs have gone up so much.”
In other news, Red announced a new lipgloss line earlier this week and surprised fans with the unconventional names. The first product in her upcoming beauty brand Northside Princess, the glosses aren’t for the faint-hearted, named ‘Coochie Juice’, ‘Bootyhole Brown’, ‘Nut’, ‘Pussyhole Pink’, ‘Yellow Discharge’, ‘Gonorrhea’, ‘Blue Ballz’, and ‘Sex On My Period’.
Last month, the rapper told NME she thinks she “should be the President in real life”. She was speaking about her third mixtape ‘Sexyy Red 4 President’, released in May. It featured the likes of Drake, Lil Baby, and more. “It was fun,” Red told NME about making the record.
When put on the spot to share some ideas for a potential manifesto, Red said that she is “for the people, for real,” adding: “Just know, I fight for you”.
The first thing she would do in office is “freeing all the real n****as”, including her “baby daddy”. She would also have her own national holiday called “Sexyy Day”.