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Deon Cole had quite the experience hosting the Roots Picnic, and it didn’t go exactly as planned.
The comedian showed up ready to introduce Jay-Z’s performance, but security had other ideas about where he belonged backstage.
Cole explained how the day unfolded during a sit-down on the All The Smoke podcast.
“I hosted the Roots Picnic, and the day before we had a comedy show. It was me, Jay, Dave Chappelle. We did it for Black Thought. He had a comedy show. Right after that, we go over across street to this venue. Jay is rehearsing. We go over there and we chilling. We go in the back room. You know, B, everybody there, right? Jay come out, he got a hoodie on. And he’s just chilling. He go on stage and he rocking in front of 200 people like rehearsing his stuff with this hoodie on the whole time.”
The real drama started when security decided Deon Cole had no business being near Beyoncé.
“They put a gate, I swear to you. I’m not lying. They put a gate between me and Beyoncé and them so I wouldn’t come over there. They put that there, and I was like, I ain’t budging. I’mma stand. Finally, B’s bodyguards saw me, told them to move the gate and let me come over there.”
Cole wasn’t supposed to introduce Jay-Z at all, but he had other plans.
“They told me to introduce everybody direct on the tour except for Jay. They said Jay got his own package. So, don’t introduce Jay. And I was like, ‘yeah, yeah, yeah.’ You think I’mma come out here and not introduce Jay? So, I kept a mic on me. I gave him a dummy mic and kept a mic on me.”
Security tried to kick him out while he was making the introduction, and Cole ended up missing about 15 minutes of Jay-Z’s freestyle performance.
Despite all the chaos, Cole said the event was still a good time. He gave a shout-out to Questlove, Tariq, Erykah Badu, Brandy, and Kelis for making the Roots Picnic memorable.
The whole situation shows just how intense security can get at major events, especially when celebrities like Beyoncé are involved.
Deon Cole’s determination to do his job as host, even when security tried to stop him, made for a wild backstage story that he couldn’t wait to share.
