St. Louis rapper Nelly made his way to Ferguson this week, arriving on Monday evening to address the crowds gathered there in protest of the August 9 shooting of Mike Brown. As he spoke, some members of the throng expressed outrage that he had not arrived on the scene sooner. When Nelly spoke of the protesters considering "other options," one member of the crowd expressed frustration. "You have options! You're rich!" It was one criticism out of many that would be lobbed that evening.
See also: Our full coverage on Mike Brown's case and the unrest in Ferguson
Here are some tweets from the scene when Nelly first arrived.
Right now in #Ferguson pic.twitter.com/5HKrMEV6R8
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) August 19, 2014Is it me, or is it getting hot in here? #Feguson #nelly pic.twitter.com/cU03jADA47
— Amanda Terkel (@aterkel) August 19, 2014Rapper Nelly has arrived, he's being swarmed, clearly #Ferguson pic.twitter.com/nGpSR0UnK2
— Elise Hu (@elisewho) August 19, 2014RT @KMOVMatt Nelly has suddenly joined the demonstrators in Ferguson. #KMOV pic.twitter.com/IGAhNK5ked
— KMOV (@KMOV) August 19, 2014Nelly then grabbed a bullhorn and addressed the assembly.
Nelly now addressing crowd trying to keep them calm telling them not to riot #ferguson pic.twitter.com/5DK3PWuMID
— Shimon Prokupecz (@ShimonPro) August 19, 2014Nelly to #ferguson protestors: "We can't overreact." Says showing destruction is working backwards.
— Amanda Terkel (@aterkel) August 19, 2014But some in the crowd were unhappy with how long it had taken Nelly to come down and weigh in on the issue, and they took offense....
Continue to page two for protesters' reactions.
