As T-Pain questions Deep Ellum’s ‘reputation,’ Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson responds

Rapper T-Pain keeps a close eye on his ticket sales. So, when he checked the numbers ahead of his appearance at The Factory in Deep Ellum for a May 18 show, he was not happy — and turned to TikTok in an expletive-laced rant to his 2.5 million followers. at The Factory in Deep Ellum $39.50 In the video posted Sunday, T-Pain cites numbers from a spreadsheet that tracks the percentages of tickets sold for each stop of his “The Road to Wiscansin Tour.” Against a backdrop of the spreadsheet, he calls out Dallas in particular with sharp words about the venue selling only 26% of its tickets. “What did I do! Let me know what I did! What’s going on?” he says in the video. He continues: “I wore cowboy hats many times. I used to raise horses. I feel like I’m part of the city. I’ve worn a cowboy hat or two, you know what I’m sayin’? Regular cowboy and Dallas Cowboys, I’ve done both!”

In a tweet Tuesday evening, T-Pain said responses to the video signaled that the location of his show in Dallas “doesn’t have a super dope reputation.” “Do I need to make them move the show to a different spot/city?” he asked. On Wednesday morning, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson responded, writing: “You don’t need to move your show out of Dallas and if you have questions about public safety as it relates to your specific concert venue, our police department and police chief are first class professionals who will be happy to answer your questions.” In a tweet of his own, Johnson made his case about Dallas. “Dallas is the only Top 10 city in the US where violent crime fell last year and overall violent crime is down even more so far this year. So, you and your concert goers should feel safe here. Our police [chief] is great and he’s tagged if you have questions. Enjoy Big D!”