Wild '60-Man Brawl' Breaks Out at DC Hip-Hop Awards

It was supposed to be a night to celebrate the best of D.C.'s hip-hop music world. It ended up looking more like a scene out of "Fight Club."

During the intermission at Saturday's DMV Awards, two rival "crews" began an all-out brawl. It wasn't just an I-push-you-you-push-me type of thing. As the Washington Post explains, projectiles (including chairs) were flying:

At about 9:45 p.m., witnesses say it turned ugly. During a program intermission, a fight erupted between two crews, quickly spiraling into a full-scale brawl in the hotel atrium. Witnesses said that between 20 and 60 people were involved in the altercation. Punches were thrown. Bottles were broken. Tables were flipped.

The website Allhiphop.com calls it a "60-man brawl." Some people captured the incredible scene and posted the video to YouTube (the fight starts at about 1:30):

[Content WARNING for language]

"The idea was to bring people together, and this is so sad," Natasha Brown, the event's publicist, told the Post. "It took us back in a year where we were really moving forward."

The event's MC, local rapper "RA" agreed: "It's definitely a setback. We have all these label heads and executives looking at us. The spotlight is on us and this is how we act?"

That idea permeated another video of the brawl:

As seen in the video above, "SMH" stands for "Shake My Head." And that was the general sentiment by many of the artists who attended or heard about the event.

"I'm really speechless," local rapper Tabi Bonney said when told about the incident. "I thought we were way past that ... We have to get out of this 'crabs in a barrel' mentality. We should be happy for one another."

"Just heard about the DMV awards," D.C.-area rapper Wale tweeted. "DC hiphop took major steps last year…And now this. WE gotta do better."

According to police, five people were sent to the hospital. No arrests have been made, although the investigation is ongoing.

(H/T: Gawker)