Word has it that Brontez Purnell of Gravvy Train and Younger Lovers was acosted outside of Oakland's Club Paradiso. According to the Bay Citizen, Fellow YL bandmate Adal Castellon and Purnell were unlocking their bikes outside the venue when they were approached by some ill tempered dreads with vague accents. The Citizen's accounts and developments:
As Purnell and Castellon were unlocking their bikes, the pair approached them, shouting gay slurs and telling them that “if they were in Jamaica they’d be dead,” according to Purnell.
Purnell yelled back at them, “How dare you?” and as he rode past them, one of them men hit him on the head, knocking him from his bike. He swung his bike lock at them. Meanwhile, one of the men hit Castellon in the face. The pair and two women, who had witnessed the attack, then got in a black Porsche Cayenne, an SUV.
Purnell threw his bike lock at the car in an attempt to stop them, but they drove away.
The violence shocked Purnell, a longtime Oakland resident.
“[The attackers] were so arrogant,” he said, “They were saying I was in the wrong club. I’ve been going to that club since I was 22…Nothing bad has happened to me here. Especially not like that.”
