SHORT TAKES : Rival L.A. Rappers Cause Melee at Manhattan Music Seminar

Rival Los Angeles rap music groups disrupted the final day of the 11th annual New Music Seminar today by staging a battle royal in a luxury hotel near Times Square in mid-town Manhattan.

Panicked seminar delegates and hotel guests at the Marriott Marquis Hotel fled down an escalator to escape the fighting that took place in the lobby of the eighth floor at the height of the music industry gathering.

“People were screaming and running,” said disc jockey Markie Gee, a delegate at the convention. “I heard a pain scream. Somebody got bum-rushed.”

Seminar officials would not say who had been involved, but eyewitnesses said the fight took place between followers of the Los Angeles rap groups Above the Law (ATL) and Ice-Cube.

“ATL was in the middle of it,” Gee said. “They definitely got a reputation as knuckleheads.”

Village Voice critic Ben Mapp said: “I saw one guy throw a table. Somebody had to get hurt.”

Delegate Beth Emerson told Reuters that some delegates had been bludgeoned with brass planters on the hotel floor.

“There was a lot of blood but the real problem was that there were a lot of people there and they all panicked and tried to get on the escalator at once,” Emerson said.

Police said emergency medical services had not reported any injuries.