Organizers of Kentucky’s Louder Than Life music festival — whose lineup includes Guns N Roses, Slipknot, Ice Cube, Marilyn Manson and The Crystal Method among others — have dropped the South African hip hop group Die Antwoord after video footage came out of its two members attacking and yelling anti-gay slurs at Andy Butler, the gay DJ behind the disco dance music group Hercules and Love Affair.
Related: How to react if you’re ever targeted for a queer-bashing
The now-deleted video, which was taken from the 2012 Australian festival Future Music, was posted online by Die Anttwoord’s former videographer Ben Crossman. The video reportedly showed Yolandi Visser and Ninja threatening Butler.
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One particularly disturbing clip appears to show Yolandi yelling, “Run f*ggot, run. Run for your life b*tch,” as Butler runs away. The two can then be seen telling several staffers that Butler sexually harassed Visser in a portable toilet, before Ninja lauds a crying Visser for an “Oscar-award winning” performance.
Naturally, the band is defending itself against claims of homophobia. Ninja claims that Crossman edited the clip “to make it seem like me and ¥olandi commited a hate crime towards a person because they are gay.”
Here’s a copy of the video:
To anyone wondering what the ‘unforeseen circumstances’ are… Turns out @DieAntwoord are just a bunch of vile humans https://t.co/2ZMCjHmYHr pic.twitter.com/xampCXTa5b
— nziokie (@nziokie_) August 18, 2019
“However,” Ninja continues, “Ben [Crossman] beat up the guy from Hercules himself while filming this same video clip. This was just a fight with someone who f*cked with us. Not a hate crime. This fight had nothing to with the fact that this guy was gay. We don’t care about people’s sexual preference. Our DJ and best friend DJ HITEK is gay, and alot of people in our crew are gay.”
“Sexual preference??” Sigh… Also, if you have so many gay pals, how about you not use the word “f*ggot”? How about that?
Crossman has said that he only tried to “restrain” Butler during the encounter and claims that other unedited versions of the videos and witnesses can attest to the video’s veracity.
The Louder Than Life music festival said it dropped Die Antwoord due to “unforeseen circumstances” but did not mention the video in its announcement. No charges have been filed.
white-queer-african
GOOD RIDDANCE!!!!! Applaud, Applaud, Applaud. They are dreadful. So irrelevant and dated in South Africa. Will do anything to attract attention. Disgusting scum to be ignored and avoided. An embarrassment to the continent of Africa.
TroyCollins1457
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Donston
I don’t understand the “sigh” for “sexual preference”. The term can be problematic, particularly when it comes to “queers” wanting to make sure that they separate themselves from the too homo-ish “gays”. However, a lot of people (particularly straight people) see things more from a preferences standpoint than orientation standpoint. It is what it is. But the statement in general doesn’t makes them look like ignorant, insensitive ass-hats. Even if what they said is legit, they still felt the need to use homophobic/effemiphobic/anti-gay epithets as threats. And no one falls for the “I got a black friend. So, that gives me a right to say and do racist shit” argument any longer. And they ultimately admit to jumping the dude. They dumb.
ShiningSex
I thought they were gay.
Their music is awful though. Just awful. They look like they smell bad.
KerryB
Yet they’re OK with Guns N’ Roses and all the homophobic shit that Axl Rose has spewed over the years?
KiraNerysRules
Did I miss something? They said a gay guy violated a woman? Hmm. Also, in the clip, was it just me or did it seem like they were making up the woman violating thing on the fly? “So, here’s the story…”
baal61
Celebrities! Stupid.
Floofster
I’m from South Africa and yes… No sh*t Sherlock… What do you expect from a band who makes the kind of content they do? They only hit a chord with the weirder crowd in South Africa, which is where their art belongs… It’s crazy that American’s think artists are so far removed from the art they create. When a rapper who is constantly singing about drugs, hate, misogyny, violence, guns, and ridiculous superiority complexes gets caught up in some criminal activity and goes to jail everyone loses their minds… Why?!