As Iman reported it on Monday, the Odd Future gang was dropped from the ‘Big Day Out's’ Auckland, New Zealand date, and they will also have to deal with legal action as photographer Amy Harris has filed a police report against OF’s Vyron ‘Left Brain’ Turner, who allegedly slapped her across the face during a Halloween concert in New Orleans.
But these guys stay constantly in the news! In a recent interview, Spinner asked Tegan (from Tegan and Sara) about Tyler the creator, as everyone will remember about her sister Sara’s open letter, ‘A Call for Change’, criticizing the use of misogynistic and homophobic ranting and raving in the rapper's lyrics.
This is what Tegan declared to Spinner:
‘The media just loves talking about it. Other than putting up the letter, there really was not a lot of blowback. Obviously, Tyler's response was perfect, because it articulated that he doesn't actually have a statement to make. He can't really defend how he behaves and what he says.’
‘The statement was directed at you, it was directed at the media, it was directed at us, it was directed at musicians, it was directed at the industry, saying, 'Let Tyler, the Creator make as many records as he wants, but, like, let's be bigger than that.' Let's not put it out and say we'll leave it up to the people. That's not how it works. If I had littered this interview with racial slurs and then said it was a joke, no one would be OK with that.’
‘There's a double standard when it comes to misogyny and sexism and homophobia, and I think it's shameful that people in our industry put out his music. But that's OK. That's how it works.’
‘Beyond that, we had an overwhelming swell of people that came to us to give support, and that was really great. I wish more of them had spoken out, but I understand that by speaking out, they would have only gotten him more popularity, and we totally understood that. And I hope that people in our industry realize that you've got baseball players and basketball players and hockey players being fined for saying 'faggot,' but Tyler, the Creator says it 230 times, and we applaud him, and we give him MTV Music Awards. As an industry, we should be totally ashamed of ourselves.’
I cannot agree with her, he is an artist, and he is playing a role, whereas baseball, basketball and hockey players are not, they are themselves, there is no double standard in this sense. Have you seen what for example Sarah Silverman can get away with these days? Is she that shallow, racist, homophobic girl she plays on TV? Obviously she isn’t, she is a comedian, an artist!
Does Tegan really think Tyler is homophobic? Does she think he means it when he sings ‘Kill people burn shit fuck school’. Furthermore, one of Odd Future’s member is the openly gay woman Syd ‘Tha Kyd’ Bennett, they are a parody of an idea, a fantasy in 3-D,… or according to Tyler's own statement: ‘It's fucking art, listen to the fucking story’. And yes their songs may be stories about rape and murder fantasies, but if you watch movies, these stories are all over the place.
May be words are stronger than images sometimes, people seem to take them more seriously, but honestly, seeing a character raping a woman in a movie and singing about raping girls should be consider at the same level. In the case of Odd Future it sounds more like a cartoon and the violence of the lyrics are the equivalent of the images of a Tarantino’s movie. However, some people take it seriously and this is where the danger lies.