Controversial South African hip-hop group Die Antwoord has been dropped from Chicago’s Riot Fest lineup, and replaced by Wu-Tang Clan on Saturday night, Sept. 14.
According to reports, Die Antwoord after a video of Ninja physically attacking Hercules and Love Affair’s Andy Butler while Die Antwoord’s Yolandi utters a homophobic epithet back in 2012 surfaced. Now, Die Antwoord is being pulled from several major US festivals like RIOT and LOUDER THAN LIFE. Continue on…
LOUDER THAN LIFE 2019 LINEUP UPDATE!
Due to unforeseen circumstances, Die Antwoord will no longer be performing at Louder Than Life. The rest of the epic lineup remains the same. Let the countdown to 3 days of rock continue!
?: https://t.co/1CfDkjLlR2 pic.twitter.com/t2A5KImmIc
— LouderThanLife (@LTLFest) August 14, 2019
CelebNMusic247.com reports that Riot Fest, which takes place in Douglas Park, September 13-15, issued a terse statement Aug. 20 on Twitter saying:
Die Antwoord will no longer be performing at Riot Fest 2019. We will be announcing their replacement tomorrow at 10 am. As promissed RIOT announced that the Wu-Tang Clan will be in place of he South African hip hop group.
RIOT FEST, Chicago,
Here we come!https://t.co/FNhm9uFg3w pic.twitter.com/hLOZcHd6dB— Wu Tang Clan (@WuTangClan) August 21, 2019
The announcement followed the group getting pulled from the Louder Than Life festival in Louisville, Ky., with an Aug. 14 post on Facebook pointing to “unforeseen circumstances.”
Ninja posted a lengthy statement on Facebook Aug. 18 claiming that one-time cameraman Ben Crossman editing made it look like he was attacking Hercules and Love Affair’s Andy Butler
He writes:
Cleverly edited this video clip to make it seem like me and ¥o-landi committed a hate crime towards a person because they are gay. However Ben beat up the guy from Hercules himself while filming this same video clip. This was just a fight with someone who fucked with us. Not a hate crime.
He added:
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 a lot of people in our crew are gay. But if a person (no matter what their sexual preference it) keeps harassing us over and over, then physically harasses ¥o-landi, there will obviously be a repercussion.
Crossman told EDM.com that he did not edit the video, though he did admit to taking part in the assault on Butler since Yolandi insisted he had molested her. Later, Die Antwoord’s tour manager stated that she made it all up.
Crossman continued:
My apologies go out to Andrew Butler. I was utilized as a flying monkey by Ninja and Yolandi in this instance and for that, I am not proud.
Wow.
