UPDATE: The BAND DENIES EVERYTHING and here’s what we have to say about that
NSFW due to language
All photos of Odd Future are by Amy Harris
Odd Future is a rap group lead by Tyler, The Creator. The band is noted for their violent lyrics against women. It’s song lyrics from “Bitch Suck Dick” that demonstrate Tyler’s lyrical violence against women. One of the opening lines of the song states, “By the way, we do punch bitches.” For Tyler he is quite serious and proved yesterday that he’s a man of his lyrical word along with the band.
Yesterday on the last day of The Voodoo Experience, Odd Future took the stage and it started with a bang, actually more with a punch. Tyler arrived onstage and proclaimed his hatred for photographers. He started exclaiming that fans pay big money to be there and to be upfront, so the music photographers (aka the press) shouldn’t be in the barricade. When other members of the group joined in on the anti-photographer rant, the crowd started to eat it up. Left Brain, Vyron Dalyan Turner, jumped down onto the speakers in front of the stage and threw water on the photographers’ cameras. He kicked a video camera over, and said, “We are going to fuck you up!” He then looked directly at Amy Harris from The First 3 Songs and said, “I hate you bitch!” and proceeded to slap her and knock her camera over. “Everybody was in shock,” Amy tells me. “Some photographers left as Tyler was saying ‘We are going to Fuck you up’ and some left as he (Left Brain) slapped me.”
After the tirade on the photo pit, the band proceeded with their set and the photographers were escorted out of the pit. Amy says that she is not pressing charges against the band.
Amy is an experienced photographer, and she currently writes for Cincinnati’s CityBeat, The First 3 Songs, and for us here at The Dead Hub, and is represented by Corbis Images. She’s been covering live concerts for 4 years and she tells me, “I’ve seen them (artists) throw water and complain, but never violence.”
The Youtube video has very poor sound quality. Will keep our eyes out for better ones if available.
Editor’s Note: I really feel compelled to say something here, not only because Amy freelances for us, but because of the situation as a whole. If Odd Future REALLY felt strongly about not having photographers in the photo pit covering their set they could have made that happen instead of inflicting violence to get their message across. It is not uncommon for artists to have restrictions during their live performances. Some artist will request to not have any photographers during their set even in festival settings. You can also bet that The Dead Hub will never be covering Tyler or Odd Future again. His actions were uncalled for.
Oh yes, one more thing, Tyler lives with his mother.
Photos of Odd Future before and as the violence hit:
