As Tone Deaf reported earlier this week, controversial US rapper Tyler, The Creator has confirmed his September tour of Australia has been cancelled following an uproar from activist group Collective Shout, who campaigned to have the artist’s visa revoked.
“We would much rather come to Australia when it isn’t surrounded in controversy. I love my fans there and hopefully I’ll be back soon. Don’t do drugs,” the 24-year-old rapper, whose real name is Tyler Okonma, wrote in a statement.
The announcement that Okonma’s tour had been cancelled was the culmination of months of controversy, after Collective Shout came out against the rapper’s tour, insisting that allowing him to tour represented a real danger to the community.
Now, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, Caitlin Roper, Campaigns Manager at Collective Shout, has promised Australian music fans that “Tyler the Creator was not the first artist we targeted and he will not be the last.”
“As an organisation campaigning against the objectification of women, we opposed Tyler the Creator’s sexually violent lyrics,” Roper writes.
“But why? Because they detailed rape, strangling, mutilating and chopping up women, stuffing their bodies into car boots, trapping them in his basement and raping their corpses.”
“We appealed to Immigration Minister Peter Dutton to deny Tyler a visa on the basis that ‘the content of the product he sells propagates discriminatory ideas about women and other groups, and represents a danger to a segment of the Australian community on the potential basis of incitement to acts of hatred.'”
Roper goes on to recount Collective Shout’s history with Okonma, which dates back all the way to a 2013 Sydney concert, when the rapper “launch[ed] a tirade of abuse against one of our activists at his 2013 Sydney concert as the crowd cheered”.
She also reacts to Okonma’s statement with skepticism, saying, “As Tyler seems to thrive on controversy, this statement is implausible to us. We believe that Tyler’s promoters sensed he was fighting a losing battle and decided to strike first.”
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“We have to live in a community with people whose sexist attitudes towards women are reinforced by music like this,” roper continues.
“We have to live in a community with people whose ideas that women are “bitches” and objects of sexual recreation are affirmed by these events.”
“Women and girls are harmed by this toxic culture. The glorification of violence against women as entertainment harms all women, not just those who say they choose to participate. Saying ‘If you don’t like it, don’t listen” makes as much sense as “if you don’t like pollution, don’t breathe.'”
Roper insists Tyler is far from their only target, citing previous campaigns against Robin Thicke, Brian McFadden, and a petition launched earlier this year to convince “The X Factor to dump Redfoo after his misogynistic ‘Literally I Can’t’ song release“.
“Here at Collective Shout, we continue to fight, bearing in mind the dictum ‘the standard you walk past is the standard you set’,” Roper writes.
“We must hold to account those artists and entertainers who promote and profit from the exploitation of women. We must demand better – and we will.”
