Yesterday Max MacKinnon, better known as MC Eso in the ARIA-topping Aussie hip hop trio Bliss N Eso, posted snaps of his recent visit to the Madame Tussauds in Hollywood Boulevard to his more than 40,000 followers on Instagram.

The rapper uploaded several images of himself posing with various waxworks celebrities in a variety of ‘comical’ situations, including an image of him physically threatening RnB star Rihanna in reference to the terrible 2009 incident in which the singer was assaulted by then-boyfriend Chris Brown.

Not only that, but to remove any sense of ambiguity, MacKinnon added the captions: “Where did ya throw those fuckin car keys woman!?!” and “#smackmybitch #shelovesthewayithurts”

Unsurprisingly, social media quickly stirred as MacKinnon hastily removed the image from his Instagram account. While some fans were defending and supporting the MC’s humour from those criticising the musician’s behaviour, others were damning MC Eso for promoting violence against women to Bliss N Eso’s not insignificant fanbase.

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While the Rihanna image was taken down, two more questionable images of MC Eso posing with female celebrities remained visible on his account (as of 11pm last night), containing equally misogynistic and sexually violent content.

“If ya like the Rihanna one, your gonna love this!!” MacKinnon captioned an image of American actress Raquel Welch, while another showed him sexually assaulting Lady Gaga – as seen below.


All three images contained commentary from followers debating whether the images have crossed the line or were simply the rapper ‘havin’ a laugh’. “I wonder what his wife thinks of how funy he finds beating women,” asked one commenter, while another responded “[he’s] a great husband… so grow up n stop talkin shit,” (as can be seen in the Lady Gaga image above).

Megan MacKinnon, MC Eso’s wife who was proposed to on-stage at the Big Day Out 2011, has also shared an image of her husband at Maddam Tussauds on her own Instagram account.

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The rapper has since removed all three images from his account, leaving only the photo of him posing inoffensively with a waxwork of Eddie Murphy, but not before the pictures invoked the ire of media figures on Twitter, an opinion piece from The Dwaf.com.au, and a proposal from Daily Life columnist Clementine Ford for Triple J to boycott Bliss N Eso’s music.

MacKinnon has since responded with a statement on his Instagram account apologising for the offence caused by his images and that “[they] were shot in a comedic manner, which upon reflection I realise was in bad taste and unacceptable.”

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