Hip Hop collective have come under fire for the lyrics of their song that some say objectify women and often depict violence against women including rape. Now more fuel has been added to the fire with a female photographer allegedly being assaulted by Vyron Turner, aka Left Brain, at an event in New Orleans.
The incident occurred during the groups performance at the Voodoo Experience on Sunday, when the group lead by Tyler The Creator, got riled up due to his dislike for photographers. According to witnesses the frontman was unhappy that photographers got to be so close to the stage in an area cordoned off so fans couldn’t enter.
Turner then proceeded to take action on his frontman’s words pouring water on at least 20 photographers, pushing and kicking their cameras. However the situation took a turn for the worse when he slapped a female freelance photographers across her face and knocked her camera to the ground.
“I have worked many shows before, and I’ve had to deal with a band flinging water at the photographers, but I never expected this to happen,” the photographer Amy Harris told reporters. “In the pit, the male to female ratio is about 20 to 1. There were way more men in that pit than women.” Harris contacted the festival director immediately after the incident who addressed the situation promptly.
She declined the press charges of assault and battery for the time being.
Now Odd Future’s publicist has told Pitchfork that “there simply is no truth to the accusation floating around the internet. It’s no secret that Odd Future has a love/hate relationship with photographers at shows simply because sometimes they are given access the group wishes their fans would have instead. After telling the photographers to clear out multiple times (as they’ve done before) Vyron (Leftbrain) took a swipe at a few cameras, NOT people. To manipulate the situation to insinuate an attack on a woman specifically is careless and manipulative.”
