Artist News Legal

Police investigating altercation between Azealia Banks and Russell Crowe

By Andy Malt | Published on Tuesday 18 October 2016

Azealia Banks has reportedly filed a police report, accusing actor Russell Crowe of battery, over an altercation at a party in his hotel room at the weekend.

According to TMZ, Crowe invited around ten people to his Beverly Hills hotel room for dinner on Saturday night, including Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA, who appeared with Crowe in ‘American Gangster’. The musician brought Banks with him, as the two are working on a film together, and RZA has reportedly signed Banks to a new record deal.

At some point in the evening, Banks reportedly mocked the music choices of Crowe and some of his guests, calling them “boring white men”. An ensuing argument then escalated.

In a since-deleted Facebook post, Banks said that Crowe had “called me ‘nigger’, choked me, threw me out and spat at me”. Meanwhile TMZ cites ‘eyewitness accounts’ from unnamed sources, claiming that Banks had said: “You would love it if I broke my glass, stabbed you guys in the throat, and blood would squirt everywhere like some real Tarantino shit”. What does not seem to be in question is that an altercation took place and that Crowe grabbed Banks and threw her out of his room.

Banks filed a police report with the Beverly Hills Police Department the next day, seemingly after Crowe refused to apologise for the incident. Police have not commented on the case, other than to confirm that it was being investigated.

In a statement, Banks’ representative Raýmani said: “Azealia is tremendously distraught and disheartened. She is shell shocked and will speak out on the incident once she has had time to process the brutality and abuse she was unjustly subjected to”.

Crowe has not commented, other than to retweet TMZ’s original report.