Artist News Gigs & Festivals Legal Live Business Top Stories

Tyler, The Creator says UK gig cancellations were down to visa issues

By | Published on Thursday 27 August 2015

Tyler, The Creator

So, the “circumstances” that have prevented Tyler, The Creator from playing the Reading and Leeds festivals this weekend seem to be primarily visa issues.

Having been slightly vague earlier this week as to why he was pulling from the two festivals, plus dates in Belfast and Dublin, the Odd Future rapper returned to Twitter yesterday, pushed down caps lock once again, and declared: “BASED ON LYRICS FROM 2009 I AM NOT ALLOWED IN THE UK FOR 3-5 YEARS (although i was there 8 weeks ago) THAT IS WHY THE SHOWS WERE CANCELLED”.

His manager, Christian Clancy, then took to Tumblr with a much more detailed summary of recent events, and to express both confusion and frustration as to this new decision by the UK authorities, given it seems to relate to early Tyler, The Creator output, and the rapper has been in Britain many, many times since that material was released.

Clancy writes: “Tyler has been banned from entering the UK for somewhere between three to five years per a letter from the Secretary Of State for the home department of the United Kingdom. The letter specifically cites lyrics he wrote six to seven years ago for his albums ‘Bastard’ and ‘Goblin’ – the type of lyrics he hasn’t written since… highlights from the letter include that his work ‘encourages violence and intolerance of homosexuality’ and ‘fosters hatred with views that seek to provoke others to terrorist acts’. I grew up on NWA, Eminem and Rage Against The Machine, so it’s hard for me to fully wrap my head [around] this thought process and its implications”.

He goes on: “To say that I am confused would be an understatement. Can you imagine being beholden to things you said when you were 18? Tyler has been to the UK over 20 times in the last five years without incident (shows, in stores, meet and greets). We rented out a movie theatre … in London for a private showing of ‘Napoleon Dynamite’ for his fans literally last month”.

“More importantly” he says, “this is a broader issue of free speech, with new lines being drawn that include reaching back in time without acknowledging growth. In fact, punishing growth. What I do know is Tyler is part of an argument that is counter to who he has become. How do you punish someone for growing up?”

Expanding on the issues, he muses: “Since the letter acknowledged he was writing from an alter ego perspective does this then apply to book writers? The fact that he has evolved into someone who has acknowledged and grown out of that is simply lost in the narrative. Is he not worthy of the pat on the back for becoming aware and making changes? What message does that send? Is race a conscious or subconscious factor at all?

He concludes: “I’m not defending [Tyler’s] OLD lyrics. To be honest they make me cringe, but I stand beside him because of who he actually IS. Our eight year old daughter, who is constantly inspired by him, said it best; ‘why would they ban Tyler? that makes no sense'”.

As previously reported, the rapper also recently cancelled dates in Australia, where there had been calls for his visa application to be denied because of similar issues with past lyrics, though in the end Tyler said he was pulling the dates because he simply didn’t want the shows to be surrounded by a controversy. We await word from the UK Home Office regarding the exact circumstances of these new visa issues.



READ MORE ABOUT: |