Die Antwoord Pulled from Riot Fest Following Video Surfacing Of Alleged Homophobic Assault

Ninja and Yolandi Visser of Die Antwoord
Ollie Millington/Redferns/Getty Images – Ninja and Yolandi Visser of Die Antwoord
perform onstage at O2 Academy Brixton on June 17, 2019 in London.
Controversial South African hip-hop group Die Antwoord has been dropped from Chicago’s Riot Fest lineup, and replaced by Wu-Tang Clan on Saturday night, Sept. 14. Though a reason wasn’t given for the lineup switch, it occurred after a video surfaced of Die Antwoord involved in an alleged homophobic assault. 
Riot Fest, which takes place in Douglas Park, September 13-15, issued a terse statement Aug. 20 on Twitter saying, “Die Antwoord will no longer be performing at Riot Fest 2019. We will be announcing their replacement tomorrow at 10am.”
The announcement followed the group getting pulled from the Louder Than Life festival in Louisville, Ky., with an Aug. 14 post on Facebook pointing to “unforeseen circumstances.” 
The video that surfaced shows Die Antwoord’s Ninja physically attacking Hercules and Love Affair’s Andy Butler in 2012, while Die Antwoord’s Yolandi utters a homophobic epithet.
Ninja posted a lengthy statement on Facebook Aug. 18 claiming that one-time cameraman Ben Crossman “cleverly edited this video clip to make it seem like me and ¥o-landi committed a hate crime towards a person because they are gay. However Ben beat up the guy from Hercules himself while filming this same video clip. This was just a fight with someone who fucked with us. Not a hate crime. ” 
He added, “This fight had nothing to with the fact that this guy was gay. We dont care about people’s sexual preference. Our DJ and best friend DJ HITEK is gay, and alot of people in our crew are gay. But if a person (no matter what their sexual preference it) keeps harrassing us over and over, then physically harrasses ¥o-landi, there will obviously be repercussion.”
Crossman told EDM.com that he did not edit the video, though he did admit to taking part in the assault on Butler, only became Yolandi insisted he had molested her, only to admit to Die Antwoord’s tour manager that she made it all up.
“My apologies go out to Andrew Butler,” Crossman continued. “I was utilized as a flying monkey by Ninja and Yolandi in this instance and for that I am not proud.”
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