A video of the two artists yelling homophobic slurs at Andy Butler has surfaced.
Die Antwoord have been dropped from two festival line-ups after a video from 2012’s Future Music Festival in Australia has appeared online, showing the pair in a heated altercation with Andy Butler from Hercules & Love Affair. The clip shows Ninja (aka Watkin Tudor Jones) and Yolandi Visser physically attacking and threatening Butler before yelling homophobic slurs at the frontman.
Following the incident, Jones can be seen accusing Butler of sexually harassing Visser. In the video, Jones compares Visser to Marilyn Monroe, calling her tears an “Oscar Award-winning” performance. Furthermore, Jones can be heard using racial slurs in the video. The clip was filmed by Die Antwoord’s former videographer Ben Crossman. The clip also states that sound engineer Diak Voigt was involved in the attack against Butler.
Die Antwoord has now been removed from the line-up for Kentucky’s Louder Than Life. The team behind the event state that the pair will no longer perform at the event due to “unforeseen circumstances.” A Reddit user has posted an image online, showing messages from Vegas’ Life Is Beautiful Festival. The messages say that the duo have been removed from the schedule.
Jones has followed up with a statement this week (18 August) claiming the video has been “cleverly edited” to appear like a hate crime. He said, “This was just a fight with someone who fucked with us. Not a hate crime. This fight had nothing to with the fact that this guy was gay. We don’t care about people’s sexual preference.”
Jones also claims that Crossman edited the video in a “rampant” retaliation for his termination several years ago, and that the incident was a fight provoked by an assault on Visser: “In the heat of the moment I quickly told Yolandi to be as dramatic as possible about what happened.”
The video is still available online. Warning: the clip contains homophobic and racist language.
