Odd Future Banned From New Zealand

Tyler & Earl

Odd Future Banned From New Zealand

Tyler & Earl

At this late date, more than four years after Tyler, The Creator released Bastard, it’s amazing that anyone considers Odd Future to be a remotely threatening entity. And yet that’s where we are. The group was supposed to play a show with Eminem this Saturday in Auckland, but New Zealand border officials have denied them entry.

AP reports that NZ border officials consider Odd Future a “threat to public order,” citing a 2011 riot at a Boston in-store autograph signing. Border Operations Manager Karen Urwin says, “It’s not a decision we take lightly and not one that happens often.” According to Urwin, the group’s lyrics were not the reason they’ve been denied visas. She also claims that the country usually only bars entry to people like white supremacists and high-profile Holocaust deniers.

This isn’t the first time Odd Future have had trouble getting into Auckland. In 2011, the Auckland City Council barred them from performing at a date on the traveling Big Day Out festival after a local woman wrote in to complain. But hey, now Odd Future have something else to feel persecuted about!

[photo by Kenny Sun @ Music Hall Of Williamsburg]

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