It’s typically not very surprising to hear when a comment of a sexist nature is made at a concert — that’s just the society we live in. But it is surprising when an artist who presents themselves as progressive finds themselves in these kinds of problems. Flying Lotus, a critically-acclaimed artist who has in fact called out rape culture before, has now found himself in a bit of self-made quicksand after making a sexist joke at Hillary Clinton’s expense during a recent concert.
So @flyinglotus starts talking about he don’t like @realDonaldTrump then says this about @HillaryClinton ? pic.twitter.com/aeOoRIPiVo
— Mariecar Mendoza (@SFMarMendoza) September 17, 2016
According to NME, the producer/performer was talking about how he would not vote for Donald Trump and then he started to talk about Hillary Clinton “I couldn’t possibly vote for a woman who doesn’t give an awesome blowjob,” he joked, “I’m just kidding, I’m going to vote for her ass anyway. No lie.”
See, this is something that is bad, but could have easily been fixed by quickly acknowledging it wasn’t great and saying he’s sorry. However, he decided to skirt the controversy instead of directly apologizing the next day on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/flyinglotus/status/777179513897619457
https://twitter.com/flyinglotus/status/777183334317240320
https://twitter.com/flyinglotus/status/777192856192626688
A few days after the non-apology and catching a bit of hell online, Flying Lotus again brought up his comments and defended what he had to say onstage.
https://twitter.com/flyinglotus/status/777967117417140224
https://twitter.com/flyinglotus/status/777967807107510272
Again, no apology offered but instead further explanation, and that’s where he probably finds himself in trouble. When people are pissed off at you, it doesn’t matter if — jokes aside — you agree with each other or if they knew you were kidding; they just want an act of good faith to show you’re sorry. If you can’t offer that, then, you’re probably at an impasse. Hopefully, he can get on the same page as fans again soon.
