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Odd Future's Left Brain Assaults Female Photog


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http://www.venuestoday.com/news/detail/venues-today-photographer-allegedly-attacked-by-odd-future1031

Updated 11:08 p.m. PST: Skip Bolen, a photographer in the photo pit with Amy Harris at the concert issued this statement: "Vyron Turner (Left Brain) and Tyler Okonma (Tyler, The Creator) never told photographers to "clear out" multiple times, instead, Turner immediately exploded into his vile hatred of photographers with a long string of obscenities, and then hit one male photographer first — breaking his Nikon 70-200mm lens and a split second later hit the female photographer Amy Harris in front of me — it was clearly assault and battery. Whether it was a swing directly at Amy Harris' face or her camera, they are both connected when a photographer is shooting photos -- and after the incident, Amy Harris' face was red."

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Updated 10:21 p.m. PST: Marcee Rondan from the Mitch Schneider Organization has issued the following statement: "The Voodoo Experience does not in any way condone the behavior of Odd Future towards the approved media assembled in the photo pit during the band’s set yesterday. Festival organizers would like to apologize to their media guests who experienced and/or witnessed this abusive behavior."

A Venues Today freelance photographer covering the Voodoo Experience in New Orleans said she was slapped in the head by a rapper from the group Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All while taking photographs during the group’s daytime set.

The assault allegedly happened moments after the group took the stage Sunday Oct. 30, 2011. Harris, a veteran concert and music photographer based in Cincinnati, said the rapper yelled, “I hate you bitch,” before striking her in the face with his open hand. The group has a history of complaining about photographers at their show and have come under fire by women’s rights groups for their misogynistic lyrics. Sunday is the first time a violent incident has been connected to the group.

Harris was credentialed to shoot the concert by the publicity firm Mitch Schneider Organization and organizers of Voodoo Experience. She was ushered into the photo pit area in front of the stage by Voodoo staff moments before the group came on. Two members of the group appeared first on the stage and didn’t cause any problems — it wasn’t until group leader Tyler, The Creator came out that things apparently started to get ugly.

“He told the crowd that he hated photographers because the fans paid good money to see the band, and they should be up front,” she said.

His words seemed to rile a couple of rappers on stage, who walked over to the group of 30 to 40 photographers shooting the set. The rappers apparently started to try and pour water on the shooters' cameras and equipment. Photographers started leaving the pit, but Harris stayed and kept snapping photos. That’s when rapper Left Brain, real name Vyron Turner, approached the photo pit and while standing on a stack of monitors, began hitting and kicking the photographers' equipment. Turner then turned his attention on Harris, slapping her in the face, knocking the camera out of her hands.

"It literally knocked the lens off of the body of the camera," said Harris, who didn’t press criminal charges against the group, she said. “I had a mark on my face for a couple hours afterwards."

Harris and the other photographers were quickly ushered out of the photo pit. In a twist of irony, Harris was immediately ushered backstage to interview promoter and festival organizer Stephen Rehage for a separate story in a future issue of Venues Today.

“I told him what happened and he was horrified,” she said. “They were very concerned.”

what over-hyped egotistical assholes. already hated these dudes, and now i just dislike them even more.

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i was there, it was way over hyped. odd futures performance was fucking awful though

http://www.drivenbyboredom.com/blog/2011/10/31/odd-future-vs-photographers/

There is a lot of buzz on the internet right now about how Left Brain from Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All attacked a female photographer during their show at Voodoo Music Experience in New Orleans on Sunday. I was there in the photo pit and I happened to be standing right next to the woman who supposedly got slapped in the face. Her story is bullshit.

Odd Future has a reputation for fucking up photographers. At SXSW they ran across the photo pit stepping on the heads and cameras of many a photo blogger. I have never seen them but I was well aware of their reputation. When I got to the photo pit at Voodoo I was pretty excited about the madness that would be happening. After Tyler the Creator told all the photographers that he fucking hated them for taking up space that should belong to fans I got excited. I was ready to see what kinda violence Odd Future was willing to dish out. I wanted to know if their shows were as wild as I had heard.

Two minutes later Hodgy Beats took a bottle of water and swung the bottle at me covering me and my camera with water. Photographers on either side of me got a litte bit wet and a lot of people backed the fuck up. Personally I just wiped the water of my camera and my face and started shooting again. When I wasn’t taking a shot I was just smiling like a crazy person at them ready for whatever the fuck was next.

What happened next was what made news. Left Brain came out to the front of the stage and swatted at photographers cameras. He slapped the guy to the left of me. It was pretty hard and kinda fucked up but I didn’t expect anything less. Rock and roll should be dangerous and Odd Future is doing that right. Moments later Left Brain slapped another camera, this time it was a camera belonging to a woman. She almost dropped it but caught the strap and was perfectly fine just clearly shaken by the experience. He then came towards me but I think he probably saw that I was looking at him like a crazy person and decided to kick over the video tripod that Voodoo had set up. There was not a camera on it.

The the reason Left Brain targeted the photographers he did was because they were in slapping distance and nothing else. This woman is claiming that he slapped her across the face and targeted her because she is a woman. That is complete bullshit. She got targeted because she decided to shoot a crazy fucking band and was not ready to deal with that. Any serious pro photographer has all their gear insured and while getting your shit broken is not idea, when you are shooting dangerous subjects it is a risk you have to take.

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also, i know the guy photographer that issued the statement with her and i think i know who the girl is. these guys are just old people that are so used to sitting in their photo safe zone for 3 songs. fuck em.

mars volta did the same thing at voodoo fest 3 years ago. omar was grabbing cameras and throwing them into the crowd, knocking over lights, getting very physical with the photographers.

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i don't care who does it; anyone who purposely tries to destroy someone's property/the things they use to make a living is a jerk.

if things happen during the course of the set (people/the band stage diving/water being thrown, etc) that's one thing, and you should go into a concert expecting that. but deliberately trying to break other people's belongings for no other reason than you're a 'rock star' is just disrespectful and juvenile.

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Was it right to hit some chick? No, never.

Does it sound like they over-hyped this "assault"? Yes

Its big news because Odd Future is controversial and really "hot" right now. Im sure this type of thing happens all the time and you never hear about it.

Also I saw Odd Future a few weeks back at the Palladium...interesting show but damn it was the worst sounding show Ive ever been to. I had no clue what song they were playing at any point during their entire set.

Kinda funny that this outrage is coming from the same board where people support selling Charles Manson records.

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It is all fun and games until you are the one getting shoved. The camera people love OF because they provide them with great and exciting pictures. Someone probably took a picture of another camera person getting hit and thought to themselves "what a sweet picture I just took" not "I should go help that person while jeopardizing my chance to make some money." Everyone is a hypocrite (including OF who get hype from the pictures), deal with it. If you feel you were actually assaulted call the cops, don't whine on your blog.

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Was it right to hit some chick? No, never.

Does it sound like they over-hyped this "assault"? Yes

Its big news because Odd Future is controversial and really "hot" right now. Im sure this type of thing happens all the time and you never hear about it.

Also I saw Odd Future a few weeks back at the Palladium...interesting show but damn it was the worst sounding show Ive ever been to. I had no clue what song they were playing at any point during their entire set.

Kinda funny that this outrage is coming from the same board where people support selling Charles Manson records.

i've been photographing bands for years and have never had anything like this happen to me, or have heard of anything like this. most bands are awesome; some even go out of their way to help me out.

if you're taking photos in the pit there's definitely an understanding that you or your equipment could easily get damaged in a gazillion ways accidentally, and you have to decide if that's a risk you want to take or not. i just take issue with someone going out of their way to deliberately hurt someone or their equipiment because they're just mean, ignorant, or spiteful.

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I still just don't get how these guys are popular. Seriously cannot get into any of their songs at all. Add to the fact that they are apparently assholes it really just baffles me. Though most of the crowd seemed like teenaged white kids so who knows wtf.

Same. i have literally no interest in hearing this group.

Oh, and their name is dumber than a kid making a gimmick account on a vinyl message board pretending to be a big time wrestling promoter, which is really dumb.

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the only way i know how to answer this is fuck those photographers. this group has a rep for not wanting you there and will probably kick you in the face. if you dont wanna get hurt or have your stuff damaged dont go. if you want to take the chance then by all means go for it and do your best.

a little george carlin for you...

"Who cares about some mercenary, civilian contractor from Oklahoma who gets his head cut off? Fuck 'em. Hey Jack, you don't want to get your head cut off? Stay the fuck in Oklahoma. They ain't cuttin' off heads in Oklahoma, far as I know. But I do know this: you strap on a gun and go struttin' around some other man's country, you'd better be ready for some action, Jack. People are touchy about that sort of thing.

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