Copyright Vulture
Bobby Vylan isn’t blurring his words. The rapper from the band Bob Vylan, who made international headlines with his “Death to the IDF” chant at Glastonbury this summer, told The Louis Theroux Podcast that Damon Albarn’s criticism of the chant was “disgusting.” Blur’s Albarn told the Times of London that the chant was “one of the most spectacular misfires I’ve seen in my life. Especially when he started to goose-step in tennis gear.” While Theroux tried to couch Albarn’s statement as “hyperbolic,” Vylan refused in the October 21 episode, recorded on October 1, prior to the October 10 ceasefire. “Categorizing it as a ‘spectacular misfire’ implies that somehow the politics of the band or our stance on Palestinian liberation is not thought out,” he responded. “And as a more senior, experienced, veteran artist — he’s been in this industry for a long time — I think that there were other ways that he could have handled that question being fielded to him.” He added that he didn’t like Albarn’s description of his movements as “goose-stepping,” because “it’s only used around Nazi Germany.” “For him to use that language, I think is disgusting,” he stressed. “I think his response was disgusting especially when you look at it in comparison to Chuck D’s response, who is as equally seasoned in this music industry.” The New York rapper and activist defended their punk group’s chant at the time, explaining, “You can’t really kill nobody with a guitar or a microphone, but you could kill somebody with a drone and a f- - -king tank.” “But naturally, of course, Chuck D from Public Enemy is going to understand where we are coming from with our politics,” Bobby Vylan concluded. “More so than Damon Albarn.” U.S. senator Ted Cruz, the Glastonbury Festival itself, and U.K. prime minister Keir Starmer were among Vylan’s critics. The BBC, which broadcasts the Glastonbury set live, changed its editorial standards to make it so “any music performances deemed high risk will now not be broadcast live or streamed live.” The band was dropped by their representation at United Talent Agency, their U.S. visas were revoked ahead of a planned tour, and they were dropped from both Radar Festival in Manchester as well as Kave Fest in France. “If I was to go on Glastonbury again tomorrow, yes I would do it again,” he asserted. Vylan called the backlash “minimal compared to what people in Palestine are going through.” “If that can be my contribution and if I can have my Palestinian friends and people that I meet from Palestine, that have had to flee, that have lost members in double digits of their family and they can say, ‘Yo, your chant, I love it,’ or ‘It gave me a breath of fresh air’ or whatever,” he continued. “I don’t want to overstate the importance of the chant. That’s not what I’m trying to do, but if I have their support, they’re the people that I’m doing it for, they’re the people that I’m being vocal for, then what is there to regret? Oh, because I’ve upset some right-wing politician or some right-wing media?”
