Activists Are Trying To Ban Tyler, The Creator From Touring Australia

A planned Tyler, The Creator tour of Australia has hit a roadblock, as an activist group in the country has raised concern and started a movement to bar the rapper from crossing the border. According to the Australian publication Faster Louder, an interest group known as Collective Shout have petitioned the country's immigration minister to deny the rapper a visa on the grounds that his lyrics promote violence toward women, including rape. “We can’t ignore someone who comes here and advocates rape and extreme violence against women through his lyrics,” says Collective Shout co-founder Melinda Tankard Reist. Though it would not be unprecedented for a rapper to be banned from touring a country, such measures are usually tied to criminal charges, of which Tyler has none.

This April, Tyler dropped Cherry Bomb, his third studio album. With features from Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Pharrell, Charlie Wilson and more, it's a record that basks in the breadth of the young artist's influence. Mostly shirking expectations as to what an Odd Future LP can or should sound like, Cherry Bomb acts as another step away from the sound that broke Tyler to a national audience. First entering the rap world's collective consciousness in 2010--along with his Odd Future cohorts, sans Earl Sweatshirt, who was at a Samoan youth camp--Tyler quickly became known for his shocking, often abrasive lyrics. His debut mixtape, Bastard, was aggressively low-fi and consistently, baitingly profane. "Yonkers," the single that made him a national star, was accompanied by a video that ended with Tyler hanging himself.