Music

Tyler, The Creator On U.K. Ban: "I'm Being Treated Like a Terrorist"

Tyler is facing a ban up to five years from the country.

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Image via Complex Original
Complex Original

Last week, Tyler, The Creator announced that he's been banned from entering the U.K. for three to five years and thus had to cancel a series of shows he had coming up. In light of the most recent ban, Tyler agreed to speak with The Guardian about his thoughts on the situation and detailed what happened when he they stopped him at the border.

Tyler revealed that they held him in a detention room when he tried to enter the country and read him a paper with lyrics to his songs on them. "The paper said I couldn’t come at all, saying that I support homophobia and acts of terrorism, and [it said] some other stuff," Tyler said. Tyler maintains that he is not homophobic and is based on lyrics from when he was much younger, and as the United Kingdom government even acknowledged, were from an alter ego in the song. "Now I’m getting treated like a terrorist. I’m bummed out because it’s like, dude, I’m not homophobic. I’ve said this since the beginning," Tyler said.

He also said that he feels like the U.K. just followed the lead of the Australian ban, especially since he was in London back in May. "Two months later they’re like: “Hey, uh, yeah, we reviewed music from a long time ago out of nowhere, [and] you can’t come in.” What," Tyler questioned. His full interview can be read here.

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