The Los Angeles – based rap group Odd Future has been refused entry to New Zealand because it is “a potential threat to public order and the public interest”.

“Odd Future has been deemed to be a potential threat to public order and the public interest for several reasons, including incidents at past performances in which they have incited violence,” Immigration NZ said today.

A TV One News Report tonight states that the Human Rights Commissioner has backed the decision to ban the group (referred to in a Wikipedia entry as an “American hip hop collective”).

Stop Demand Foundation, a registered New Zealand charity, which is a lobby group against sexual violence, has been trying for some time to get Odd Future banned from this weekend’s Rapture 2014 hip-hop festival at Western Springs Stadium in Auckland, at which Eminem will be the main act, because of the group’s “rape and murder fantasy lyrics”.

The Stop Demand charity-lobby group (Reg. No. CC30599 – registered on 20/06/08), which has been putting pressure on [lobbying] Auckland Council, which owns Western Springs, urged [lobbied] it to consider its ethical, moral and social responsibilities in relation to the rap group and allegations that it incites sexual violence through its lyrics. The charity-lobby group members will be delighted that the Immigration NZ has banned all the group’s members from travelling to New Zealand, even though they were scheduled to appear at the forthcoming concert at Western Springs.

In 2011  Odd Future was removed from Auckland’s Big Day Out musical festival (not to be confused with Big Gay Out, a non-profit “Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transexual” annual fair day in Auckland) – after  a few complaints about the collective’s “homophobic lyrics”.

Since its inception in 1992, Big Day Out has attracted a large range of artists, with headlining acts including Marilyn Manson, Violent Femmes, Iggy Pop and the Stooges and Metallica.

“In one instance, a police officer was hospitalised following a riot incited by Odd Future.”

Sources: 

1. Rap group banned, deemed ‘a threat’ to NZ. Report by Michael Daly dated 13/02/14

http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/music/9718905/Rap-group-banned-deemed-a-threat-to-NZ

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Day_Out

3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Gay_Out

4.  http://tvnz.co.nz/entertainment-news/rappers-deemed-too-dangerous-nz-video-5831755

5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odd_Future