"What's the point of having words you can't say?" asks Syd the Kid Lesbian Odd Future member Syd tha Kid has described the group's ban from the final Auckland Big Day Out as "ignorance at its finest". Odd Future played a solo show at Auckland's Powerstation after being dumped from the Big Day Out line-up because of complaints to Auckland City Council, the owner of the festival's venue Mt Smart Stadium. The Council took up the complaints about the nature of the rap collective's lyrics, which are full of what many see as homophobia and misogyny, with Auckland Big Day Out promoters. The group was ultimately dropped. Syd tha Kid, a DJ, singer and producer and Odd Future member, has now told Australian website FasterLouder that if people knew what Odd Future was about, the group would not have been pulled. "They're calling us homophobic, okay, for using homophobic slurs? Okay, cool. But we were still able to perform in New Zealand, in the country at a different venue. We did our own show. Sold it out. It was their loss. So, y'know, whatever. I think next time it won't happen. They'll be like 'Uhh, last time we were wrong!'" The 19-year-old adds that she now has no problems with the vocabulary of the group's frontman Tyler the Creator, who often throws around the word 'faggot'. "When I first started working with Tyler and stuff I was also like, 'Woah, he said that?'," she recalls. "But you get use to it and you get desensitised to it and those words can't harm you. Why let such destructive words, why give them power…. They don't need to mean anything. What's the point in a word you can't say? What's the point of having words you can't say? It's stupid to me." Syd tha Kyd, real name Sydney Bennett, recently told LA Weekly much the same, "We know where we cross the line, but we also think the world would be a much better and funnier place if people weren't so offended by it. One thing you can't say about Tyler is that he's a liar. He's not really out there raping girls. He tells you that they're fantasies." Syd added that she suffered depression during high school due to struggles with her identity and sexuality. "I hate the word lesbian," she said, expressing concern her personal life would overshadow her music. "I don't want anyone saying, 'Oh, that's dope, for a gay girl.' " The teenager went on to claim some of her high-profile contemporaries are lesbians and added "It took me a very long time to be comfortable in my own skin. I would love if everyone could be that happy."
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Friday, 27th January 2012 - 7:21pm