Timothy S. Griffin

Tyler the Creator went to SXSW, played some shows, incited a riot at Scoot Inn (after a BV party), got arrested

March 18, 2014

Timothy S. Griffin

Tyler the Creator w/ BadBadNotGood @ Red 7 – 3/13/2014

Odd Future rapper Tyler the Creator had quite a week at SXSW, filled with ups and downs and no shortage of drama — some of which was from his own hands. Things got off to a bad start as the tragic events that went down Wednesday night outside of Mohawk (aka ‘House of Vans’ for the week) reportedly involved people on line to see him at 12:30…

FUCK IT, THE VANS SHOW TONIGHT THEY ARE GONNA LET ME GRAB 100 FANS TO WATCH THE SHOW SO COME AT LIKE 1230 AT MOHAWK HOUSE OF VANS YEAH!!!

— Tyler, The Creator (@fucktyler) March 12, 2014

Show Isnt Happening, Something Sad Happened. I'm Bummed

— Tyler, The Creator (@fucktyler) March 13, 2014

His next event, which he did play was a short set at our Thursday free day party at Red 7 where he came out for an impromptu set of songs with highly-skilled jazz/funk trio BadBadNotGood, who he’s collaborated with before (pictures in this post). He didn’t say anything about the night before on stage, though he did let everyone know he had to play a short set because he had another show to be at soon…

It was only hours later that he was playing the Converse x Thrasher Death Match party at Scoot Inn, where he encouraged the people online outside of that show to break down the fence and come in. SPIN writes:

Does Tyler, the Creator thrive on chaos, or does he thrive on subjecting other people to it? There’s a difference. One tendency you tend to associate with artists, the other masochists. To wit: During his headlining spot at the Converse/Thrasher “Death Match” at the Scoot Inn Thursday afternoon, Tyler incited hundreds of people outside the already-packed venue to break down the gates, nearly causing a riot just hours after two people were killed and 23 injured outside his scheduled show at the Mohawk. SXSW came dangerously close to another tragedy.

…

“All you guys back there that can’t get in,” he said — then implored the mob to bust down the gates. There was a split second when it seemed like the crowd wasn’t going to do it, a possibility Tyler extinguished as he led the audience in a chant of “PUSH, PUSH, PUSH!”

And just like that, hundreds of people came rushing through the gates. I happened to be directly in their path when they did, and it felt like being hit with a wave: I pinged off this person and that person before stabilizing myself and catching my breath. I noticed the futile attempts of the security guards: a shit-kicker Joe Arpaio-type at the door tackled someone; another, meeker dude tried a clothesline that didn’t work. It was of little use: the handful of guards were pushed aside like twigs in a flood. Someone came rushing to the sound booth where I’d moored myself and yelled at the sound guy to turn the music off. He did. I looked behind me and, to my horror, saw that they were locking the gates.

The show did eventually start again, and the SPIN report said that it seemed like even more of a riot would have ensued if it didn’t.

THRASHER SHOW WAS GREAT! HAPPY EVERYONE GOT IN. I PLAY PANDORA TONIGHT AT 1AM COME!!!

— Tyler, The Creator (@fucktyler) March 14, 2014

A video of what went down at Scoot Inn was posted by TMZ and can be watched below.

The amount of rioting that did ensue though, resulted in Tyler getting arrested at the airport as he was leaving town, as Austinist reported. A police statement which since surfaced stated that Tyler was charged with a class A Misdemeanor, with a bond set at $25,000. They also posted his mugshot, which you can see below.

I DONT WANT TO CAUSE ANY TROUBLE, SOME ARE MAKING ME OUT TO BE A BAD GUY, SO IM NOT DOING ANY SHOWS TONIGHT. BE SAFE HAVE FUN ASSHOLES!

— Tyler, The Creator (@fucktyler) March 14, 2014