After news broke earlier this week that 25-year-old rapper Azealia Banks had had an altercation with 52-year-old actor Russell Crowe at his hotel suite in Beverly Hills, every single person who read the story had one major question: … Whaaaaat?
It’s a pretty bizarre little story; both of their stories are completely ruddy different, *PLUS* both of them have varied but lengthy histories of anger issues and erratic, threatening behaviour.
Los Angeles Police Department have already spoken extensively to Banks, who claims Crowe choked and spat on her while calling her the N-word. They are now preparing to speak to Crowe.
Banks has now given a detailed account of what happened that night, for the very first time. And her recount is pretty dang scary.
She told The Sun that Crowe was drinking a cocktail of whisky, vodka and moonshine, as well as smoking weed.
“Russell had moonshine on the table, and then Russell calls for whisky, so then they just start mixing them up. You know, moonshine, whisky, vodka, and smoking cigarettes and smoking weed.Russell and I get next to each other. He’s talking to me, I’m talking to him, and we start flirting. We’re having a really good time. He’s got his knee on my knee, he’s touching my leg, I’m playing him my music, he tweets my song The Big Big Beat.He’s like, ‘I love this, you’re beautiful, this is great.’So the party goes on. But there was one girl who I guess was his girlfriend.She gets next to me and I guess this is just her chance to try and size me up and see what I’m about.And she’s in my ear and she’s like, ‘Yeah, Russell thinks you’re so hot.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, really? Well that’s on you girl.’ You know, I’m not here for that.”
Banks goes on to say that she lightly mocked another guest shortly after, and Russell “just kind of switched”:
“He was like, ‘Well you know what? You’re young and you’ve never done anything in your career so you don’t know what you’re talking about.’
I’m a little offended but I was still keeping it light. I was like, ‘Your best days are behind you.’”
She says when this happened, a woman stood up and defended Russell.
“I said, ‘Girl, this is not the right time or place for us to be fighting, like what would happen if I got up and I slapped the s*** out of you, or I took a glass and f***ing threw it at you and you were bleeding all over the place? I would be wrong and we’d all be wrong, and the party would be done.’Then Russell turns to me and he goes, ‘Well, you wouldn’t even get close enough to get the chance, n*****.’And he says the word n***** so, like, quietly, under his breath.He calls me a n*****, and then grabs me, picks me up, he chokes me by the throat, picks me up, throws me out of the room and then spits on me.”
Russell ardently denies using racial slurs or physical violence against Banks, saying he grabbed her in a bear hug and escorted her out of the suite after she became violent and threateningly told guests, “You would love it if I broke my glass, stabbed you guys in the throat, and blood would squirt everywhere like some real Tarantino shit”.
Guests in the suite at the time include director Ridley Scott and Aussie comedian Jim Jefferies, who has since tweeted this:
This is 100 percent the truth. I was there, she was out of control . Russell did absolutely nothing wrong. https://t.co/9ySHgz5MGs
— jim jefferies (@jimjefferies) October 17, 2016
Azelia Banks is a complete liar. I was in the room. Russell Crowe is completely innocent. I would take a lie detector.
— jim jefferies (@jimjefferies) October 18, 2016
Azealia‘s final comment about the incident to The Sun was:
“I think he’s a racist, misogynist pig.This is a stain on me. My femininity feels stained. I feel stained as a woman.I feel mishandled, I feel mistreated, I feel dirty. I feel very fucking low.”
We’ll update you as more information arises.
Source: The Sun.
Photo: Chelsea Lauren & Ernesto Ruscio / Getty.
