Bad news, Bliss: the inexplicable champions of middle of the road Aussie hip hop and only known gateway to a viable 3-4 year music career in Australia has stopped playing the music of Bliss N Eso after one of its members was found to be a misogynistic jerk.
Eso (real name: Max MacKinnon) was burnt at the stake by all and sundry this week after the rapper posted a series of misogynistic images to his personal Instagram account. Specifically, a series of images taken at the Madame Tussauds wax museum in Hollywood Boulevard depicting him 1) fingering a wax sculpture of Lady Gaga with the caption “I made Lady Gaga go Gaga #1upya” and 2) shaking his fist at a wax sculpture of Rihanna accompanied with the caption “Where did ya throw those fucking car keys woman!?! #smackmybitch #shelovesthewayithurts”, a hilarious reference to the physical abuse she suffered at the hands of then-boyfriend Chris Brown five years ago.
The rapper has since offered a heartfelt apology to anyone offended by his implicit encouragement of the sexual objectification of women and/or normalising violence against them by way of a sodden-eyed video apology posted yesterday to the group’s Facebook account.
“While I immediately realised the photos I posted were offensive and expressed my regret for posting them, it has only been through reading people’s comments over the past few days that I’ve come to appreciate just how hurtful and damaging these are to women,” he said in the video. “Violence against women is unacceptable and something that should never be joked about. While I appreciate the support from my loyal fans, what I did cannot be excused.”
But the damage is done. Yesterday, triple j claimed to not have played a single Bliss N Eso track since the incident occurred four days ago.
“We haven’t played any Bliss N Eso on triple j since Monday when this incident happened,” a statement said. “We appreciate that Eso has apologised and believe his sincerity. We’ll wait on the audience sentiment before playing the band again.”
A better question, why play Bliss N Eso in the first place?
