Slowthai has left the NME Awards after verbally harassing event host Katherine Ryan and attempting to fight an audience member when receiving his fan-voted award for Hero of the Year.
Video from the awards show, taking place tonight at the O2 Academy Brixton, shows the U.K. rapper onstage embracing Ontario-raised comedian Ryan during his acceptance speech, asking her to smell his cologne as co-host Julie Adenuga attempts to defuse the situation.
Additional footage from the event shows slowthai telling the co-host, "if you want to do something, see me later," ahead of gloating to the audience that Ryan "wants [him] to tend to her flowers."
He then suggests to Ryan, "You ain't never had no one play with you like that." Ryan sought to downplay his comments by sarcastically suggesting how "thirsty" she was for him.
Watch the incident play out below.
Video from the awards show, taking place tonight at the O2 Academy Brixton, shows the U.K. rapper onstage embracing Ontario-raised comedian Ryan during his acceptance speech, asking her to smell his cologne as co-host Julie Adenuga attempts to defuse the situation.
Additional footage from the event shows slowthai telling the co-host, "if you want to do something, see me later," ahead of gloating to the audience that Ryan "wants [him] to tend to her flowers."
He then suggests to Ryan, "You ain't never had no one play with you like that." Ryan sought to downplay his comments by sarcastically suggesting how "thirsty" she was for him.
Watch the incident play out below.
While failing to mention the incident with Ryan, NME reports that slowthai then directly engaged with members of the audience.
Footage shows the rapper thanking an audience member for "ruining my speech" before hurling the mic to the arena floor, stepping behind the DJ booth to cue up his Nothing Great About Britain track "Doorman," hurling his drink into the audience, and leaping from the stage in an attempt to confront the crowd member. The audience member reportedly was calling out slowthai for his "misogynist" actions towards Ryan.
Footage shows the rapper thanking an audience member for "ruining my speech" before hurling the mic to the arena floor, stepping behind the DJ booth to cue up his Nothing Great About Britain track "Doorman," hurling his drink into the audience, and leaping from the stage in an attempt to confront the crowd member. The audience member reportedly was calling out slowthai for his "misogynist" actions towards Ryan.
In the wake of the incident, Ryan tweeted the following:
UPDATE (2/13, 11:15 a.m. EST): Slowthai has now issued an apology to Ryan, tweeting the following:
Slowthai made his debut with Nothing Great About Britain last year. The album was nominated for the 2019 Mercury Prize.
The rapper recently guested on new Gorillaz song "Momentary Bliss" with Slaves.