Kanye West is having a phenomenal year so far, but it looks like some fans wants to rain on his parade. The rapper-producer has been tapped to headline London’s annual Glastonbury Festival, but U.K. fans want him to go away.
According to CBS, Neil Lonsdale, a longtime Glastonbury attendee has started an online petition, calling for organizers to cancel Yeezy’s performance and “prevent this musical injustice.”
Lonsdale spared no words, writing, “Kanye West is an insult to music fans all over the world. We spend hundreds of pounds to attend Glasto, and by doing so, expect a certain level of entertainment. Kanye has been very outspoken on his views on music….he should listen to his own advice and pass his headline slot on to someone deserving!”
In an interview with NME, Lonsdale made it clear that his actions weren’t an attack on hip-hop, but were solely motivated by West himself. “My beef is not with the genre. My beef is with the stage and the fact it’s a headline slot,” he said before adding that the G.O.O.D. Music honcho doesn’t “represent anything.”
And it looks like Neil Lonsdale isn’t the only one with these feelings, as over 100,000 people have signed the petition and made it known that everyone in the U.K. are not happy with West performing at the festival.
However, Glastonbury co-founder Emily Eavis stands by the decision to book West. In an editorial for the Guardian , she writes that the petition is “a bit silly” and states that West is performing at the festival in support of various charitable causes.
“He has agreed to play a festival where headliners get paid a fraction of their normal rate in support of Oxfam, Water Aid and Greenpeace as well as thousands of other worthy causes. We think that’s pretty great,” she writes.
What do you think? Should Kanye West step aside and let someone else perform his headlining gig at Glastonbury Festival? Tell us in the comments below.
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