End It frontman posts first response to ‘Banana Man’ controversy

finish it Leader Akil Godsey has made his first public comments since the Viral moment in which he led a crowd to destroy a banana costume. worn by one of the fans at the show.

Where “Banana Man” spoke on social media and later shared his story on The Beardo and Weirdo podcastThe band has remained silent since the controversial incident. End It deactivated its social media and pulled out of a scheduled summer tour after the incident, which took place on June 5 in Toronto.

What ending did Akil Godsey say about the reaction to the ‘Banana Man’ incident?

Today (June 24), The End It vocalist posted a video on his instagram accountspeaking publicly about the incident for the first time, addressing the reaction the video sparked.

“The funniest thing about all of this is that people tell me that they were disappointed in me, when the first song I wrote for this band is called ‘Give Up,’ which is where I instruct people to walk into the woods to kill themselves,” he shared. “You obviously haven’t been listening to the band and I don’t know what the fuck you thought was going on here. We’re a hardcore band. We do hardcore stuff.”

The singer added, “You don’t have to come here. You don’t have to pay attention to me at all. Everyone in my life loves me very much. I’m very well taken care of. I don’t need your attention or your validation. I’ll be fine.”

He then added, “Hey, if the band has to quit, so be it. I guess I’ll go to work. I’m a fully functioning grown man. I’ll be fine. There’s more to life than whatever you think is going on here. You don’t even know what’s going on here. We haven’t talked in a long time. You live on assumptions. Don’t assume, my parents taught me that. But have fun with the life you’ve made for yourself.”

The Instagram post also included a caption that alluded to some of the more extreme reactions it received. “Thank you for the racism, the death threats and the lectures. It has all been very exhausting. I am going to raise my son now. Peace,” he concluded.

What happened between End It and ‘Banana Man’?

The Banana Man had been part of the audience during the performance of End It, but in the middle of the set the The group called him out, claiming his costume was in need of attention.. Frontman Akil Godsey said: “Banana boy, come forward. What the fuck you doing, my black? No, no, no, no, no. You don’t get rewarded for doing that shit. He wanted attention and now he has it.” “And now everyone has to kill you,” another gang member said.

Godsey then offered the band’s setlist for the night to anyone willing to “take the banana out of him,” adding, “Just saying! You were asking for attention, now you’ve got it!”

The video of the incident was Posted to the r/Hardcore subreddit by the account xRUCKUSx and can be seen below.

Video – End It calls out Banana Man at last night’s Toronto Show
by
u/xRUCKUSx in
Hard

What Banana Man said after the incident

Shortly after the incident, the concert-goer dressed as a banana shared on Instagram Stories””People have been trying to dim my shine my whole life. It sucks, but I’m used to it. I have surfed hundreds of people with this suit, of all genders and ages, safely. Especially a lot of beginners who felt safe approaching me for their first surf.”

He continued: “@enditbaltmore, two of your band members crossed the line… and I’m obligated to talk about it. Fuck the police? While they watch what people wear? Get off, hose. Last night’s message: conform or be called out, the exact opposite of what hardcore is supposed to be about. I was an unwilling participant, attacked and stripped of my clothes under the direction of a band I paid to see… What would you do?”

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Then, while appearing on The Beardo and Weirdo podcast, Banana Man shared, “There was no pretext for me to get it. I also didn’t do hours of research on this band before I came to the show, because like you said, I was there for the headliner. I think you can see my happiness when he calls me and I shake his hand and he says, ‘No, no, no. You’re not rewarded.’ I was going to say, ‘Hey, Scott, welcome to Toronto,’ but that changed pretty quickly.”

Calling the experience “strange,” he added, “I’m a pretty big person, 200 pounds and 6-4 and this was an all-ages show, so I just can’t swing with the kids. Now I’m the bad guy (if I was). So I had to accept it,” he shared. “At the same time, if the band had approached me earlier, I’m all for slapstick. I love slapstick. I’m all for it. But come up to me and ask. If they had said, ‘Now you have to kill him en masse for the next song,’ that would have been fine, but I think some adjectives were misused there.”

When offered the opportunity to address the band, his comment was, “Practice your show on stage before you perform it.”

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