Jamaican reggae artist Kabaka Pyramid is said to have made anti-Semitic statements in reposts and chats on Instagram. The Innsbruck PMK, the Munich Backstage and the Vienna Flucc canceled the concerts on the current tour at short notice.
The Jamaican reggae musician and Grammy winner Kabaka Pyramid is actually currently on tour in Europe. But performances in Germany and Austria will not take place as planned: organizers in Munich, Innsbruck and Vienna have canceled the planned concerts due to allegations of anti-Semitism. The artist is said to have spread “lies, disinformation and anti-Semitic comments about Jews and Israelis” in private Instagram chats and reposts. This is what the initiatives “Artists Against Antisemitism” and the “Concerned Reggae Collective” report. They approached organizers with statements, collected screenshots and an appeal.
Yesterday, Tuesday, the Innsbruck platform mobile cultural initiatives (PMK) canceled the planned concert with a lengthy statement. The postings and messages from Kabaka Pyramid are suitable for “exposing an alleged global Jewish conspiracy and for trivializing atrocities in the Middle East conflict.” There are more than 30 cultural associations behind the PMK. According to managing director David Prieth, the majority of the seven-member board decided to cancel the concert. “It’s about a fundamental anti-Semitic attitude,” says Prieth, explaining the cultural association’s decision to the “press”. In the screenshots, Kabaka Pyramid writes that “rich Jews own America.”
Viennese Flucc also cancels the concert
On Wednesday morning, the organizer Barracuda also canceled the concert scheduled for today, Wednesday, in Vienna’s Flucc. “In view of the criticism we received and published regarding the artist’s statements and content distributed via social media, we have decided after many conversations and discussions to cancel the performance,” says a statement on the Barracuda website.
In a statement from the artist, which the PMK obtained by telephone and published on its website, Kabaka Pyramid denies the statement, suggesting a “world Jewish conspiracy” and trivializing the crimes of Hamas.
However: Attached to the open letter from the “Artists Against Antisemitism” and “Concerned Reggae Collective” is an assessment by the Anti-Semitism Research and Information Center North Rhine-Westphalia (RIAS NRW), which paints a different picture. Kabaka Pyramid’s postings show “that supposedly harmless motives of ‘criticism of Israel’ occur in combination with openly anti-Semitic ideas,” according to the RIAS NRW. “Die Presse” has asked for confirmation of the information, which is still pending (as of Wednesday morning).
“What we saw on the news was reason enough for us not to let the concert take place.”
David Prieth
Managing Director PMK
According to David Prieth, it is rare for concerts to be canceled at such short notice. There have been previous cancellations in the PMK for “black metal bands that are looking for proximity to right-wing extremists” or for “extremely sexist German rap.” In the case of Kabaka Pyramid, the Tyrolean organizers were “simply running out of time. What we saw in the news was reason enough for us not to let the concert take place.” According to the artist’s website, the current tour is still ongoing. The next dates are in France and the Netherlands.
