I was speaking to a friend who attended the Download Festival the other day, and he said that as he walked around the site he saw people wearing hoodies proclaiming “I Bottled Bizzle” - before the much-publicised bottling took place. So the bottling and Muller-ricing he received was pre-planned, and indeed Bizzle admits he recognised this as he set off to the festival.
Check out his post on guardian.co.uk’s music blog, which is a pretty dignified account of the incident - he says he understands that the Download crowd are protective of their music, but having a banana skin with a racial epithet written on it took the abuse to another level: “Why did they have to bring my race into it?”
Obviously it’s awful that some idiot would go to these lengths to racially abuse a performer, but if we excuse the explicit racism for a moment - does the co-ordinated bottling and hoodie-printing mean that the fans who took part in these activities are also guilty of racism?

I think a way of answering that question would be to ask another: if a metal band comprised entirely of black performers went on stage, would they receive the same treatment? I honestly don’t think they would. Would a white grime artist/rapper have received the same treatment? I wouldn’t be surprised.
Download is a festival for a specific niche - hard rock and metal. Booking a performer from a markedly different genre, while admirable in some respects, is always going to piss a lot of people off. I could sit here and go on about how closed-minded the fans at Download are - but the fact is they’re metal fans who paid money to see metal acts. If they were fans of eclecticism there are any number of other festivals where they would be welcome and, you’d hope, they wouldn’t resort to piss-flinging. There’s a whole separate argument to be had about why people feel the need to throw bottles of excrement at anyone, ever, but I’m not going near that one right now.
The apparent outrage at Jay-Z headlining Glastonbury is a bit different to Bizzle at Download, I think. Glasto hasn’t been about a single genre of music for years - check out any of the bills over the last ten-fifteen years and you’ll plenty of dance and hip-hop artists, and many more leftfield acts besides. No problem - until one of said acts gets ideas above their station and has the cheek to headline.
I’ve been a fan of Oasis for years, but Noel Gallagher’s reaction was ridiculous. And given the loyal army of dadrock fans he has following his every word, it gave the green light for legions more lunkheads to hit forums and messageboards to moan about Jay-Z’s place on the bill.
Let’s just put Jay-Z’s place at Glastonbury into context. Glastonbury is the biggest performing arts festival in the world. Jay-Z is the biggest hip-hop artist in the world, and has almost certainly sold a shitload more records than Oasis. I’m not saying that selling loads of records is necessarily a signifier of greatness - there are plenty of boy bands to confound that theory - but in conjunction with the impact Jay-Z has had on music and popular culture, it’s perfectly valid. The argument about whether Jay-Z belongs at the world’s biggest festival is a non-starter, as far as I’m concerned.
So is the furore over his appearance down to racism on the part of sections of the audience? It’s certainly down to ignorance, at the very least - the kind of ignorance that sees people refuse to entertain the notion of listening to R&B, hip-hop, techno, grime, or anything that isn’t predominantly comprised of electric guitars.
It’s a restrictive view of music that I don’t understand - at least not in adults. Sure, as a teenager a large part of being into music is about seeking a sense of belonging to some kind of tribe, or scene - and this can mean excluding other genres can be as significant as loving your own. But guess what? That’s something you’re allowed to grow out of. If you start liking Daft Punk, you don’t necessarily have to go cold on The Enemy (although it might be an idea, arf arf).
At what point such ignorance spills over into racism I don’t know. Would those against Jay-Z at Glastonbury react similarly if it were Eminem headlining? That’s the same Eminem who who was lauded as a poet a few years back. Depressingly, I don’t think the reaction would be that different, which calls into question whether it’s a matter of race at all.

Possibly related:

1. Lethal Bizzle goes to the Gallows

2. Lovebox 2008 coverage includes, er, Britain’s first fruit fight. And Lethal Bizzle

3. Bloc Party singer speaks out against racism and reveals personal tragedy

4. Download Festival truly multi-metal-media

5. Download organisers are already planning next year’s festival

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Posted by Stuart Waterman on Friday June 20th, 2008 at 10:31 am