Azealia Banks Raising Money to Sue Russel Crowe

Rapper Azealia Banks is attempting to raise $100,000 through GoFundMe to sue actor Russel Crowe for an alleged 2016 assault.

Banks said that she went to a party at a suite in which Crowe was staying as a guest of Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA. She claimed that he “called me a n****r, choked me, threw me out and spat at me,” in a now-deleted Facebook post.

Other recollections of the event dispute her account. TMZ reported that an argument began over Crowe’s music selection, referring to Crowe and at least one of his guests as “boring white men.” According to the report, Banks launched into a disturbing speech when a female guest spoke up on Crowe’s behalf. “You would love it if I broke my glass, stabbed you guys in the throat, and blood would squirt everywhere like some real Tarantino s***,” she reportedly said.

According to witnesses, she then deployed the racial slur herself several times over. When she grabbed the aforementioned glassware, Crowe allegedly grabbed her in a “bear hug” and carried her from the room, where security officials were summoned to escort her from the premises. Even RZA corroborated some of the events. Multiple guests described her behavior as “erratic” in statements given to authorities.

Now, two years later, Banks has opened up a campaign on the popular crowdfunding site GoFundMe entitled “Sue Crowe for spitting on AB.” Her summary claims:

Russell Crowe spit on me at a party in 2016 and denied it, had a group of people gaslight me causing irreparable damage to my acting career and my reputation as well as loads of emotional damage. Whatever money comes of this will be donated to ocean clean up charities. This isn’t about a big pay day for me, it’s about letting the world know that black women are victims to the same sort of disgusting violence men in Hollywood deal out to women and it’s important to send a message that black women also deserve justice and will get justice in these situations. Crowe called me a n****r, choked me, and spat on me… if I were a white singer he wouldn’t have even thought about laying a finger on me. So many things like this happen in the entertainment industry and it’s time that ALL these perpetrators get reprimanded so they STOP this violent behavior !!

“If I were a white singer he wouldn’t have even thought about laying a finger on me,” Banks says. “This isn’t about a big pay day for me, it’s about letting the world know that black women are victims to the same sort of disgusting violence men in Hollywood deal out to women and it’s important to send a message that black women also deserve justice and will get justice in these situations.”

Her stated goal is $100,000. Four days later, as of the time of this writing, she has raised roughly $2100.