Julian Casablancas and Dev Hynes Discuss Racism, Police Brutality in Allegedly Censored Interview
Dev Hynes photo by Tom Spray
In late 2014, Julian Casablancas and Blood Orange‘s Dev Hynes sat down for a long chat with each other about racism, police brutality, selling out, and more. The talk was originally supposed to be published in Interview magazine. But according to Hynes, the magazine “didn’t want to put the interview out without it being edited… So we took it elsewhere.”
Earlier this week, Oyster published the interview in an edited form. Hynes posted an angry message to Tumblr, saying, “they fully edited and censored it without telling us. Cutting out everything to do with race and my past that I discussed, which was not easy for me to do. Why? So they can have another bullshit piece to add to the noise of the internet?”
He added:
I spoke about such personal things, things that weren’t easy for me because I thought that it could be helpful maybe for someone somewhere out there, as well as myself, and you just took it out… like it was nothing… nothing but a distraction to your own world distraction. You had a chance to really add to something, and show people that there are real conversations taking place in the world right now, but you chose otherwise. And prove yet again that the censorship of a free speaking Black man is of less value to you than retweets.
Oyster has since taken down the interview.
Now, Casablancas has posted the full, unedited interview on his website. In it, Hynes talks about the racism he has encountered throughout his life, from being bullied at school to having his passport taken away to being jumped by security at last year’s Lollapalooza.
He also describes an incident in which he “got illegally arrested in Miami like 2 years ago”:
They busted some club for not having a liquor license, but I was outside, I wasn’t inside. And they were going inside and wouldn’t let people in. I was kind of doing what I’m doing now, but back then I would do solo Blood Orange shows.
And I was like, “Oh, my stuff is inside and I just need to go get it” and there was this one… You know one cop who was a dick and he said “No. Not going to happen.” And I was like “Oh, can you tell me like how long?” And he was like “No.” and then these two Miami white girls walked up and are like “We really need to use the bathroom!” And he was like “Yeah go right in ladies.” I was full mouth-to-the-floor like “What!” So I went up again. I said “Look man, I need to get my stuff and I’m just gonna like leave. I have a flight back to New York in the morning.” And he was like “That’s it!” Hand cuffed me around the back, threw me in the back of the car and then left me in the car for 4 hours and I couldn’t do anything.
And at one point, this is the scary moment. An officer came and opened the door and bent down to me and was like, “Hey man, it’s probably best if you just don’t say anything and um it should be cool…” and closes that door. And I was thinking “WHAT!? That doesn’t make me feel good!” You’re telling me to be quiet because the guy you work with is insane? What the fuck!?! It was so crazy.
That whole night. just till the next morning, so eventually I got let out and I thought “It’s done.” Then the next day, there was a mural of the Miami Heat. I’m not really a Miami Heat fan but I wanted to take a picture in front of it to send to my friends. So I’m standing there, my friend has a camera. There are some people there taking pictures ahead of us. two girls and two dudes. Whatever. It’s 11 am and they’re taking pictures. Maybe 5 yards away. Then the girl, they’re all white, the girl then goes, “take a picture of me, I can’t wait to show my friends a picture of me and all these niggas!” And she’s standing there. And then the guy and i were like “Are you done?” And they walked away. So that was a 24-hour moment.
Casablancas responds, “I’m so sorry, man. I apologize on behalf of white people, we’re the worst. I’m just. I don’t know. How to atone is the question. I don’t understand why there is any kind of question about reparations and all that. It seems like such a no-brainer.”
Hynes also reveals that he wrote a whole album in response to the killing of Trayvon Martin in 2012.
I actually…I think I played you a song I had called “All Black Cast”. I think I did. Because there was a period where I was writing, just before this last album, where I wrote a lot of songs kind of super going there, and this was 2011. And then I didn’t really go through with it. the day after the Trayvon Martin case, I went to the Union Square Rally. Then I went home, and for that whole week wrote a whole album of songs that were just about how I was feeling about the entire thing. My goal was to create a fake email account and email it to publications for free to put out, because I wanted it to be out…and this is a problem that I have in general, but I didn’t want ME to be the aesthetic. I didn’t want myself to be in the way of what I was thinking and what I wanted to say… But oh my god. It was called “Black Out” and I wrote it and I just kind of…I think I lost my nerve in the last second. And didn’t do it. But I have those songs still.
Read the full chat here.
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