"Wu-Tang Clan fan" fined £500 for publicly rapping N-word in ‘Protect Ya Neck’
He was allegedly rapping along to a TikTok video at 1:AM in a women's toilet
A Scottish Wu-Tang-Clan fan has been fined £500 for rapping the N-word along to a TikTok video at 1:AM in a ladies' toilet.
25-year-old Kyle Siegel was singing along to Wu-Tang Clan’s 1993 hit ‘Protect Ya Neck’ in a toilet stall, and he rapped the N-word, Scottish publication The National reports.
This use of the slur by Siegel, a white man, “severely shocked” a mixed-race woman who was also using the public toilet in one of the stalls - a court heard. The woman allegedly engaged in an argument with Siegel before reporting him to the police.
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Kyle Siegel has since admitted to saying the word in the video Scalloway Boating Club, and he told Lerwick Sheriff Court he would take full responsibility for his actions. He has been charged with a £500 fine, as well as a £20 “victim surcharge”.
The man alleges that he was not aware of the woman’s presence in one of the other bathroom stalls when the incident occurred at around 1:AM on Sunday, February 20.
He was attending a birthday party at Scalloway Boating Club where he then ended up in the women’s toilet and started “singing along to a TikTok on a friend’s phone,” his lawyer Tommy Allan says.
His attorney also noted that Siegel was “not a person of colour,” however arguments surrounding “artistic freedom” came up during the hearing.
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‘Protect Ya Neck’ was Wu-Tang Clan’s debut single, released in 1993, and features in their first album ‘Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)’. The track features eight out of nine original Wu-Tang members and was produced by RZA.
In April, the US Library Of Congress selected albums from Wu-Tang Clan to be archived in the National Recording Registry.
During the pandemic, Wu-Tang Clan sold a ‘Protect Ya Hands’ sanitiser as part of a charitable line of merchandise in collaboration with the Canadian city of Ottawa.
**Aneesa Ahmed is Mixmag's Digital Intern, follow her on* Twitter*