A student at the University of Southern Alabama was arrested and accused of making a terroristic threat after writing old Tyler, the Creator lyrics on a large flip chart in the school library, The Associated Press reports.
Jack Aaron Christensen, 21, reportedly wrote the refrain from Tyler’s 2011 song “Radicals,” “Kill people, burn shit, fuck school.” Per Pitchfork, Christensen’s message also included the phrases, “hail satan 666, praise the devil,” which do not appear in “Radicals.”
The “Radicals” refrain became an early rallying cry for Odd Future fans, and though it was obviously tongue-in-cheek, the studio version of the song opened with Tyler delivering the disclaimer: “Hey, don’t do anything that I say in this song, OK? It’s fucking fiction. If anything happens, don’t fucking blame me, white America.”
Representatives for the University of Southern Alabama police department and the Mobile County District Attorney’s Office did not immediately return Rolling Stone‘s request for comment. A representative for Tyler, the Creator also did not immediately return a request for comment.
The incident with Christensen allegedly took place on or around September 11th. It also reportedly took place in the same week another University of Southern Alabama student was arrested on the same charge for allegedly posting a threat on social media (that case and Christensen’s are unrelated).
Michael Mitchell, the school’s vice president for student affairs, wrote in an e-mail to students and employees, “The students involved in each incident have been barred from university property pending the outcome of student conduct processes. No matter the circumstances, our police must treat any possible threat with the utmost seriousness and act immediately to ensure the safety of our campus community.”
Tyler, the Creator’s lyrics have caused controversies in the past, most notably prompting New Zealand to ban him and Odd Future in 2011 and 2014, and the United Kingdom to ban the rapper in 2015 (both bans were lifted this year). After being denied entry into the U.K., Tyler gave an interview with The Guardian where he took umbrage with the country’s decision to ban him despite seemingly acknowledging that his lyrics had been written from the perspective of an alter ego.
“[T]hey obviously did some research on these songs that they’re detaining me for,” he said. “So the argument is right there! This song is written from an alter ego — I’m not like this! You could watch any interview and see my personality; see the guy I am. I wouldn’t hurt a fly.”