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- Rapper and singer Azealia Banks started a GoFundMe asking for help to fund a lawsuit against actor Russell Crowe.
- Banks claimed that Crowe spit on her, choked her, and called her the N-word during a party in 2016.
- The campaign has raised almost $2,000 of its $100,000 goal so far.
Rapper and singer Azealia Banks has started a GoFundMe asking for help to fund a lawsuit against actor Russell Crowe, who she claimed spit on her, choked her, and called her the N-word at a party in 2016.
The campaign was created June 24 and has raised almost $2,000 of its $100,000 goal as of Thursday morning. On the page, Banks wrote, "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."
She continued: "Crowe called me a n---, 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 !!"
Crowe has never publicly commented on the incident. Crowe's publicist did not immediately return a request for comment.
The 2016 fight occurred at a hotel room Crowe was staying at in Beverly Hills, where he invited people over "to have dinner and listen to music," TMZ reported at the time. One of his guests, RZA, brought Banks with him, and a confrontation is said to have erupted. According to TMZ, it started after Banks displayed "erratic" behavior and threatened the other guests.
But Banks contested that Crowe choked and spat on her, and the "men in the room allowed it to happen," she wrote in a deleted Facebook post after that night. The L.A. County DA's office decided not to charge Crowe.
After the incident, RZA defended Crowe and called out Banks, saying "there was nothing funny about her behavior" and that he felt embarrassed that she was his guest. But last year, RZA changed his tune and said that Crowe did spit on Banks, but added that he thought it was "best that she was expelled out the room."
Banks said that the money she receives if she wins the lawsuit will go toward ocean protection charities.