Rapper RZA has shed more light on the altercation between Russell Crowe and Azealia Banks at a private hotel room party one year ago, now claiming he saw Crowe spit at Banks.
Crowe was reportedly hosting an intimate gathering with about 10 friends in his Beverly Hills hotel suite in October last year - among them, Wu-Tang Clan member RZA, who brought controversial fellow rapper Banks as his guest.
Azealia Banks performs during 2013 Governors Ball Music Festival at Randall's Island on June 8, 2013 in New York City. Photo / Getty
Eyewitnesses claim the 25-year-old was behaving "erratically" at the party, and a disagreement broke out after Banks mocked the music selection at the event and called the guests at Crowe's party "boring white men".
When a female guest stepped in to defend Crowe, the source quotes Banks as saying: "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***."
The rapper is alleged to have reached for a glass, at which point Crowe stepped in and "grabbed her in a bear hug and carried her out of the suite," TMZ reported.
"He then called hotel security guards who removed Azealia from the grounds."
As news of the altercation broke, Banks hit back with allegations of her own, accusing Crowe of grabbing her by the neck, allegedly calling her a racial slur and spitting on her during the October 15, 2016 gathering.
Los Angeles prosecutors later said they would not charge Crowe over the scuffle, with a prosecutor determining that a jury would likely "find [that] the physical escort out of the room was justified to prevent the imminent violence threatened by Banks".
Rapper Azealia Banks poses for a portrait on March 13, 2016 in Brooklyn, New York. Photo / Getty
Reflecting on the infamous evening in a new interview with radio program Breakfast Club, Wu-Tang member RZA said he wished the matter could have been dealt with privately.
"Bad nights happen, but it's usually private. We're in a world now where something happens and it explodes. It got out of the room," he said.
The interviewer asked if Crowe had put his hands on Banks, or spit on her, as she'd alleged.
"Look, he spit at her, I saw that. He didn't spit on her," said RZA.
"[Russell] apologised to me, but ... the night was crazy. I don't want to relive it. It was super, duper awkward. One day I'll make a scene in a movie about it," he continued. Banks responded to RZA's statement in a post to her Snapchat followers - and she wasn't happy.
"RZA has to stop talking about me in the media," she wrote. "Nobody understands how badly I wanted to die the moment rza LIED and told the world I deserved to be spat.
People laughed at me and said I lied. No one understands the amount of pain that came with and after that incident," she wrote.
