New age nu-metal group Dropout Kings have called out rapper Lil Xan after he bailed on a headlining tour once the support acts had already left to drive a long distance to the first show.
The tour, which was also set to feature Vvizardking & Rosh Dawg as well as Saving Vice, was intended to begin on May 28 at the So What?! Music Fest in Dallas, Texas, followed by a date in Tampa, Florida on May 30 where the remainder of the proper tour would have launched from.
On Twitter, Dropout Kings (who originate from Arizona and released their second album, GlitchGang, last year) expressed their discontent that Lil Xan no-showed his festival appearance and had subsequently bailed on the tour, leaving the rest of the support acts to twist in the wind "after everyone already left cross country."
Rather than simply make the long drive back, amid a time where fuel prices in the United States continue to soar, Dropout Kings vowed to carry on. "We're rebooking this entire tour," the wrote, "Stay tuned. Please bear with us. Also fuck Lil Xan."
Meanwhile, Fit For a King guitarist Ryan "Tuck" O'Leary got in on the action and echoed Dropout Kings' lamentations that Lil Xan not only bailed on the tour, but didn't declare his intentions to the remaining acts on the bill beforehand. He called the act "evil" and sent out another tweet directed at Lil Xan and asked, "Why not just tell people you're not gonna show up? Seems like a pretty egotistical/shitty thing to do."
One of the guitarist's followers replied with a screenshot of a comment left elsewhere by Lil Xan, where, in response to being asked what happened to the tour, he said, "We had to postpone it because everything wasn't ready in time and I wanna give my fans the best experience."
It is worth noting that until Dropout Kings called out Lil Xan, the rapper did not post on Twitter nor Instagram about his decision to exit the tour at the last minute, thus failing to notify his fans that he would not be present at the scheduled stops.
On May 31, Lil Xan finally addressed the controversy (only on Instagram) and shifted the blame to Dropout Kings and their booking agent for his election to withdraw from his own headlining tour. After pinning problems on their tour manager, the rapper noted that a tour would not be ideal for his sobriety now two to three months removed from rehab.
"I dropped off the tour because your management and booking agents were taking advantage of me. Your team dropped the ball. Your team did not have any accomodations or travel or anything a tour should. [You] just wanted to promote [your] homies under my name and we tried to work it out but your team is obviously new at this," Lil Xan said of the band who released their first album in 2018, the same year the rapper's debut, Total Xanarchy, dropped.
"If you guys were smart you wouldn't do [sic] burn bridges like that and act like you guys had the tour even planned right but have fun on your fuck Lil Xan tour," the text-based photo continued.
The caption offered additional commentary, where Lil Xan wrote, "[Shoutout to] @dropoutkingsaz have a great" fuck Lil Xan tour' I know you guys are new to this and [I'm] pretty sure you should talk with your booking agent Ashley on how bad she fucked the tour up for me and my team! But have fun on the tour fellaz [sic] my next tour is for my fans only not yours. [I[ wanna give them better openers and more Xanarchy. On top of that i just got out of rehab 2/3 months ago and wanna stay focused on my sobriety and a tour might damage that! But no y'all team didn’t care as long as they made their money."
Making quick work of the difficult news, Dropout Kings have announced a new tour run featuring many of the originally scheduled stops as well as some changes. The trek will be headlined by Dropout Kings with support from Saving Vince and Jupiter$ Tyrade & Rosh Dawg.
See those dates on the tour flyer directly below.
Follow Loudwire's 'New Age Nu-Metal & NuCore' playlist, featuring Dropout Kings and a lot more.
