360 Slams Herald Sun Attack On Him As 'Absurd'

Local rapper 360, also known as Matt Colwell, has garnered a lot of coverage both negative and positive since Monday night's appearance on ABC1 political panel show Q&A.

Well known for not keeping his opinion to himself, 360 spent much of the week clarifying statements he made about the Australian flag on Q&A. But he has mostly avoided confronting those who have attacked him for what he said.

However, today Colwell has taken to Facebook to address an opinion piece, by Tom Elliott, titled 'Matt You Need To Get Out More' published by the Herald Sun yesterday (and appearing online under the banner 'Rapper 360 Is Wrong To Call Australians Racist').

Colwell states that he "wasn't going to write any more on this issue", claiming he is tired of being "misquoted and taken out of context".

360 is tired of being "misquoted and taken out of context".

He continues, "However, I read this article in the Herald Sun by journalist Tom Elliott — I feel that your article written at me, calling me stupid warrants a response."

Colwell takes Elliott to task for misquoting him from Q&A, "Once again I'd like to stress that I  never said 'the Australian flag was racist'... I said 'in the example given, I associate the Australian flag with racism'." 

He goes on to dress down Elliott for accrediting lyrics to him that aren't actually his and for falling back on the argument that "there are other places worse off".

360 posted this image of the offending article alongside his Facebook response

But he takes particular umbrage from Elliott's conclusion that asks would Colwell be brave enough to criticise the Islamic State flag in front of its followers. "I find this question absurd," slams Colwell.

He concludes, "It's a shame that after my appearance on Q&A, the only thing people are focussing on is what I said about our flag, not the actual problem at hand. Yet nothing else has been mentioned about my stance on homophobia, mental illness and alcoholism."

Read 360's full post here.