Sweatshirt says not up in here.
Splendour act Earl Sweatshirt's headline show in Sydney on Saturday night was marred with controversy after the US rapper punched a fan who swarmed the stage during his set.
While performing mid song at Max Watt's, the 21-year-old was approached from behind by a fan who wrapped his arms around the hip-hop star to seemingly try and take the microphone from his hands.
Concert-goers who recorded the incident witnessed Sweatshirt retaliate by throwing a left hook punch at the fan who hit the ground after the punch was thrown.
Venue security quickly arrived and escorted the fan from the stage, not before Garrett Stevenson from Trash Talk who was also on stage at the time, kicked the stage invader.
Sweatshirt quickly jumped straight back into his performance without delay.
As news.com.au reports, the incident is believed to have started after the rapper called the fan in question a "fucktard" who was found being very aggressive towards fans while crowd surfing, which included kicking fellow punters.
Sweatshirt later took to Twitter to address what happened at the concert. See the full tweets below.
keep your hands to yourself and don't sneak up on niggas in the middle of soul bearing
— EARL (@earlxsweat) July 26, 2015
I'm not a tough guy!! I don't like my personal space breached just like you. just respect niggas out here man not just me respect everybody
— EARL (@earlxsweat) July 26, 2015
Sweatshirt performed at Splendour on Sunday evening and will wrap up his Australian visit with shows in Melbourne and Perth this week — see theGuide for more details.
Check out the fan-shot footage of the incident below: