Mike King's son in horror splatter-video storm

UNDERCOVER: Nathan King, as 'Dirty Sesh' in a scene from the video.

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Anti-violence groups are calling for a taxpayer-funded music video featuring the son of comedian Mike King to be banned, slating the slasher-style clip as "violent, misogynist pornography".

An extended, online version of the video for Nathan King's second single "Forever" depicts the rapper, who performs under the name "Dirty Sesh", crouching over a bound woman with a knife to her head, before stabbing her in a frenzy and cutting out her organs.

The clip, which features shots of mutilated women's bodies and body parts, then segues into the television version of the video, which shows the rapper stalking a young couple in a park, dispatching the boyfriend, then driving the woman to a secluded hut.

The television version ends with the woman screaming as the hooded rapper appears; in the online version, he assaults her.

Kim McGregor, director of Rape Prevention Education, has written to the prime minister and a number of cabinet ministers asking them to push for the video to be banned. She had shown the clip to a focus group of young professional women, who had been deeply upset by its content.

"What they found disturbing was the pure unadulterated hatred of women that was portrayed," McGregor said. "Would this be funded by NZ on Air if it had portrayed the dismemberment of small animals?"

She said that by combining violent imagery with lyrics such as "I keep the party cracking like I'm cracking your girl's mouth", the clip presented anti-women messages as cool, and ran the risk of desensitising young people to the reality of violence. "It seems completely inappropriate that taxpayers' funds are used to support such extreme misogyny."

NZ on Air music manager Brendan Smyth said that $5000 of public funding had been provided for the television version of the clip, but the most graphic content, including the stabbing scene, was produced in a separate shoot funded by the record company, which forms the introduction to the song in the online-only version.

He said NZ on Air based its funding decisions on the commercial viability of the music, and had no input into the concept of videos. Funding contracts stipulated that the money would have to be repaid to NZ on Air if the videos produced were not considered suitable for broadcast by television networks, but the TV version of the clip was currently screening on C4.

King, 23, whose debut album is released tomorrow, said he had "never really thought about" the implications of the video.

"I understand where they're coming from but it's entertainment, it's fake. I don't really want to go around stabbing anybody," he said. "It's me creating a scene from a movie in one song."

The concept for the clip had come about as a collaboration between himself, Move the Crowd record label boss Kirk Harding, and director Tim van Dammen, who had been toying with influences such as 1970s horror films.

"The main thing I wanted to do was just shock people, you know. Get people to be `That's way out of line', and to push the edge visually. I thought I'd come with something different, a lot darker."

Harding said the clip was no different to fare presented in shows such as TV's serial killer show Dexter or videos by American hip-hop artists such as Eminem. "Kids have the ability to take in all of that via YouTube. We're getting singled out because we're New Zealanders doing it."

He said there was no way to make a horror-themed video without being shocking. "It's not just girls getting taken out in there, a guy gets taken out too."

Van Dammen said he could understand people finding the video offensive "if they were to view it in isolation from the past 20 years of film, video, television and written media".

He added: "It's about time New Zealand music had a villain."

That did not impress Maria McMillan, spokeswoman for the Roundtable for Violence against Women.

"This isn't satire or commentary. It's simply another cliched depiction of a `fantasy' of women being stalked, bound and [placed] in a state of terror, deliberately aimed to shock or titillate in the hope that it'll sell a bunch of unoriginal pop-rap albums. The last thing we need is another man celebrated for hurting women."

In a video posted on YouTube, Mike King said he had brought his son up to "abhor violence against women" and his son had been given bad advice from his record label.

King said the media should be talking to the record label, not him.

- © Fairfax NZ News