L.I.E.S founder Ron Morelli criticised for “fascist and hateful” comments

DJ and L.I.E.S founder Ron Morelli has been criticised by members of the dance music community for expressing “far-right” views in a recent podcast episode.

Morelli appeared on an episode of System of Systems earlier this month, a podcast that claims to “deconstruct art, culture, and politics”, hosted by Adam Lehrer and Matthew DeNicola.

Lehrer, DeNicola, and Morelli spoke on the topics of politics and immigration and discussed their stance on the forthcoming US election.

Morelli expressed pro-Trump views, referred to transgender and disabled individuals using slurs, spoke about the "hypocrisy" of the cancellation of DJs who didn't speak out against Putin after Russia invaded Ukraine, and expressed anti-migrant views.

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“In dance music especially is where a lot of the craziest libtards reside,” podcast host Adam Lehrer says to Ron. “It’s the worst of the worst,” Ron replies. “That scene or whatever it is, it’s over.”

He added: “It’s unfortunately become so unenjoyable, it’s supposed to be music that’s an escape from your everyday reality. Why would you ever listen to some DJ’s political opinion?”

Morelli’s comments have amassed backlash online from the dance music community. In the comment section of the podcast, DJ and live artist Shedbug said: “The funniest thing about this whole thing is you really think you're having some enlightened takes here, this is without a doubt the most small minded thing I have ever listened to.”

American-Iranian artist Sepehr also commented, writing: "Literally not a single shred of anything with depth said here."

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Other artists including Ciel, The Burrell Connection, NEUROKILL, Ian Blevins, and Command D also criticised Morelli’s far-right rhetoric in the comment section of the podcast.

On Twitter, US DJ Aunt Acid posted in light of the podcast episode, saying Morelli "shares fascist conspiracy theories ... on a right-wing podcast spewing a bunch of nasty hateful shit.”

In response to criticism, System of Systems’ podcast producers Safety Propaganda said in a statement on Twitter: "The backlash to the great Ron Morelli of L.I.E.S. for coming on my podcast System of Systems to discuss the truth has begun.

“So I encourage the underground to come forward with its support of Ron beneath the principles of freedom of expressions, of art, of entertainment and the honour in telling the truth radically."

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The backlash to the great Ron Morelli of <a href="https://twitter.com/LIES_News?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@LIES_News</a> for coming on my podcast <a href="https://twitter.com/SystemofSystem3?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SystemofSystem3</a> to discuss the truth has begun, so I encourage the underground to come forward with its support of Ron beneath the principles of freedom of expressions, of art, of entertainment and the…</p>— Safety Propaganda (@SafetyPropagan1) <a href="https://twitter.com/SafetyPropagan1/status/1823170544952397971?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 13, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Mixmag has reached out to Ron Morelli for comment.

Gemma Ross is Mixmag's Assistant Editor, follow her on Twitter