RZA backs Russell Crowe in Azealia Banks row, says the rapper is 'obnoxious'

RZA has backed Russell Crowe after Azealia Banks was thrown out of a party in his hotel room at the weekend.

In a deleted Facebook post, she claimed the Hollywood actor "choked" her, threw her out and spat at her.

But Wu-Tang Clan star RZA says Russell Crowe actually stopped her attacking a woman at the party with a glass.

"Azealia threatened to cut a girl in the face with a glass, then actually grabs a glass and physically attacks for no logical reason," he claims.

"Russell blocked the attack and expelled her from the suite.

"Seeing is believing and I saw her behave as an obnoxious erratic individual and in the circles I frequent this was unprecedented."

Azealia Banks has responded on her Facebook page, saying she's going to press charges over the incident with the Beverly Hills police department.

She wrote: "The absolute god honest truth is that Russell bagged on my music videos, saying he could shoot them better on an iPhone.

"I docked it in my mental Rolodex and got him back for it when the time to roast him presented itself again.

"I told him he was old and fat, the entire room gasped and THAT was when I became a target.

Azealia Banks performed at BBC 1Xtra Live in Leeds in 2013

"Regardless, you need to have the respect and decency to have someone properly escorted out.

"Grabbing them by the neck, calling them [the n-word] and tossing them out is not the look. NOR Is spitting an acceptable form of self-defense."

Before the incident, RZA says Azealia Banks had been verbally abusive to guests in the hotel suite.

According to celebrity gossip website TMZ, she also accused Russell Crowe of calling her a racist name.

RZA says he didn't hear the actor use the n-word.

The report also claimed that eyewitnesses saw Azealia laughing at the choice of music and calling Russell Crowe and one of his guests "boring white men".

A female guest is then said to have challenged the rapper's behaviour.

Azealia Banks is reported to have responded with "you would love it if I broke my glass, stabbed you guys in the throat, and blood would squirt everywhere like some real Tarantino ****".

She's said to have raised a glass as if she was going to throw it, which is when Russell Crowe reportedly took action and removed her from his suite.

RZA also says in his Facebook post that he's done everything he can to help Azealia Banks.

He says he got her a role in a film he was directing called Coco, got her a record deal, bought her a ticket to LA to record music, paid for a hotel room and had been planning to talk to her about her future at Russell Crowe's party.

He ended his post by saying: "I have a wife, daughters, sisters and females on my staff so I protect women everyday.

"I pray none of them ever behave the way I witnessed Azealia Banks behaved that night."

Russell Crowe hasn't commented on the claims although he has posted a few links to stories about the incident on Twitter.

Find us on Instagram at BBCNewsbeat and follow us on Snapchat, search for bbc_newsbeat