UPDATED April 6, 10:10 a.m. ET: According to Pitchfork, My Krazy Life returned to DSPs with a new version of “Meet the Flockers.” The words “Chinese neighborhoods” are censored and removed.
See original story from 4/5/2021 below.
Just a week after a number of YouTube employees urged the platform to remove YG’s “Meet the Flockers” over anti-Asian lyrics, the controversial song has been blocked on YouTube. Additionally, the Compton rapper’s 2014 debut album, My Krazy Life, no longer appears on both Apple Music and Spotify.
Amid a rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans, the song has been criticized for its lyrics about targeting “Chinese neighborhoods” during robbery attempts. On YouTube, a blocked video for “Meet the Flockers” comes with the message: “This video contains content from UMG, who has blocked it in your country on copyright ground.”
It seems, then, that Def Jam and its parent company, UMG (Universal Music Group), blocked the video. Even so, it’s unclear why the album is no longer available on the streaming platforms, but it’s likely not a coincidence that the controversial My Krazy Life cut was blocked on YouTube around the same time. Complex has reached out to YG’s label Def Jam for comment.
Last week, reports surfaced that workers at YouTube and its Trust & Safety team asked the site to remove “Meet the Flockers” from the platform. After reviewing the track, YouTube decided removing the song would force the site to change its entire policy, leading to more widespread censorship.
“While we debated this decision at length amongst our policy experts, we made the difficult decision to leave the video up to enforce our policy consistently and avoid setting a precedent that may lead to us having to remove a lot of other music on YouTube,” the company explained in an email obtained by Bloomberg.
“YouTube has an open culture and employees are encouraged to share their views, even when they disagree with a decision,” a YouTube spokesperson said in a statement. “We’ll continue this dialogue as part of our ongoing work to balance openness with protecting the YouTube community at large.”
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