K-Pop group KISS OF LIFE has issued an apology for posting a video on YouTube that has been deemed racist and insensitive.
On Thursday, the group’s agency S2 Entertainment released a statement apologizing for the video where they highlighted old-school hip-hop. They may have meant no harm, but people felt another way and claimed that the video criticized them on social media, which only amplified discomfort among viewers due to its perceived cultural insensitivity.
“We’d like to address the issues that arose from the content that was uploaded on KISS OF LIFE’s official YouTube yesterday,” S2 Entertainment wrote in their statement. “We sincerely apologize for causing discomfort to our viewers. The true purpose of the content was to celebrate hip-hop culture, which serves as much of the musical inspiration for KISS OF LIFE. However, we apologize for our shortcomings in recognizing the negative cultural implications that our content could be perceived to have.”
S2 Entertainment added, “Our members and team promise to approach cultural references with greater caution and respect moving forward. All related content has been removed from all of our channels.”
The apology wasn’t enough for people on social media who shared several posts highlighting how other K-Pop artists have shared content that was appropriating the culture and just being all-out racist with the content.
Check out some of the reactions to the apology below.
