By Solé Scott
Editor-in-Chief
Korean pop has stolen their music and creativity from Black artists all over the world for decades, and it is time we reveal the truth.
K-pop originated from South Korea and emerged in the 1990s.
My issue with this genre is that the artists and bosses of these big labels keep appropriating Black culture by wearing braids, grillz, durags, door knocker earrings, sagging pants, etc.
They are applauded for their fashion sense, while Black people are deemed ghetto or troublesome even though they are the originators of the styles.
Just a few weeks ago, I saw on X that Yseult, a Black French artist who sang at the 2024 Summer Olympics, was a recent victim of stolen intellectual property.
Her music video was copy and pasted by R.Tee and SOYEON for their own video for “DAMDADI.” A majority of the scenes were a recreation of Yseult’s music video for “BITCH YOU COULD NEVER.”
“The K-pop industry, like others, has sucked on Black culture like a vampire for decades. It samples our music, steals our movements, wears our skin like costumes and profits from our pain while erasing our names,” Yseult said.
The director of the copycat music video, Hong Minho, issued an apology and confessed to his crime.
“It’s true that I was inspired by Yseult’s work and her directing style. I have always deeply respected her and the directors she has collaborated with, and this admiration naturally influenced several visual ideas during this project,” Minho said.
Not all, but some K-pop artists have been caught in scandals. BLACKPINK came under fire for a resurfaced video of Jennie, racial slur as they rapped or sang a song leaked by their label YG Entertainment.
Blackface has been common in Korean media even today. For example, girl group MAMAMOO dressed up like Bruno Mars and his crew in Blackface during a concert in 2017.
J.Y. Park, who founded the YG Entertainment label, would perform with dancers imitating African Americans with Blackface, afros and style. During the show ‘Sister’s Slam Dunk,’ Park told a Korean singer that she sounded like Mary J. Blige, and that Blige was a thug.
Black K-pop idols are rare, and the ones that have made it expressed their hardships and mistreatments.
Alex Reid is a Texasborn woman who debuted in 2015 with the group BP Rania, which she departed in 2017.
“Being a Black woman in a K-pop group was hard,” Reid said.
Reid was subjected to racism by industry peers and the public. She was scolded for wearing a traditional Korean hanbok for a photo shoot, which is such a double standard considering what K-pop was built off.
I really loathe the notion that the K-pop stars were not aware of the inherent racism of their actions and just “making a mistake” because if that was the case, these ongoing issues in the industry would not be happening at all.
Social media is always an uproar, and numerous articles from magazines and online blogs have called out the industry for its racism.
I am insulted that my culture is seen as a costume and is used for public consumption, but when major events like these take place aimed against us, it is all quiet in the K-pop world.
R&B legend Stephanie Mills once said a line in an interview about the state of music today.
Mills said, “They want our rhythm but not our blues.”
