What a Week It’s Been for K-pop, Huh?

We’re only five days in, but it feels like an entire month of discourse has already already been crammed into April. Several K-pop idols have been facing criticism amid an ongoing discourse about whether the K-pop industry respects Black people as much as it admires Black culture. To be clear, this is not a new conversation by any means — international fans have been raising concerns around anti-Blackness and cultural appropriation in K-pop for years. But this past week has felt especially notable to some people because of the near back-to-back timing of these scandals. Below, what to know about the alleged past use of the N-word by Jennie, Lisa, and Rosé of Blackpink, the apparently “old-school hip-hop” themed Kiss of Life livestream that all four members have now shared a joint handwritten apology for, and other recent controversies.

What happened with Blackpink?

On March 30, an individual who claimed to be a former YG Entertainment employee began posting content (including purportedly leaked videos, unreleased music, and allegations about romantic relationships) concerning idols from across the K-pop industry. This so-called “YG leaker” shared multiple clips that allegedly show three of the four members of Blackpink — Jennie, Lisa, and Rosé — singing or rapping the N-word while covering songs as trainees prior to their debut as a YG Entertainment group in 2016. While not everyone trusted the authenticity of the source, enough of these clips were circulating that some people started creating compilation videos to count how many times each member appeared to have used the racial slur. (YG Entertainment and representatives for Jennie, Lisa, and Rosé did not immediately respond to Vulture’s request for comment.)

Blackpink fans who were hurt began calling for the members to apologize. Some expressed doubt that Rosé and Jennie could have been fully unaware of the significance of the slur due to their backgrounds as English-speakers; per an Elle interview, Rosé was born and raised in Australia, while Jennie spent part of her childhood studying in New Zealand before returning to her native Korea. (Lisa, who moved to Korea to train when she was 14, told Rolling Stone that she began learning English in middle school in her home country of Thailand.) Others maintained that regardless of the members’s intentions or level of awareness in the past, they still needed to take accountability in the present — especially since they work with Black artists.

Still, not everybody wanted Jennie, Lisa, and Rosé to apologize. Some people claimed that the negative reaction online was unwarranted. Others did take issue with the use of the word, but asserted that the girls were not to blame for what happened while they were trainees a decade ago. One Blackpink fanbase with 1.2 million followers on X said in an April 4 statement that the leaked videos were being “deliberately weaponized” against the members, arguing that the “real responsibility” for this “mistake” lies with the K-pop industry and companies like YG Entertainment for “failing to provide proper cultural education.”

Have the Blackpink members apologized?

As of publication, Jennie, Lisa, and Rosé have not publicly acknowledged the purportedly leaked videos.

What happened with Kiss of Life?

On April 2, Kiss of Life members Julie, Belle, Natty, and Haneul celebrated Julie’s birthday in a since-deleted YouTube livestream with a dress code billed as “old-school hip-hop vibes.” The concept and styling were heavily criticized as appropriative of Black culture: Haneul had side cornrows, while Natty was wearing gold chains and, at one point, two hats stacked on top of each other. Some also felt that Belle, who rapped part of Sexyy Red’s “Pound Town” and was referred to as “Lil Taco Belle” during the live, was dressed as a chola and appropriating Chicano culture. The members’s mannerisms and affected speech throughout the livestream — including Julie’s declaration that “Lil Taco Belle be flirting with my man and that’s not a bestie,” for example — also attracted backlash for playing into stereotypes.

As clips spread online, a viral tweet suggested that the members were engaging in “advanced racism” because they had soul food on the table. During the broadcast, the group had actually introduced a menu of primarily Thai dishes. But from a distance and without that context, a decent amount of people seemed to mistake mango sticky rice and morning stir-fried glory (or pad pak boong) for cornbread and collard greens, which only added to the multiple other frustrations with the broadcast. The overall contents of the live also stung for fans who thought that Kiss of Life should have known better, given that two members are Americans who were raised in the United States. (Belle is from Seattle, while Julie — who previously apologized in 2023 after a past video resurfaced of her using the N-word in a song cover — is from Hawaii.)

Kiss of Life’s company, S2 Entertainment, addressed the backlash by releasing an April 3 apology statement in English and Korean and taking down the livestream and related social content. “We sincerely apologize for causing discomfort to our viewers, the true purpose of the content was to celebrate hip hop culture where much of the musical inspiration for Kiss of Life comes from,” the English statement read. “We apologize for our shortcomings in recognizing the negative cultural implications that our content would be perceived as.” Directly translated, the Korean statement went slightly further in acknowledging that the livestream had followed “stereotypes” of certain races. However, many fans had been hoping for a more specific apology that came directly from the members. Amid the controversy, multiple Kiss of Life fanpages run by Black and Latina fans posted statements on X to express their disappointment and share their decision to either permanently or temporarily leave their accounts.

Have the Kiss of Life members apologized?

Yes. On April 5, the four members shared a handwritten statement that apologizes “for any pain and distress we have caused our fans” and states that they will continue to “educate” themselves. The group, which kicked off the Asia leg of their Kiss the Road world tour the day before, noted that they “wanted to and should’ve addressed” the situation sooner. “Our intention was to show how much we loved the category of old school hip hop because it greatly influences our music. While shooting the content we ended up taking the concept too far,” the statement said. “We realize now that our content was culturally insensitive and take full responsibility for our actions and can only promise to do better.”

To all our Kissys, pic.twitter.com/1eIryGZOks

— KISS OF LIFE (@KISSOFLIFE_S2) April 5, 2025

Anything else to know?

Around the same time as the purported Blackpink leaks, a past video resurfaced that allegedly shows CL, who debuted as a 2NE1 member in 2009, singing the N-word several times in a cover. Also within the past couple of days, the internet has reacted to a member of the girl group Young Posse replacing the N-word with “zigga” while rapping and a male soloist wearing a durag in concept photos. Ultimately, many on the internet have identified this week as a particularly tiring one for Black K-pop fans.

kpop idols this whole week: pic.twitter.com/uCaD6a5AcH https://t.co/a4ZClTyhAo

— nia (@1jihoes) April 2, 2025

kpop having the niggaboo nationals this week, I see…..

— niggacuckholdry⁷ (@moneybagsigh) April 2, 2025

i feel so bad for all the black kpop stans… y’all cannot catch a break this week

— َ (@staydrian) April 2, 2025

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