K-pop group KISS OF LIFE came under fire recently for a live broadcast they did for member Julie’s birthday. The theme of the live was “old-school hip hop,” and many viewers voiced concerns about its perceived cultural insensitivity with the way the members dressed and acted on the stream.
Their agency S2 Entertainment release an apology on April 3, but fans continued to flood the comments of their social media posts demanding a personal apology from the members.
Today, KISS OF LIFE issued an official, hand-written apology. It read:
“To all our Kissys [KISS OF LIFE’s fandom],
We really want to sincerely apologize for the content that was uploaded that caused so much disappointment to our fans. We have to seem calm on the outside but the time leading up to this letter has honestly been hard. Although we wanted to and should’ve addressed this sooner, we are taking the first opportunity to address it now.
We are sorry.
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. We realize now that our content was culturally insensitive and take full responsibility for our actions and can only promise to do better.
We’ve spent the past few days learning and reflecting how our actions have disappointed many of you. We know that there is nothing we can say or do that will magically fix the mistake we made. The only thing that we can promise is that we’ll continue to educate ourselves and show our sincerity through our actions rather than words.
Our mission has always been to spread confidence and love through our music. We truly regret the choices we made and are genuinely sorry for any pain and distress we have caused our fans. This situation has been a valuable learning experience for us. Our Kissy’s [sic] support means the world to us and we will continue to honor you all in every way possible.”
