Big Hit’s trainee Leo officially apologizes for derogatory and misogynistic lyrics (ft. netizens’ reaction)
Leo and the production team of Big Hit’s ‘Trainee A’ have issued an apology for his controversial lyrics.
‘Trainee A’ is a pre-debut group of 6 trainees who are said to be potential members of Big Hit Music‘s new boy group to be launched in 2022. Recently, an old video of Leo’s rap battle in ‘SHOWDOWN‘ posted on ‘Trainee A’ Youtube channel has gained much attention. The lyrics written and performed by Leo draw criticism for being offensive and misogynistic.
Following the public outcry, on December 29, both Leo and the production team of ‘Trainee A’ apologized through a statement in both Korean and English.
Hello. This is Leo.
I would like to sincerely apologize to everyone who has been offended by the lyrics released on the first episode of SHOWDOWN.
As it was a competition, I felt as though I needed to use more provocative words and expressions in order to make an impact. This ultimately led me to make an extremely poor decision in which I feel great embarrassment over. I had absolutely no intention to offend or degrade anyone but my words and thoughts were very immature and I deeply apologize.
I’ve been endlessly reflecting on my mistakes, and after rewatching the video, I’m feeling extremely embarrassed and ashamed of my performance. Although I can’t take it back, I am aware that this was entirely my fault and will strive to do whatever it takes to reflect and learn from my mistakes.
Once again, to everyone who may have felt offended by my inappropriate actions and words, I sincerely apologize. I will take this opportunity to reflect and think of more positive and mature ways to express myself through my music.
After reading the apology from Leo and the production team, international fans can somewhat accept it and hope that Leo and the other trainees will be more careful in the future. While some think that Leo should have realized his mistake sooner, other fans believe that, due to cultural differences, Leo is too free in his thinking and makes songs arbitrarily to suit the battle rap style. Fans further said that, while Leo was clearly wrong, the lyrics didn’t initially indicate ‘contempt for women,’ since they were basically meaningless, with a slew of vulgar words randomly mixed together.
Meanwhile, Korean netizens are still quite harsh with Leo, even saying that he should not debut. Many people think that Leo didn’t know he was wrong until he was criticized and thought that the male trainee had a bad personality to come up with such lyrics. They also criticized Big Hit and the production team of Trainee A for not carefully censoring content.
On the contrary, there are also some Knetizens who think that Leo was wrong, but at least he solved the problem right before his debut. These people think that there are many idols who have also had wrongdoings in the past and that if they sincerely apologize and show their maturity, it is still acceptable. Even many people still remember the case of RM (BTS) – who was also criticized in the past for writing lyrics that were said to be disrespectful to women, but now he has learned a great lesson and has become more mature to avoid making the same old mistakes.
What do you think about Leo’s apology as well as the ‘Trainee A’ production team after the aforementioned controversies?
