Amidst the anticipation of fans on the upcoming Japanese comeback of BTS this July, the attention of the netizens and K-pop enthusiasts around the globe shifted towards Suga, who is currently the target of criticisms and is facing back-to-back controversies.
On May 2, BTS Suga released his solo mixtape, titled "D-2" amidst the coronavirus pandemic under his moniker, "Agust D." His second mixtape, as well as his track, "Daechwita," immediately soared to no. 1 in several music charts such as MelOn and iTunes, and garnered several praises from music fans around the world.
However, on May 27, a fanwar sparked between ARMYs, fandom of BTS, and KSI fans when the two artists faced each other in UK iTunes. Olajide Olatunji, prominently known as KSI, is a UK rapper who released his album before Suga. As soon as the K-idol dropped "D-2," it climbed up to the top and defeated KSI's release, making his fans grow irked as the UK rapper promised his fans that he would shave his hair if he achieves no. 1.
Because of this, KSI's fans who wanted to see him bald left hateful comments on Suga's album, rating "D-2" with 1 star, not to mention that the K-pop star also received racist remarks for pull his mixtape down the chart. In the end, Suga's album prevailed.
However, two days later, after the issue subsided, Suga was once again called out by netizens due to his alleged insensitive statement regarding coronavirus that angered tons of online users all across the globe.
The male idol, who did a V Live broadcast, was caught on tape and under fire. He shared some stories about his song and revealed the behind-the-scenes story of the album, saying, "I tried to complete the 10-track with the introductory tracks of Skit and Interlude instead of "Daechwita" and "Set Me Free."
Then, Suga was alleged quoted, saying, "It's the luck that Corona brought. It's not because of Corona, but because of Corona. I probably wouldn't have been able to shoot a music video if I was on tour."
Instantly, his statement raised the eyebrows of the members of the online community.
This is because of the phrases "thanks to" and "luck" that he used to define the positive effect that the pandemic brought to him rather than "because," which can be perceived as negative or positive in context, and it sparked various reactions on social media. The majority was hurling negative comments and calling him out for choosing offensive and insensitive terms, noting that people are dying because of this global crisis.
Other K-pop fandoms and netizens called out not only Suga to hold him accountable for his mistake, but also for ARMYs for protecting their idols and trying to cover up the mistakes that they do. However, ARMYs insisted that Suga didn't have to apologize as the controversy was a cause of mistranslation.
Unfortunately, this isn't the end as Suga became yet another target of ire because of one of the tracks of "D-2." As criticisms went out of control, netizens noticed that his song "What do you think?" used some part of Jim Jones' speech or sermon as Suga's introduction in his song that goes, "Though you are dead, yet you shall live, and he that liveth, and believeth shall never die."
Context: Jim Jones is an infamous US pseudo-religious leader, who directed a mass murder-suicide, forcing his followers to commit suicide, killing over 900 people wherein 1/3 of the population were children.
This time, netizens' anger got more extreme given that millions of songs or speech that can be sampled as an intro, the infamous cultist's words were used, which brought terror and taboo among international citizens.
Following this, May 31, Big Hit Entertainment released its official apology statement.
The statement read, "The vocal sample of the intro speech from 'What do you think?' was selected in consideration of the atmosphere of the entire song without the producer knowing who the speaker is. Thus, the sample was picked without any particular intention."
"We proceeded with checking the appropriateness, according to the company's internal process, but there was no error in the song. It was then included in the album without recognizing that there was an inappropriate sample in content," Big Hit added.
"We are checking what could be a social, cultural, and historical problem through our own process, but we feel that there is a limit to understanding and responding to all situations. In this case, we are not aware of the situation in advance and lacked an understanding of the situation. We apologize to those who are hurt or feel uncomfortable. After confirming the problem, we immediately deleted that part and re-uploaded it," the agency went on.
Also, Big Hit stated that Suga is embarrassed and feels deeply responsible for the problem that arose after missing an area without consideration.
