By Katie Pavlich
12/7/2012
If you don't listen to your local pop station or spend endless hours watching music videos on YouTube, then you probably have no idea what the "Gangnam Style" song is. Usually this wouldn't matter, but is important to know the artist behind the song known as "PSY" because he's headed to the White House later this month to perform. PSY's most recent song has become an international sensation with 900 million Youtube views (the most in history), complete with a "Gangnam style" dance that has been mimicked by millions, including Republican Alan Simpson. The problem? PSY once performed a song in South Korea saying U.S. troops and their families should be slowly tortured and killed.
It has recently been unearthed in the states, however, that eight years ago, long before achieving this massive stardom, the mega-star rapped about “slowly and painfully” killing American military members and their families.
Some context: since becoming a democracy in the late 80s, South Korea has developed a rich, sometimes over-the-top, tradition of protest. Swarms of Koreans hit the streets to protest everything from free trade agreements to North Korea to Muslim extremism to American troops stationed on their peninsula.
During a 2002 protest concert against the presence of 37,000 American troops in Korea, PSY took the stage in gold face-paint and, with the crowd egging him on, lifted a miniature “American tank” and smashed it on the ground to massive applause.
And then in 2004, a Korean missionary was captured in Iraq by Islamists who demanded that South Korea not send troops to aid America in the war in Iraq. Seoul refused to negotiate and the missionary was beheaded. The result: massive protests throughout Korea against both Muslim extremism and the U.S. military for indirectly bringing this fate upon a Korean missionary.
As part of the protests, PSY and several other popular Korean musicians put on a live performance of a Korean rock band’s song “Dear American.” When PSY’s turn came, he rapped:
Kill those f*cking Yankees who have been torturing Iraqi captives
Kill those f*cking Yankees who ordered them to torture
Kill their daughters, mothers, daughters-in-law and fathers
Kill them all slowly and painfully
PSY protesting the presence of U.S. troops in South Korea? Does he not understand without their presence he would be starving in a North Korean work camp and would have never become the international star he is today?
This isn't the first time President Obama has openly invited crude and violent rappers into the White House. Back in May 2011, Obama invited cop-killer defender Common to perform at a poetry reading.
"Common," a rapper being called a "socially conscious artist" by the Left has not yet been dis-invited from the White House for a poetry slam despite having lyrics calling for the assassination of former President George W. Bush and praising convicted Black Panther cop killer Assata Shakur, (JoAnne Chesmard) who has been living in Cuba since breaking out of prison while serving a life sentence. Common also has a not so convenient connection to Rev. Jeremiah Wright. But of course, the White House isn't planning to revoke the invite and is defending Common and the First Lady's decision to invite him as her guest.
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“Gangnam Style” rapper: Sorry about how those lyrics about killing U.S. soldiers and their families “could be interpreted”
posted at 7:49 pm on December 7, 2012 by Allahpundit
C’mon. If you’re going to own it, own it. The background:
[I]n 2004, a Korean missionary was captured in Iraq by Islamists who demanded that South Korea not send troops to aid America in the war in Iraq. Seoul refused to negotiate and the missionary was beheaded. The result: massive protests throughout Korea against both Muslim extremism and the U.S. military for indirectly bringing this fate upon a Korean missionary.
As part of the protests, PSY and several other popular Korean musicians put on a live performance of a Korean rock band’s song “Dear American.” When PSY’s turn came, he rapped:
Kill those fucking Yankees who have been torturing Iraqi captives
Kill those fucking Yankees who ordered them to torture
Kill their daughters, mothers, daughters-in-law and fathers
Kill them all slowly and painfully
According to MTV, the word he used at the time was “bitches,” not “Yankees,” but the intent was clear enough. Today, having earned untold riches in part by penetrating the lucrative bitch/Yankee media market, he’s sorry. Kind of:
“As a proud South Korean who was educated in the United States and lived there for a very significant part of my life, I understand the sacrifices American servicemen and women have made to protect freedom and democracy in my country and around the world.”
“The song in question – from eight years ago – was part of a deeply emotional reaction to the war in Iraq and the killing of two Korean schoolgirls that was part of the overall antiwar sentiment shared by others around the world at that time. While I’m grateful for the freedom to express one’s self I’ve learned there are limits to what language is appropriate and I’m deeply sorry for how these lyrics could be interpreted. I will forever be sorry for any pain I have caused anyone by those words.”
“I have been honored to perform in front of American soldiers in recent months – including an appearance on the Jay Leno show specifically for them – and I hope they and all Americans can accept my apology. While it’s important we express our opinions, I deeply regret the inflammatory and inappropriate language I used to do so. In my music I try to give people a release, a reason to smile. I have learned that though music, our universal language we can all come together as a culture of humanity and I hope that you will accept my apology.”
He did indeed perform for the troops on Leno’s Thanksgiving show; skip to 3:25 of the first clip below and watch him do the horse dance with full military backing. That looks twice as surreal today as it did then and it looked darned surreal at the time, but his PR team will use it to full effect to buy him some forgiveness with the public. He’ll get leeway too from the fact that he is, after all, the goofy horse-dance guy. A musician known for more introspective work would be held to full account for his political opinions but this is a bit like finding out that LMFAO thinks 9/11 is an inside job. (They don’t. I’m speaking hypothetically.) Between that and the fact that he apologized, sort of, for how the song “could be interpreted,” Obama’s spokesman felt safe enough to say this afternoon that O still plans on attending the upcoming TNT benefit concert at which Psy is scheduled to perform. Fearless prediction: That’ll change if people are still talking about this on Monday, not so much in terms of POTUS’s attendance as Psy’s.
Two clips for you here, one the Leno bit and the other (from 2002) a little taste of what South Korean pop culture can look like when it’s going through one of its periodic bouts of anti-Americanism. Content warning.
Gangnam Style - Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
Fucking USA - Korean Song.
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To read another article by Katie Pavlich, click here.
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