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| American rapper Wiz Khalifa. / Captured from Facebook |
By Dong Sun-hwa, Jung Min-ho
American rapper Wiz Khalifa is in hot water after his latest song "Hot Now" offended many Koreans and other Asians.
A problematic line goes, "Smoke got my eyes lookin' Korean." Many people take this as a familiar kind of racist attack against "small Asian eyes."
"If any Korean said some sort of racist thing to black people they would be attacking us like wolves," a netizen said in the comment section of the official YouTube video.
"Maybe your Korean friends joke about it and are completely fine with this, but clearly most Koreans living in Korea are not. Please think about this."
Another person said, "I need your explanation about the lyrics. Korean people get hurt because of you. I'm Japanese, but I feel bad like Koreans do."
Khalifa has not yet explained what he means by the lyrics nor apologized for them.
Khalifa made his debut in 2010 with the single "Black and Yellow," and topped the Billboard single chart thanks to his distinctive music style.
In 2015, he topped the Billboard single chart for 12 weeks in a row with "See You Again," a soundtrack of the film "Fast & Furious 7, 2015."
Many Koreans are familiar with his name after he played here in 2017.
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