Source: Global Times
Special correspondent of this newspaper, Kim Hye-jin
Does the new song contain cult remarks? "Korea Daily" said on June 1 that in a song recently released by BTS member Min Jiuqi (SUGA), the male monologue quoted was confirmed to be the speech of Jim Jones, the notorious cult leader in the United States, which caused a lot of controversy. Afterwards, Min Jie's agency urgently re-recorded the song and apologized.
Min Jieqi released a new album on May 22, in which the song introduction section called "What do you think?" has a 15-second male monologue, which roughly reads "Born after death, the devout believer lives forever". Many listeners pointed out that this was the voice of Jim Jones, the leader of the American cult "Temple of the People," which came from a speech he gave in 1977.
Jim Jones founded the cult Temple of the People in Indiana in the 1950s. In 1978, when the United States sent a team of inquiry to Jonestown to investigate crimes related to the "Temple of the People", Jim Jones, who had a premonition that the East Window incident had occurred, took a gun and forced 914 believers to commit suicide by poisoning on the spot, including more than 300 children, who had been shot and killed when he was found.
South Korea's JoongAng Daily said that after many listeners discovered the problems in SUGA's new song, they criticized "BTS and Min Jiu, which enjoy high influence and popularity around the world, as a top singer, how can they use the original voice of the cult leader in their songs?" As the incident fermented, Min's agency apologized on May 31, saying, "The song producer failed to discern the true identity of the speaker, the company failed to find problems during the screening process, and the understanding of history and social knowledge is indeed insufficient." The company has decided to remove the monologue part from the original song and re-record the song. Min Jieqi himself was surprised and guilty when he learned about the relevant situation.
But these "vignettes" do not seem to affect the popularity of Min Jiu's new album. According to the National Daily, the album called "D-2" was ranked 7th in the British Official Chart Top 100 shortly after its release, and the title song "Big Blow" won the number one iTunes album chart in 80 countries and regions.