Big Hit Entertainment Issues Apology for Jim Jones Sample on Suga’s Mixtape
Big Hit Entertainment has released a statement regarding a controversial vocal sample included in BTS member Suga's (a.k.a. Agust D) recently released solo mixtape, D-2.
On May 31, the South Korea-based company behind BTS issued an official apology addressing the use of an audio sample from a speech given by reviled American cult leader Jim Jones in 1977 that was used in the track "What Do You Think?"
"The vocal sample of the speech in the introduction of the song 'What Do You Think?' on the mixtape was selected without any special intent by the producer who worked on the track, who was unaware of the identity of the speaker and used the sample for the overall atmosphere of the song," the statement reads per a translation by Soompi, via Naver.
"After the speech sample was selected, the company followed our internal process and carried out procedures for reviewing the appropriateness of the content. However, in both the selection and review processes, we committed an error in not recognizing the inappropriateness of the content and including the sample in the song," it continues.
Big Hit Entertainment shares it "has processes for reviewing its diverse content targeted toward a global audience for potential social, cultural, and historical issues," but that "there are limits to understanding and correctly responding to every situation."
"In this case, we were not able to recognize the issue in advance and displayed a lack of understanding about the relevant historical and social issues. We apologize to those who felt uncomfortable or hurt because of this," Big Hit adds, promising to "use this incident as a lesson to conduct its production process more thoroughly."
The company also relays that the artist, Suga/Agust D, "feels embarrassed and deeply responsible for a problem that has arisen in an area that he did not consider."
Along with releasing the apology, Big Hit Entertainment removed the sample from "What Do You Think?" and released an updated version of the track.
Listen to the new version of "What Do You Think?" below: