Agust D's "What Do You Think" Causes Backlash Due to Use of A Cult Leader's Sermon

[LostInTheDream]

So here is a rundown on the situation:
One of the tracks "What Do You Think", found on Agust D's newest mixtape 'D-2' is being critcized because of the songs introduction.
The introduction features a sermon made by the infamous cult leader Jim Jones:
"Though you are dead, yet you shall live, and he that liveth and believeth shall never die. ... faithful workers coming in night after night, giving me their heart, giving me the spirit of socialism...."
So Suga using this isn't just bad because Jim Jones was a cult leader, it's bad because of how his actions can be related to what is happening in the US at the moment with George Floyd.
If you didn't know Jim Jones was a cult leader who led 909 of his followers, including 304 children, to commit mass *******. Many of his followers did not know that Jones was doing so, as they were killed by cyanide poison found in a drink that was given to all of them. Thus the phrase "Drink the Kool-Aid" was born.
The majority of Jones' followers were African American, so many people, specifically in this time, are outraged by the sampling of the sermon.

Here is my interpretation of the situation:
Suga had to know that what he was using belonged to such a horrible person, so he probably used it to spread some kind of message. If you look further into the lyrics, a case can be argued that Suga was attempting to send a message of his disgust of people freeloading off of him and wanting to get away from a society that has been trained and brainwashed to be hungry for fame and fortune.
Something else to consider is that Jim Jones was a big supported of North Korea and socialism, which is something Suga could have used as an example of how North Koreans are in a way brainwashed by the government, to act a certain way.

However it is possible that Suga inserted this sermon thinking people would simply view it as an artistic choice, and he liked what the words represented. But considering the situation in the world right now, the other messages of this choice are being amplified to fuel the rage that already exists.

I personally don't think it was smart to include the sermon at all, but we'll have to hear from Big Hit or Suga if we really want to know his reasoning of using that man's words.

What do you think?

 

[XOXZ]

From what people are saying on twitter, the fan base knew about Suga sampling the sermon in 2019, as it was shown partly in their movie from 2019. Army's thought it was "cool" and "edgy" but people are upset, non kpop fans and kpop fans alike, because they're bringing it up now, during a time when POC have so much more to worry about right now.

People are sending emails to Big Hit, demanding an explanation and apology from either Suga himself or the producer of the song.

As far as Suga's role in it, he either truly did not know who Jim Jones was & what happened(of course that doesn't make it better, as he should be educated about stuff like this) or he did know and still chose to use it, knowing what Jim Jones did and who he was, and if that's the case....yikes.

Either way, i hope Suga or at least the person who produced the song, can at least apologize for their actions and if they truly did not know, hopefully they can educate themselves so nothing like tbis happens in the future.

 

[ParkHereJimin]

Well, I'll have to say I relate to Suga, but ONLY because I tend to do the same thing with posts online. I'll say something that I think was completely harmless but then find out too late that my post had done more harm than good. Like, when YouTube first started disabling comments on family vlog channels bc pedophilia, I opined on another message board that doing so was like "cutting off a whole hand for one injured finger" (I know full well how wrong that was now, so don't cancel me). And boy, did I get flak for that! I even caused one person to leave the site because of it.

Other than that, Suga needs to apologize, whether he does it himself or BH on his behalf. I never thought one of my ult groups would get into such as scandal! He's lucky I've been ARMY since 2017...

 

[acat]

Honestly, I think including the sermon wasn't the smartest choice and there is debate whether he was dissing Jim Jones or not, people have a right be offended by the choice and what the sermon actually means in the song is up to interpretation.

Having things like this in songs isn't really my cup of tea, a couple of years back I wouldn't have minded it but thankfully I've grown.

I hope Bighit or Yoongi release a statement saying how the sermon relates to the song so everything can be cleared up and apologise.

What is really annoying about the situation is entitled Armies on twitter thinking they can tell me how the song isn't up to interpretation and overall just defending Yoongi without conscious or just straight up hating on him.

I'm so glad that on these forums everyone is respectful and actually reasonable

 

[LostInTheDream]

Honestly, I think including the sermon wasn't the smartest choice and there is debate whether he was dissing Jim Jones or not, people have a right be offended by the choice and what the sermon actually means in the song is up to interpretation.

Having things like this in songs isn't really my cup of tea, a couple of years back I wouldn't have minded it but thankfully I've grown.

I hope Bighit or Yoongi release a statement saying how the sermon relates to the song so everything can be cleared up and apologise.

What is really annoying about the situation is entitled Armies on twitter thinking they can tell me how the song isn't up to interpretation and overall just defending Yoongi without conscious or just straight up hating on him.

I'm so glad that on these forums everyone is respectful and actually reasonable

Yeah I completely agree with what you are saying, especially with how wrong blindly supporting someone is.

 

[LostInTheDream]

A little update on the situation:
Big Hit has sent out an official apology regarding the Jim Jones situation:

Hello, this is Big Hit Entertainment. This is our official statement on the issue of BTS’ Suga’s mixtape.
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.
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.
Big Hit Entertainment has processes for reviewing its diverse content targeted toward a global audience for potential social, cultural, and historical issues. However, we are experiencing the reality 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 Entertainment has removed the part of the song in question and re-released the new version.
The artist also feels embarrassed and deeply responsible for a problem that has arisen in an area that he did not consider.
Big Hit Entertainment will use this incident as a lesson to conduct its production process more thoroughly.

It seems like it wasn't any kind of artistic choice, just ignorance of the origin of the quote.
What's interesting is that it doesn't refer to the producer by name, so we don't even know if it was Suga or someone else who wrote the song. It would be super shady and almost elitist of Big Hit to know that Suga wrote it, but not address it in the statement, so I hope that isn't the case.

 

[XOXZ]

A little update on the situation:
Big Hit has sent out an official apology regarding the Jim Jones situation:

Hello, this is Big Hit Entertainment. This is our official statement on the issue of BTS’ Suga’s mixtape.
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.
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.
Big Hit Entertainment has processes for reviewing its diverse content targeted toward a global audience for potential social, cultural, and historical issues. However, we are experiencing the reality 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 Entertainment has removed the part of the song in question and re-released the new version.
The artist also feels embarrassed and deeply responsible for a problem that has arisen in an area that he did not consider.
Big Hit Entertainment will use this incident as a lesson to conduct its production process more thoroughly.

It seems like it wasn't any kind of artistic choice, just ignorance of the origin of the quote.
What's interesting is that it doesn't refer to the producer by name, so we don't even know if it was Suga or someone else who wrote the song. It would be super shady and almost elitist of Big Hit to know that Suga wrote it, but not address it in the statement, so I hope that isn't the case.

Apparently someone else produced it but Suga wrote the lyrics. I'm glad Big Hit issued an apology though

 

[LostInTheDream]

Apparently someone else produced it but Suga wrote the lyrics. I'm glad Big Hit issued an apology though

Interesting, and yeah me too