"We will be more careful"- Kiss of Life's agency releases an apology statement for cultural appropriation controversy

Modified Apr 03, 2025 10:37 GMT

On April 3, 2025, the South Korean media outlet Edaily reported that Kiss of Life's agency S2 Entertainment has released an apology statement for cultural appropriation controversy.

On April 2, 2025, the group held a live broadcast for member Julie's birthday. Later, they adopted black hip-hop styling, mimicking race culture, outfits, and hairstyles. This led to a backlash, with netizens accusing them of cultural appropriation and racial discrimination. In response, their agency, S2 Entertainment, apologized and promised to be more mindful of cultural elements.

"We will approach cultural elements more carefully and with more respect in the future," the statement read.

S2's Entertainment apology statement (Image via Website)

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Kiss of Life's agency, S2 Entertainment, stated they had apologized for making everyone uncomfortable

The agency S2 Entertainment addressed the netizens and apologized for using expressions and styles that followed specific racial stereotypes in the birthday content, which was uploaded on April 2, 2025. They further elaborated that they had no intention of discrimination. They added:

"As previously announced, the content was produced on the old-school hip-hop style, and we intended to express the atmosphere with the intention of respecting this culture. However, we were not fully aware that it could be seen as reinforcing stereotypes about a certain race."

The agency mentioned that they would delete all the content related to the controversy. S2 Entertainment added:

"We sincerely apologize to everyone who felt uncomfortable because of this. The members are currently taking this issue seriously, and we will approach cultural elements more carefully and with more respect in the future. Accordingly, all related content will be deleted. We once again apologize to those who were hurt by this."

For those unversed, Kiss of Life consists of four members- Natty, Belle, Haneul, and Julie. They debuted with the extended play Kiss of Life on July 5, 2023. The record was released through S2 Entertainment and featured six tracks. It included, Shh, Bye My Neverland, Sugarcoat, Countdown, Kitty Cat, and Play Love.

In recent news, the band collaborated with Maybelline New York in February 2024. They were selected as the new brand ambassadors for the brand. Kiss of Life will be headlining the much-anticipated Sziget Festival in Budapest. They will become the first K-pop group to grace the event. It will be held every August, 2025, on Obdudai-sziget (Old Buda Island).

About the author

Kirti holds a Bachelor's degree in Journalism & Mass Communication and has been a Kpop writer at SK POP since 2022. She has been following Kpop and Kdramas since the last 6 years and but has worked in the genre only in the last 3-4 years donning several several caps - social media intern, copywriter, article writer and academic writer.

Kirti likes to pen down insightful features based on Korean dramas, especially the 'Ending Explained' categories. It gives her the satisfaction of creating the most authentic content rather than simply replicating what media outlets generally do.

Her process of creating content is time-consuming, yet methodical; she prefers to use original sources of information, which in her case are Korean outlets. She watches entire episodes, writes them down, cross-checks/fact-checks the details/event timelines off the web and eventually creates her copy.

Kirti likes Lee Je-hoon, IU, and Kim Seon-ho since she feels that their dramas are inspiring and have good plotlines. When she is not writing about K-dramas, she can be found watching them.

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Edited by Divya Singh