Bosses at Big Hit Entertainment claim they're not aware of Jim Jones' identity and apologize for sampling the cult leader's speech for the BTS member's new mixtape.
- Jun 1, 2020
AceShowbiz - BTS' managers have apologised to fans after failing to prevent a speech by controversial Jonestown Massacre cult leader Jim Jones from making it onto band member Suga's new track, "What Do You Think?".
The song appears on the rapper's Agust D mixtape, "D-2", which shot to the top of iTunes charts upon its release earlier this month, and Big Hit Entertainment officials have now released a statement insisting they were not aware of the sample's source and its implications.
Jones was responsible for the mass suicide of over 900 people at the Peoples Temple in Venezuela in 1978.
"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.
"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."
The sample has been removed and the track has been re-released.
"The artist also feels embarrassed and deeply responsible for a problem that has arisen in an area that he did not consider," the statement continues. "Big Hit Entertainment will use this incident as a lesson to conduct its production process more thoroughly."
