[Asia Economy Intern Reporter Park Hee-eun] Allegations have been raised that a speech by a Vietnamese war criminal was used in a track on BTS member SUGA's second mixtape 'D-2'. In response, Big Hit Entertainment stated that the claims are "groundless."
Vietnamese media outlets such as Tinnhac reported on the 4th that in SUGA's song "What Do You Think?", behind the voice of Jim Jones, there is an audio clip of Ngo Dinh Diem, who is regarded as a war criminal in Vietnam.
They mentioned that in the deleted speech insertion of "What Do You Think?", Vietnamese words meaning "we" and "southern citizens" can be heard.
The reason these words have been pointed out as evidence of defamation against Vietnam is that they were mainly used by former South Vietnamese forces, who are currently considered war criminals and reactionaries in Vietnam.
On the 5th, Big Hit Entertainment dismissed the allegations as "groundless."
Previously, SUGA's new song "What Do You Think?" had sparked controversy for using a vocal sample of American cult leader Jim Jones' speech.
At that time, Big Hit stated, "We conducted a process to verify the appropriateness of the content according to internal procedures, but we failed to recognize that the sample was inappropriate and mistakenly included it in the song. We apologize to anyone who was hurt or felt uncomfortable."
Meanwhile, according to the official Billboard chart Twitter on the 1st (local time), SUGA's 'D-2' ranked 11th on the latest 'Billboard 200' chart.
Additionally, the title track "Daechwita" achieved a record by ranking 76th on the 'Hot 100' chart.
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