Kiss Of Life, also known as KIOF, is a well-known K-pop girl group with viral songs and dances to Sticky and Igloo. Since their debut, they have amassed great popularity for their more mature concpet. 

They have previously been accused of copying the South African singer Tyla’s style, releasing their own Water style dance after the singer went viral. So fans were shocked but not surprised by what has happened.

On the evening of Wednesday 2nd April, member Julie held a livestream for her birthday on YouTube – the VOD has now been removed by the company – in which the theme was hip hop but, the members turned up in caricatures of black people. In Korean birthday livestreams it’s common to share cake or some food, and for Julies they bonded over plates of African American soul foods like cornbread and collard greens, but during the livestream the members had called out the Thai food also on the table. 

Anticipating the backlash, four days prior, one member put out a message on the fan community app Bubble saying, “please look forward to Julie unnie’s birthday content too, and promise you won’t leave the fandom after watching it”.

The members were all ‘borrowing’ from black culture in how they were dressed, adorned with large hoops, snap backs, big chains, and one member even had braids in. They also emulated African Americans in their mannerisms, with not much was left to the imagination. Making it seem like they had taken the time to practice their AAVE and study how they perceive black Americans to be.

Member belle was seen calling herself “lil taco belle” in an exaggerated accent, as she clicked her fingers like she had long nails on and flipped her hair excessively. 

 Fans were left shocked and disappointed as member Julie had been previously caught saying the n word, and the timing of this stream was not favourable. As BlackPink and CL have recently had their old tapes resurfaced, in which they say the n word too. 

Kiss of life is yet to release an apology statement, but their company, S2 Entertainment, has done so on their behalf, as of 7:30 am on Thursday 3rd of April. 

“Hello,  this is S2 Entertainment.  

We’d like to address the issues that arose from the content that was uploaded on KISS OF LIFE’s official Youtube yesterday (April the 2nd).   

We sincerely apologize for causing discomfort to our viewers, the true purpose of the content was to celebrate hip hop culture where much of the musical inspiration for Kiss of Life comes from. 

We apologise for our shortcomings in recognizing the negative cultural implications that our content would be perceived as.   

Our members and our team promise to approach cultural references with greater caution and respect moving forward and all related content has been removed from all of our channels.   

Thank you.”

Some fans are still upset as two of the four members have lived in the States and know how harmful what they have done can be to their community, as they have a decent amount of black fans.

However, other fans, Kissy’s, are defending them. Even going across social media to argue with black creators who are calling out the group. Claiming that they should not be upset because it was a 00s hip hop themed gathering and that’s how it was. 

But to reiterate, the girls knew they were going to do something that was going to be perceived as negative, as they asked fans to not leave the fandom before the stream even happened.