YouTube will not be pulling down the music video for YG’s “Meet the Flockers,” which has met controversy over the track’s “anti-Asian lyrics.” The track begins with YG describing burglary attempts and targeting “Chinese neighborhoods.”
“We’ll start by saying we find this video to be highly offensive and understand it is painful for many to watch, including many in Trust & Safety and especially given the ongoing violence against the Asian community,” a statement from YouTube’s Trust & Safety team said. “One of the biggest challenges of working in Trust & Safety is that sometimes we have to leave up content we disagree with or find offensive.”
YouTube has opted to leave the video up due to an Educational, Documentary, Scientific or Artistic exception. YouTube also does not want to create a precedent that more music videos could be removed, as many have violated the platform’s policies for Sex & Nudity, Violent or Graphic Content and Hate Speech.
“As a result, removing this video would have far-reaching implications for other musical content containing similarly violent or offensive lyrics, in genres ranging from rap to rock,” the statement said. “While we debated this decision at length amongst our policy experts, we made the difficult decision to leave the video up to enforce our policy consistently and avoid setting a precedent that may lead to us having to remove a lot of other music on YouTube.”
Controversy pertaining to the video has risen in recent weeks due to the uptick in violence against Asian Americans. Videos of Asian women in San Francisco and New York City getting attacked have gone viral, the hate crimes increasing amid the pandemic.
YG’s “Meet the Flockers” describes targeting and robbing an Asian household, the narrators confronting those who live there and demanding their jewelry. Numerous artists have also been coming forward with their experiences of anti-Asian sentiments and condemning the violence.
“Meet the Flockers” lyrics
Find a Chinese neighborhood, cause they don’t believe in bank accounts
Second, you find a crew and a driver, someone ring the doorbell
And someone that ain’t scared to do what it do
Third, you pull up at the spot
Park, watch, ring the doorbell and knock
Four, make sure nobody is home
They gone, okay it’s on
Don’t be scared, nigga, you’re in now
If the police come you gonna find out who your friends now
That ain’t them talking, that’s your mind playing tricks on you
You’re conscious cause you know you got nines with two clips on you
But fuck that, motherfuck that plasma
And fuck that laptop, go and get that jewelry box
You tryna get paid?
Go take that jewelry box to the Slauson they’ll give you cash back
Make some noise if you’ve ever stole something in your life
Don’t be ashamed, it’s okay, baby
Make some noise if you’ve ever stole a dollar out your mama’s purse
Put the flathead in the door, pull it, make it go fly
Hit the first drawer, grab a nigga some socks
That nigga in the car better be listening to that box
Ay, I ain’t staking out shit, nigga
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe and ding dong ditch
Ain’t a safe I can’t crack, nigga, that’s on Crip
I’m with my Pirus from Compton, we gon’ pass and get rich
50 racks, three niggas, 65 a split
Let some weeks go by, we at the dealership
I never took notes nigga, I need the pinkslip
Hit Icy, Mac and Ave for my bullshit
Spent about ten cash
Jumped in the whip and did the whole dash
D-Loc my nigga my nigga, hit my first lick
Passed with my niggas at!
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