LISA is addressing the controversy that’s been looming over BLACKPINK for over a year. In a Variety interview published Monday, she apologized for leaked pre-debut videos showing the members, then teenagers, rapping the N-word while covering other artists’songs. She explained that growing up in Thailand, she had no education about the word’s history and didn’t know it was offensive at the time.“Now I’ve learned and got educated about that, and I would never [do it again],”she said.“This is not OK. Seriously.”
The timing of the resurfaced clips made things even harder. They appeared online in spring 2025 while LISA was preparing for her first solo Coachella performance. In her new documentary“Always Lalisa,”which premiered at TIFF on Sept. 11, she reveals her label actually prohibited her from addressing the controversy at the time. The film hits theaters and IMAX on Oct. 12 before arriving on YouTube Premium later this year.
Through it all, LISA made one thing clear about BLACKPINK’s future: the group isn’t going anywhere.“If I’m 50, I still want to do BLACKPINK!”she said. Do you think artists should be allowed to speak for themselves during controversies, or is it better to let things cool down first?
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Local Lawton
Local Lawton is a contributor to LocalBeat, covering local news and community stories.