While YouTube took almost a week before removing 'Meet the Flockers' music video, Spotify, Apple Music and more have removed the rapper's debut album which contains the controversial song.
- Apr 6, 2021
AceShowbiz - YG's album "My Krazy Life" has disappeared from digital streaming platforms amid criticism over his song "Meet the Flockers" anti-Asian lyrics. The whole record, which includes the controversial song, can no longer be found on major platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, the iTunes Store and YouTube, so Genius notes.
The standard edition and several deluxe editions of "My Krazy Life", however, are still available to stream on TIDAL as of press time. All of the editions include "Meet the Flockers".
"My Krazy Life" is YG's debut studio album which was released in 2014. Aside from the controversial song, it spawned four singles, "My N***a", "Left, Right", "Who Do You Love?" and "Do It to Ya". "My N***a" peaked at number 19 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and was certified quadruple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
"Meet the Flockers" itself has faced criticism in the past for its lyrics about targeting "Chinese neighborhoods" during burglary attempts. The backlash was recently reignited following the rise of anti-Asian violence.
Last week, it was reported that employees at YouTube called for the song's removal from the site. The request to YouTube's Trust & Safety team, however, was denied in an email from executives to the staff on March 22.
"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," read the email. "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."
The email noted that the song's lyrics violated the company's hate speech policy, but said "Meet the Flockers" would stay up because of an Educational, Documentary, Scientific or Artistic exception, citing the its "artistic context" and noting concern about setting a precedent that would lead to the removal of more music videos.
It's not until almost a week later that YouTube decided to remove the music video for "Meet the Flockers" from its site.
