Check It Out

          Will.i.am and Nicki Minaj recently released a video for their song Check it out. Their music video contains a neutral background throughout the entire video, while brightly colored Korean words pop out from behind them as they are singing. This video attempts to imitate k pop videos, but does a poorly made, cheap, and offensive rendition of it which ends up mocking kpop videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqky5B179nM

            K pop videos usually feature lots of clean in-sync dancing similar to that of boy bands in the 90s. Check it Out makes a mockery of the background dancers by simply applying a cheap video mirroring trick to will.i.am’s dancing to attempt to get the same effect. Also, kpop videos feature dancing that is very precise, clean, and consistent. This video makes a poor attempt to imitate that.

Koreans and other Asians are often mocked for wearing shirts with words they do not understand. This video makes a mockery of that with the bright flashy Korean letters in the background that most Americans cannot read.

The part that especially bothers me is when Nicki Minaj contorts her face at 0:40 seconds. In the many Korean music videos I have watched, none of the kpop stars have done that. If anything, they try to make themselves look cute and adorable, not horrible with contorted faces. I also do not understand her excessive blinking, her make up to make her eyes look slanty and her attempt to act air-headed and silly. And what’s with the robotic Asian audience?

Of course my opinion is extremely biased because I found her last video Your Love extremely offensive (as well as this one). She needs to learn to respect the Asian culture instead of mocking them. So far she’s ridiculed the Japanese and Korean culture. Which culture is next on her list? Turns out, I'm not the only one offended. My roommates (who are huge fans of kpop) were offended too, as well as these other bloggers and their commenters:

http://blog.angryasianman.com/2010/10/wtf-music-video-check-it-out-by-william.html

http://www.racialicious.com/2010/11/01/the-orientalism-of-nicki-minaj/

Minaj also refers to herself as a "harajuku barbie". Not only is this offensive, but it shows her ignorance of what harajuku actually is. Harajuku is NOT wearing a slutty kimono or skanky versions of historical clothing.

http://fourfour.typepad.com/fourfour/2010/06/the-problems-problem.html
http://www.hyphenmagazine.com/blog/archive/2010/08/nicki-minaj-harajuku-barbie
(all the pictures are screen shots from the music video on youtube)