Big Boi appeared to have used a racial slur while arguing with a gas station cashier.
In a clip which was posted to Instagram on Friday (November 24), the OutKast rapper can be seen at the counter attempting to pay for his goods, which seems to include several beanies and a bouquet of roses.
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Big Boi and the cashier then appear to have a brief disagreement over the amount of hats the rapper is trying to purchase, to which he says: “I don’t give a fuck, I’m rich!”
The Atlanta native then turns away from the cashier, who appears to be Asian, and says: “Mr. Miyagi, that n-gga got me fucked up” — referencing the character from the 1984 film The Karate Kid.
Big Boi has yet to comment on the video.
The “Roses” hitmaker is not the first rapper to make anti-Asian remarks. In 2021, YG’s song “Meet the Flockers” was removed from YouTube for its allegedly racist lyrics.
The song, taken from his 2014 album My Krazy Life, features the lyric: “First, you find a house and scope it out/ Find a Chinese neighborhood ’cause they don’t believe in bank accounts”.
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YG later changed the lyrics in response to the backlash.
Lil Pump has also been criticized for using anti-Asian slurs in his lyrics. On the song “Butterfly Doors,” Pump used the slur “ching chong” and made numerous references to former NBA star Yao Ming’s eyes.
He was subsequently criticized by comedian and actor Awkwafina over the lyrics. She said: “Always nice to hear a new song with a Ching Chong adlib. Guess it’s better than ‘eyes chink’ like some other verses I’ve heard. But can we at least think of some more creative racist epithets? @lilpump.”
Gunplay is another rapper who has spouted anti-Asian rhetoric after posting a video on Instagram where he repeatedly uses the racial slur “gook” and appears to blame all Asians for the COVID-19 pandemic.
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He also made numerous references to Asian food and stereotypes in the video, which was widely derided. He attempted to apologize by saying he watches Asian porn and denied he was racist.
He wrote on X, then Twitter: “IM [NOT] RACIST NEVER HAVE BEEN AND NOW CAN PLEASE POST THIS OR U DON’T WANNA HEAR ANYTHING POSITIVE FROM GUNPLAY WHO HASN’T HAD ANY ISSUES WITH MEDIS SINCE 2012 RESPECTFULLY POST THIS OR TAKE DAT SHIT DOWN AND TELL GEO TO CALL MY PHONE WE GOTTA TALK.”
