Following a huge amount of backlash from fans of Chinese singer/songwriter/producer Lay Zhang, Indonesian rapper Young Lex finally came forward with an apology and clarification … sort of.
Also Read — Indonesian rapper Young Lex under fire for allegedly plagiarizing Chinese artist Lay Zhang’s MV
The 28-year-old rapper’s music video (MV) for his latest single, Raja Terakhir (The Last King) bears uncanny resemblance to Lay’s Lit, which was released in June 2020 — from the visuals, styling, choreography, even down to some elements of the original song. Young Lex’s video has since been taken down.
Both artists have become trending topics in Indonesia in the past couple of days with the fans of Lay and EXO — the K-pop boyband he’s a part of — from all over the world mass tweeting “Respect Zhang Yixing” to call on Young Lex to apologize and take down his video.
Young Lex took to Instagram yesterday to give his side of the story, saying “I’m sorry not sorry” that the song and the MV, which is intended to promote an upcoming Indonesian simulated life game (SLG) called Three Kingdoms: Hero Legendaris, has become a hot topic on social media and was accused of plagiarism.
“I collaborated with the agency only as a talent and a songwriter, and I hereby state that I wasn’t involved in the creative process of the music video production,” Young Lex wrote.
The Instagram post was followed up with a video of further denial or clarification on his YouTube channel, depending on how the viewers see it.
“If they accused me of plagiarism because of my video clip, that’s okay. But there are more stupid people rather than smart ones,” Young Lex said, adding that he was “sad” that people who left him angry comments were still very young.
“Just like what I conveyed on Instagram, I still apologize for not issuing an apology.”
The Three Kingdoms developer has also issued a public statement, stating that they have fired the people that were responsible for content supervision before the video was released, as well as apologizing to Lay.
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Though many fans have contacted SM Entertainment and Lay’s own label Zhang Yixing Studio to take action against Young Lex, neither has yet to respond publicly.
