CL’s “The Baddest Female” and the Negative Influence of American Media

South Korean singer/rapper CL’s (real name Lee Chae-rin) song ‘The Baddest Female” is an anthem for exactly what you think: being a bad girl. Despite having a beat that’s undeniably catchy if you can look past the song’s weak and sometimes laughable lyrics, the real focus should be on the offensive music video that accompanies the song. But the blame can’t fully be put on CL when the real culprit is America’s distorted and unfair representation of people of color. Nonetheless, this is the type of song that works best without the video because the video itself is so bad that it’s embarrassing to watch.

The beginning of the music video starts out with flashing lights—photographers are scrambling to take pictures of CL, who’s walking the red carpet to her limo. As she waits in the car, the screen fades to black and goes to the next scene: CL in crouching position. This is where it all goes downhill. In just a few seconds we’re shown CL in a “hip-hop” outfit flashing her fake gold grills, a gold chain and huge gold hoop earrings. Not even a minute into the song and it’s obvious that her definition of being a “bad girl” consists of the stereotypical image of African American/Latino gang culture. 

“I’m like a rugby ball, don’t know where I’ll bounce to next/On my neck is a gold chain swingin’ left right.” Ah, there it is—her acknowledging her gold chain before hitting the chorus “I’m a bad girl, I’m a bad girl, I’m a bad girl/Where all my bad girls at?” She’s playing up the bad girl image all right, right down to her crew of men and women dressed in dark baggy clothes with bandanas covering their faces while she sports one in her hair with fake tattoos shaped like teardrops covering her arms. What doesn’t make sense is that between these takes of her dressed in a gangster Halloween costume gone wrong, there are also images of her in girly attire with pigtails and a lollipop in her mouth.

Is she saying that she can be both a gangster and a girly-girl? The lyrics never tell us because they’re too busy talking about how badass she is. But back to the real problem in the music video—her “crew.” Amongst her are women wearing ski masks while they dance and men with cornrows leaning against their cars as they watch along. The person who stands out the most is the only one who isn’t clad in bandana attire—instead of that he’s wielding a pimp cane and swinging it around. As if it couldn’t get any worse than this, the scene cuts to CL in what appears to be the jungle then another shot shows shoes on a telephone wire. 

In this terrible third act, CL is hanging out amongst her girlfriends while they get their hair done—and of course most of them are wearing bandanas. “G I Z to the I B E/I’m a bad girl, can’t you see?” An embarrassing girl maybe, but definitely not “bad.” The music video ends with her and her female crew dancing at their spot in the jungle—there was even someone breaking down in all leopard print too!—and you’re left wondering how you made it through four minutes of this hot mess—if you even had the strength to make it that far.

The question has to be asked: how does a music video like this even exist? This stereotypical image of African American/Latino culture didn’t originate in South Korea. The image began with American media, which happens to have the greatest influence on other countries because American music is so popular overseas. The trend now is gang and hip-hip culture; white artists like Miley Cyrus, Iggy Azalea and even Lana Del Rey are just so obsessed with mocking aspects of Black and Latino cultures just to be hip and different. White male artists (Riff Raff, Paul Wall, etc.) have been doing this for years, but there’s been a noticeable increase of female artists following in their footsteps. There’s something to be said about rich white people who go to embarrassing lengths to “fit in” with the crowd, even if they have no idea what the crowd’s life is really like. 

Another music video that’s just as cringe-worthy as CL’s is Lana Del Rey’s “Gods and Monsters.” Much like “The Baddest Female,” Del Rey’s video stereotypes minority culture with teardrop tattoos and clothing, but with her music video comes off as romanticizing gang culture. There’s just something so romantic about being the girlfriend of a gangster and always hanging out with his gang friends—who all just so happen to be African American and Latino. That’s another problem, these white artists are alone amongst people of color. They’re the center of attention while minorities are in the back being used as props to make the music video feel more “authentic.” 

Miley Cyrus and Iggy Azalea are popular offenders of this problem because their entire image is focused on being “hood” and “down with the crew.” Cyrus embarrassed herself in her “We Can’t Stop” music video (which is also one of the most viewed YouTube videos of all time) with twerking and sporting gold grills (just like CL!) while being the center of attention as she attempts to pop her ass next to black women whose faces aren’t even shown. Even worse than Cyrus is Iggy Azalea, the up-and-coming female rapper from Australia who’s just so obsessed with the ATL to the point where she puts on a “black” accent when she raps. How fake can you possibly get?

Azalea’s most racist music video is for her song “Pu$$y,” where she takes appropriation to the extreme by using not only black men and women as props, but also a black child. Why is there a young child in a music video that’s about female genitalia? Why is he bopping and singing along as if he knows what the song is really about? Why does Azalea think this is remotely okay? Because it’ll make her hip? Cool? But the real question is: why do white people keep doing this? What is the fascination with Black and Latino culture that makes them what to be apart of it so bad?

Idiocy like this is constantly projected in American music, which is extremely popular overseas. Countries like South Korea see this image of gang culture that’s presented as a trend because so many artists focus on it. In order to keep up, Korean artists follow what they see American artists do simply because they’re American. America is so influential and artists don’t realize the impact that their image has on audiences overseas. 

Their glamorization and lack of knowledge about gang culture (or just minority culture in general) travels overseas to Korean media and that’s why music videos such as “The Baddest Female” result in a ridiculous clusterfuck of offensive ideas thrown into one. Korean artists think that if they project the same image they’ll come off as cool and up-to-date, but they really come off as embarrassing.