let's talk a bit about the Kiss of Life and Cortis situation....
i know that the Kiss of Life thing is out of date, but a lot of people are saying that what Cortis did was similar to what KIOF did (KIOF being Kiss of Life).
here's a sneak peek of what's next:
k-pop isn’t just sunshine and sick choreo 🌈
when idols dip into cultures they don’t belong to, it matters
Kiss of Life’s live was widely seen as mocking rather than appreciating 🫥
Julie had to apologize for a past misuse of the n-word too 💬
Cortis’ tiktok sparked a debate — gang signs or just a cringe trend? 🤔
some call it tone-deaf and insensitive, others say fans are overreacting 🔄
either way, the convo about respect and cultural influence isn’t going away 🪩
🧠 K-Pop and Cultural Insensitivity: KISS OF LIFE × CORTIS 🧠
1. KISS OF LIFE’s birthday live backlash 🫠
So back in April 2025, Kiss of Life held a birthday live stream for member Julie with an “old-school hip-hop vibes” theme — they wore cornrows, big chains, hoop earrings, snapbacks, and showed a photo of Black men as the inspiration for the concept 📸. Many fans felt this wasn’t respectful appreciation at all, but stereotypical caricatures of Black culture that ended up mocking rather than celebrating it.
They also used AAVE-style speaking and accents during the live, which added to the criticism that it was crossing a line into harmful stereotypes.
Because of the backlash, Kiss of Life deleted the livestream and issued an official apology, saying they took it too far, that it was culturally insensitive, and that they’d spend time learning and reflecting.
2. Previous sensitivity issues with Julie ✨
This wasn’t the first time race came up — an old trainee video resurfaced where Julie sang a song’s original lyrics including the n-word, and she apologized back then too, saying she regretted it and had learned from it.
3. Cortis’ recent TikTok debate 🤨
Fast forward to late 2025, CORTIS (Big Hit’s rookie boy group) dropped a Christmas TikTok/Youtube Reel where members wore ski masks, sagged their pants, and threw up what some people online interpreted as gang-affiliate hand signs — which, in internet culture, are strongly tied to American gang imagery and sometimes casually linked in fandom spaces to Black urban culture.
This sparked a debate: some fans called it insensitive and tone-deaf, saying idols shouldn’t be copying dangerous gang aesthetics and that using those gestures can come off as mimicking harmful stereotypes.
Others argued the video was just a viral trend thing (like “when the sound doesn’t match the vibe” TikTok stuff) and not intended to be racist — especially since the context was a Christmas skit and ski masks can just look like “robbers” to some.
So with CORTIS, the conversation is still very mixed online — a lot of people are debating whether it’s actual racist/appropriative content or just dumb cringe behaviour, and not many big news outlets have written concrete statements yet.
These controversies keep reigniting the same larger discussion in K-pop spaces:
• What’s cultural appreciation vs appropriation?
• When do trends cross the line into racial stereotypes?
• How should idols and companies handle cultural influence respectfully?
It’s complicated because K-pop has historically drawn from Black music and style — but fans and critics argue that influences have to be acknowledged with respect, not reduced to stereotypes.
