The singer of “Gangnam Style,” who is slated to perform before President Barack Obama December 21 during the annual “Christmas in Washington” concert, participated in an anti-American rally and concert in South Korea in 2004 in which he rapped lyrics that wished for the “daughters, mothers, daughters-in-law, and fathers” of “f***ing Yankees” and U.S. troops associated with torturing Iraqis to be killed “slowly and painfully.”
PSY, whose real name is Park Jae-sang, participated in another anti-American demonstration and concert in 2002 in which he slammed a mock-up of an American tank on stage and smashed it to pieces. PSY was protesting the Status of Forces Agreement that prevented American soldiers who accidentally ran over and killed two South Korean civilians from being tried in South Korea’s courts.
These incidents occurred before PSY gained worldwide fame with “Gangnam Style,” the dance song and video that is the most watched YouTube video in history and one of the most downloaded songs ever.
In 2004, after Islamic radicals captured and beheaded a South Korean missionary, PSY used this opportunity to condemn the terrorists and South Korea’s president. But he saved his harshest vitriol for America’s troops and military bases, according to a report in HAPS, an English-language Korean magazine.
As noted in CNN’s iReport and flagged by Twitchy, PSY took the stage during an anti-American concert and belted out some lyrics from a song titled, “Dear American,” which was originally written by the Korean group N.EX.T.
PSY took the stage and rapped these lyrics, which was reported in the Korean-language newspaper Chosun Ilbo:
?? rap : ??? ??? ??? ? ???????
?? ??? ?? ? ?? ?????
??? ?? ??? ?? ??? ?? ??
?? ??? ?? ????? ??
Translation:
Kill those f*****g Yankees who have been torturing Iraqi captives
Kill those f*****g Yankees who ordered them to torture
Kill their daughters, mothers, daughters-in-law, and fathers
Kill them all slowly and painfully
This was not the first time PSY used a tragedy to show his anti-American biases. In 2002, as South Korea was caught up in the wave of anti-American protests that ensued after the tragic accident in which two South Korean schoolgirls were killed by U.S. military personnel, PSY performed at an anti-American concert.
HAPS described PSY’s actions, which were documented on video (the video has since been removed from the Internet):
During the performance featured on the video, PSY took the stage with several other musicians protesting the Status of Forces Agreement with Washington. With a gold-painted face and the crowd cheering him on, PSY lifted a miniature mock-up of an American tank and threw it to the ground, before smashing it into pieces with a mic stand, all while following along in anti-US military chants.
The Korea Times in 2002 described PSY’s performance this way:
During the opening show for the 2002 m.net Music Video Contest held last weekend, the 25-year-old singer belted out “Killer” with a plastic model of an armored vehicle and smashed the plastic prop onto the floor in the middle of his show. Psy went on to beat it with the microphone stand into pieces, sparking a thunderous roar of agreement and excitement from the audience, mostly teens.
Further, the Korea Times also noted PSY had been one of the most vocal South Korean celebrities against America and U.S. troops (emphasis added):
“Following the acquittals of two U.S. soldiers from negligent homicides charges late last month, a growing number of local celebrities have offered their heart-felt sympathy with the victims in public, while expressing their strong resentment over what they see as an unfair ruling by the American military court.
These public figures have composed protest songs against America to pitch in their voice, join public rallies, or have gone as far as calling for revision of the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), which governs the status of 37,000 American troops stationed here, through official statements.
Even though these pop stars have managed to put in their own two cents’ worth, pop vocalist PSY, who has upheld the cause since August through many concerts, is among the most outspoken of them all.”
Disturbingly, on November 23, 2012, PSY actually performed a rendition of “Gangnam Style” for and with U.S. troops on “The Tonight Show” on a special episode that honored the U.S. military. Everyone in host Jay Leno’s audience that night was a U.S. Service Member.
PSY’s past actions are even more alarming when one considers he has made most of his riches from “Gangnam Style” not from South Korea and Asia but from the United States.
As the Associated Press noted, while PSY will make nearly $2.6 million from sales of his song on Apple’s iTunes (the song sells for $1.29 and PSY and his team receives 70% percent of the sales), his song costs .2 cent to download in his native South Korea. In South Korea, PSY receives a 7.5% cut for downloaded songs, which means he makes 7.5% of .2 cent for every song downloaded in South Korea. In sum, PSY has only made $61,000 off of “Gangnam Style” downloads in South Korea though he has made millions more in fees for appearing in commercials for corporations.
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