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| San E tweeted a captured image of some audience members' reactions to him during his performance Sunday. The words on the image read, "Womad and Megal are social ills." The 33-year-old rapper implied he will release a new song titled "Oong Ang Oong," Monday, signaling another war of words between the rapper and radical feminists. Photo from San E's Twitter |
Angry audience tells rapper San E. to 'get off the stage'
By Kwak Yeon-soo
Rapper San E has his fans and certainly haters too. And the latter tried to make their voice heard by crashing his performance on Sunday.
The SK Olympic Handball Gymnasium in Seoul suddenly turned into a melee as the rapper, who has been painted by some as an anti-feminist for his past remarks, took the stage. A number of anti-fans teased and mocked the singer using sexual slurs. Some held up a banner that read "San E, you are a disgrace."
The anti-San E crowd created a fuss by shouting at the singer to "get off the stage." San E seemed flustered by the sudden outpouring of negative emotion, but he asked the audience to sing along as he powered through his hits including "Butterfly," "Sour Grapes," "What's Wrong with Me" and "Body Language."
Shortly after, San E stopped and asked the audience if they hated him. A large crowd shouted "yes." Appearing stunned for a moment, San E asked again "Why do you hate me? I like you all so much. What did I do wrong?" Then he said, "We need to end the hatred, silence the hateful rhetoric we hear all around us, put an end to the misogyny and misandry that poisons our society."
However, anti-fans of San E ― some of whom declared themselves to be members of controversial online feminist communities Womad and Megalia ― threw a makeshift banner and a stuffed toy pig at the rapper. San E responded with "I don't give a f***. No to Womad. No to Megalia. You guys are psychotic. I don't want to respect those who don't respect me and behave properly." He also showed his middle finger to the angry audience.
After singing one of his most popular songs "Story of Someone I Know," San E left the stage and didn't return.
At the end of the concert, Rhymer, the head of hip-hop label Brand New Music, made an apology on behalf of San E to the audience, saying "I'd like to apologize to the audience who might have been hurt during the concert. Brand New Music artists have different thoughts, different opinions and different beliefs. We will work hard to respect all differences in the future."
Apart from San E, other Brand New Music artists performed at the concert including Verbal Jint, Bumkey and Wanna One's Lee Dae-hwi and Park Woo-jin.
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| Rapper San E Courtesy of Brand New Music |
Then San E uploaded the song "Feminist" to social media, which shares his opinions about feminism in Korea with lyrics that read "Sister, why mad?" and "Blame the system, not men… I am a feminist."
In "Feminist," San E also calls the gender pay gap a "fake fact" and questions why women aren't required to serve in the country's mandatory military service.
After receiving criticism from many corners, with fellow rappers putting out diss tracks and branding San E's lyrics as "toxic masculinity," San E argued, "I'm not a misogynist. It just saddens me to see a great divide among men and women and people being blinded by hatred."
The 33-year old rapper explained that the narrator in the song is not him. He stated "The song was meant to speak strongly against the societal issue of hatred against both men and women. I wanted to show the two-facedness of people."
Meanwhile, San E hinted on social media that he will release a new song today titled "Oong Ang Oong" on YouTube, targeted at radical feminists.
