Lisa from BLACKPINK recently made her highly anticipated solo debut with her single ROCKSTAR. While fans have praised her powerful appearance in the music video, which has already received over 77 million views on YouTube, the K-pop icon's unique moment is being ruined by persistent claims of plagiarism.
Gabriel Moses, the cinematographer who worked on Travis Scott's "FE!N" music video, accused Lisa of plagiarism. The cinematographer took matters into his own hands when a fan alerted him about the alleged plagiarism. Moses published a frame from Lisa's ROCKSTAR music video on Instagram next to a clip from FE!N for comparison. He also attached a screenshot of the fan's email.
"A female artist imitating your work without giving you credit," the Travis Scott fan wrote in an email to Moses, which he shared in his Instagram Stories. "I used to listen to 'FE!N' by Travis Scott. I noticed that a female artist (Lisa from BLACKPINK) blatantly imitated a clip from 'FE!N's music video."
Moses said the K-pop star was "copying" his photo in the caption of his Instagram story and he demanded credit by the end of the month.
gabriel moses (travis scott’s videographer) who shot the fein mv which lisa and her team blatantly copied, is rightfully mad since he (and the entire team) didn’t get any credits. this is honestly sick, she keeps copying black artists and styles but never gives them any credit. pic.twitter.com/KHtM3lJ7bc
— val (@theejenakgae) July 4, 2024
"I got mad love for all my snitches man," he wrote. "Giving n****s till end of the month."
The controversial shot shows Lisa and her dancers in the music video (MV) wearing white jumpsuits, which echoes the video of kids with bowl haircuts donning white uniforms in Travis Scott's MV for "FE!N."
International Business Times UK has asked Lisa and her team to comment on the allegations.
There have been inconsistent responses to the allegations against the K-pop icon. Some believe the FE!N music video influenced her and heavily modified it for her own music video. However, some agreed with Moses and criticised her for allegedly trying to plagiarise.
However, this is not the first time Lisa has been slammed for plagiarism.
Last year, on August 22, a TikTok user named @jarredjermaine made a video pointing out parallels between several American songs by artists like 50 Cent and Rihanna and BLACKPINK's new song, Pink Venom, which garnered over 90.4 million views in its first 24 hours on YouTube.
The "How come this new BLACKPINK song sounds so familiar?" TikTok video went viral as it said that BLACKPINK "copied" lyrics from a number of songs, including Notorious BIG's Kick In The Door, 50 Cent's PIMP, and Rihanna's Pon De Replay.
@kazincredible.official Lisa's part sounds kinds similar to Rihanna her song from the 2000s - what do you think?? 👀 #blackpink #pinkvenom #rihanna #pondereplay #kpop #copy #fyp #fypシ #viral ♬ Originalton - kazincredible.official
To back up their allegation, the TikToker played a sample of the girl group's song, followed by the purportedly "copied" original audio. The viral TikTok video suggests that Jennie's rap sounds like Notorious BIG's Kick In The Door, Lisa's section sounds like Rihanna's Pon De Replay, and Lisa's last part sounds like 50 Cent's song PIMP.
In response to the claim, BLACKPINK fans, known as BLINKs, defended the group and criticised the TikToker for drawing conclusions too quickly without conducting adequate research as soon as the TikTok video became popular.
The BLINKs also argued that "interpolation" and overt "plagiarism" are two different things. According to fans, considering "interpolation" describes the process of introducing something new or distinct into another material, Notorious BIG, 50 Cent, and Rihanna's lyrics were not exactly lifted from the song but rather utilised in a similar way.
Lisa and her team did not respond to the TikToker's allegations.
