J Balvin Apologizes For ‘Perra’ Video That Featured Black Women As Dogs On Leashes
J Balvin apologized on Sunday (Oct. 24) “to whomever felt offended” by his “Perra” music video that featured Black women wearing dog leashes and Black people made up to look like dogs.
"I want to say sorry to whomever felt offended, especially to the Black community. That's not who I am. I'm about tolerance, love and inclusivity. I also like to support new artists, in this case Tokischa, a woman who supports her people, her community and also empowers women," the Columbian artist said, speaking Spanish in an Instagram Story clip, according to Billboard.
The controversial video is a collaboration with Dominican rapper Tokischa, who is Black. The video was removed from YouTube on Oct. 17.
Tokischa, who appears on all fours inside a doghouse in the video, apologized in an interview with Rolling Stone about how the video was interpreted.
Her manager Raymi Paulus, who also directed the video, said was meant as a “satirical representation” of the “many contexts of the word perra as well as life in the barrios of the Dominican Republic and femme sexual liberation.
In the lyrics, Tokischa and Balvin rap about how Tokischa feels like “a dog in heat.”
Rolling Stone said that it’s part of her “explicit, overtly sexual message that’s in keeping with the rising Dominican star’s honest, sex-positive lyricism.”
Still, the offensive visuals prompted a widespread backlash, including from Balvin’s mother, Colombia’s Vice President Marta Lucía Ramírez and the Presidential Council for the Equality of Women Gheidy Gallo Santos.
Ramírez and Santos penned an open letter published on Oct. 11 that summed why they were offended.
“In his video, the artist uses images of women and people of Afro-descendants -- population groups with special constitutional protection -- whom he presents with dog ears. In addition, while walking, the singer carries two Afro-descendant women tied with neck chains and crawling on the floor like animals or slaves. As if this were not enough, the lyrics of the song have direct and openly sexist, racist, machista, and misogynistic expressions that violate the rights of women, comparing them to an animal that must be dominated and mistreated," the letter stated.
