CL’s “Hello Bitches” Video Features Bad Bitches Galore: Watch

Christina Lee | November 21, 2015 10:25 am
"Be Right There" Remix
Diplo and Sleepy Tom's club anthem gets a Mack and Jet Set Vega remix.

Want me to love them long time / and I tell them no,” CL raps in “Hello Bitches,” premiered at Noisey on November 21. This line riffs off a scene from Stanley Kubrick‘s 1987 film Full Metal Jacket, where a Vietnamese prostitute gives two American G.I.s a hard sell: “Me love you long time.” Not only would this scene help perpetuate some dangerous stereotypes about Asian women (if they weren’t dragon ladies, they promised to “sucky sucky”), but it would be sampled in 2 Live Crew‘s “Me So Horny.” That song was featured in its album As Nasty As They Wanna Be, or the first record to gain national attention for being so explicit. In 1990 a Florida judge deemed it illegal for the record to be sold or performed, though this only made it even more sought out.

CL’s “Hello Bitches,” off her debut English language EP Lifted, can be enjoyed even without knowing all that. It’s as assertive as CL has ever sounded, with its schoolyard taunts at the hook and barbs rapped in Korean and English about how she rules the world. For the video, the Korean superstar surrounds herself with Parris Goebel (Justin Bieber’s “Sorry” dance video) and her ReQuest crew to unleash some fierce choreography in an abandoned warehouse. (Think Beyonce‘s “Diva” video, only messier — that’s a good thing.) But to see and hear this badass in charge, of her sexuality but also her destiny, is extra powerful if you consider how Asian women have been portrayed by Americans in the past.

Watch CL’s “Hello Bitches” video up top. Read an interview about its making at Noisey.

Are you excited to hear CL’s Lifted? Let us know below, or by hitting us up on Facebook and Twitter!

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