Billie Eilish apologizes for resurfaced video: "I'm being labeled something that I am not."
Billie Eilish has shared a statement on the recently resurfaced video clip of her mouthing along to Tyler, the Creator’s 2011 track “Fish,” which contains a racist slur.
The clip, which Eilish said stems from when she was “13 or 14,” recently resurfaced by way of a video edit that also included a portion which some have alleged featured Eilish mocking accents.
According to Eilish, however, that part of the footage is being misrepresented.
“I love you guys, and many of you have been asking me to address this,” Eilish said in an Instagram Story update on Monday night. “And this is something that I WANT to address because I’m being labeled something that I am not.”
As for the “Fish” aspect of the video edit, Eilish said she wasn’t aware at that age that the word in question was a derogatory term used against members of the Asian community.
“I am appalled and embarrassed and want to barf that I ever mouthed along to that word,” she said. “This song was the only time I’d ever heard that word as it was never used around me by anyone in my family.”
And while Eilish noted the “ignorance and age” of the clip, she added that “nothing excuses the fact that it was hurtful” to people.
- Complex Music