P1Harmony’s Keeho Indirectly Addresses ‘Durag’ Controversy

P1Harmony’s Keeho Indirectly Addresses ‘Durag’ Controversy

P1Harmony are preparing for their long-awaited comeback on September 20th with their seventh mini-album, SAD SONG. The group has released several concept images and teaser videos, including the album’s title track.

Days earlier, the group released a concept video titled “OUT OF CONTEXT ____,” featuring a track purportedly from the album. The video shows the group members reuniting before undergoing a costume change in a Sailor Moon-style transformation.

The members wore completely different outfits, including oversized white T-shirts, scarves, baggy jeans, and chains.

From left: Intak, Keeho, Jiung | P1Harmony/YouTube
OUT OF CONTEXT ____ 1-15 screenshots
| P1Harmony/YouTube

A clip, which mainly features Entrancewas shared on social media, going viral as many debated her look. As she wears a scarf tied around her head, many felt it mimicked the aesthetic of a durag, a protective head covering worn by black people. This sparked a debate about whether it was a form of cultural appropriation. In the context of the video, with a hip-hop track playing, many fans had negative feelings.

During an interview with Zach sang In 2022, Keeho went viral for saying that cultural appropriation was on their mind when they came up with their concepts. This has resurfaced in the light of debate, as some have questioned how Keeho “allowed” this to happen.

I think it’s a responsibility and I also think if you want to have a platform this big, you have to be able to respect and appreciate all cultures without appropriating them. Whenever it comes to our style or our music or anything else, it’s always a sensitive topic that we always have to think about once, three times, four times at every step of the way, visually or musically or in terms of the language itself. Obviously there’s AAVE and a lot of other cultural things that are very sensitive and so we have to respect that, and I think it’s a responsibility, so I think it’s something that we always think about and act on.

— Keeho

Many defended Keeho. Some pointed out that it is not his responsibility. Despite being the leader of the group, he does not have the power and control that a manager or CEO would have when making such decisions regarding concepts.

Now, Keeho has addressed the controversy in messages to her fans on the Fromm app. She explained that they had custom hats made for the concept, but when they came out too small, not everyone could fit them. So, some wore scarves.

Some of us wear hats, some of us don’t. Originally, everyone was supposed to wear a hat. But the problem was that the hats were custom-made, and this one came out too small ㅋ If you look closely, you can see the pattern on the necklace we used for Killin’ It. The idea was for everyone to show it, but that became impossible, so we used scarves.

— Keeho

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| dam via @p1hits/X

Keeho revealed that she had tried the look previously in one of her airport outfits and decided to recreate it. She also revealed that the model Beautiful Hadid was the inspiration, saying it gave him a “pirate vibe.”

I even tried it once at the airport ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ I thought, what if we recreated that atmosphere? So we went there ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ and the reference was actually Bella Hadid ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ ha I’m not sure if it was received well… but everyone calls it takoyaki 😀 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ it’s Bella Hadid though. No, let me send you the photo I was looking at. Wait [photo]. It has a bit of a pirate vibe, I guess? but now they call it takoyaki 😅 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ on the site, everyone was saying I looked like Kyolla Hadid… ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ so funny. but honestly, I don’t care, as long as p1ece likes it ㅋㅋㅋ there’s a lot of things behind it like this with the clothes… it’s hard to explain through text, so I’ll show you in a live stream next time ㅋㅋㅋ

— Keeho

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| dam via @p1hits/X

P1eces even brought back Keeho’s original iconic airport look.

So, now we know the inspiration behind P1Harmony’s recent styling. Keeho also indicated that he might discuss it more in-depth in a live broadcast.

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