J Balvin has issued an apology following heavy criticism of his “Perra” music video.
The video drew backlash for featuring Black women wearing leashes while crawling on all-fours.
“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,” said the artist, while apologizing on Instagram.
.@JBALVIN apologizes for the video of "Perra" with #Tokischa. “My message has always been tolerance, love and integration,” he adds. pic.twitter.com/bXOzXv9MVf
— billboard latin (@billboardlatin) October 24, 2021
Balvin said he deleted the video from YouTube earlier this month “as a form of respect.”
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Raymi Paulus, who directed the video, addressed the controversy in a statement shared with Rolling Stone.
“The Dominican Republic is a country where most of the population is Black and our Blackness is predominant in underground scenes, where the filming took place, and which was the subject of the video’s inspiration,” he said.
“‘Perra’ was a video filmed in the neighbourhood, with people from the neighbourhood, and the use of people of colour in ‘Perra’ was nothing more than the participation of our people in it.”
