Preetipls Addresses Racism in ‘Buck it Up’ Rap: Responding to Shanmugam’s Call for Views

Singapore — Coming back with another rap video to the same tune as the ‘F*ck It Up’ one they received a conditional warning for, YouTuber Preeti Nair, better known as Preetipls and her brother, rapper Subhas Nair, took stock of the recent slew of racist incidents.

The video, posted on Friday (Jun 18), titled ‘Buck It Up – K. Muthusamy’ mentioned just about all of the recent racially sensitive and religiously sensitive incidents.

https://youtu.be/In8SXRIG0Nc

The 2-minute clip repeated the lyrics: “Buck it up, buck it up, racist people you better start bucking it up”.

The first incident in the video made reference to the two neighbors who went for mediation of their dispute at the Community Mediation Centre (CMC) after one complained about the “pungent” smell from the other neighbor’s cooking.

Another prominent racist person mentioned by the siblings was Beow Tan. She was the woman who made offensive comments about other MRT commuters based on their race and was charged in court last week.

Subhas Nair and Preetipls also rapped about Tan Boon Lee, the former Ngee Ann Polytechnic Lecturer who accosted an interracial couple along Orchard Road and said that they were “a disgrace”. “He needs to approve before you start a family”, rapped Preetipls.

Next up on the list was The Ritual, a local cafe offering fresh bakes, acai bowls, and more, which recently launched its own version of the Nasi Padang.

“Nasi Padang without the nasties”

The cafe shared a post on Instagram to announce their creation: “The Ritual ‘Nasi’ Padang without the nasties”. However, the post did not sit well with many who criticized the cafe for being culturally insensitive.

As Subhas Nair and Preetipls repeated the rather catchy chorus, though they did not specifically mention a number of other racially charged incidents, news reports or videos of these could be seen imposed in the background.

One such incident was the case of a man who allegedly kicked a 55-year-old woman in her chest and shouted a racial slur at her for not wearing her mask while brisk walking.

At the end of the video, the siblings mentioned the current conditional warning they serve for a previous video on the ‘brownface’ advertisement last year.

“Then why do we post this now?” Subhas asked Preetipls

“They asked us for our views what”, Preeti said pointedly, sharing the Facebook post of the Minister for Law and Home Affairs, following the Tan Boon Lee incident. Mr. Shanmugam wrote in his post: “Would be good to hear from people on their views on the video”.

/TISG 

Read also:
Preetipls points out how her brother was charged in court on the week of Deepavali as her mother was “about to bake pineapple tarts” – Singapore News 

Preetipls questions ShopBack’s Indian-inspired ad: “Why is the guy not Indian?” – Singapore News 

YouTuber Preetipls and brother start petition for temporary stop of executions – Singapore News