Wiz Khalifa Defends 'Korean Eyes' Lyrics, Saying He Has Korean Friends

The song "Hot Now" includes the line “Smoke got my eyes lookin’ Korean.”

Wiz Khalifa isn’t backing down from lyrics that many have labeled as racist.

On Tuesday, the rapper appeared on “The Breakfast Club,” a radio show, and defended his song “Hot Now,” from his new album “Rolling Papers 2.” That song includes the line “Smoke got my eyes lookin’ Korean” ― a lyric that didn’t sit well with the Asian-American community.

In the interview, Wiz Khalifa, born Cameron Thomaz, told critics to “chill out,” adding that he’s “not a racist.” When host Charlamagne Tha God asked if the artist was interested in apologizing to the Korean community, Wiz said he wasn’t.

“I have Korean friends that are not offended. I don’t know those people who are saying that,” he said.

TMZ asked the rapper Tyga, who’s of Vietnamese descent, what he thought of Wiz’s line. Tyga responded: “What’s wrong with that?”

But the lyric has drawn a great deal of backlash from the Asian-American community ― particularly since painful comments and gestures about their eyes have long been used to insult the group.

Last year, Houston Astros player Yuli Gurriel used the “slant eyes” gesture to refer to then-Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Yu Darvish, who’s Japanese-Iranian, after Gurriel hit a home run off Darvish’s pitch. In May, a woman in Fremont, California, made a “slant eyes” gesture and yelled “Chinese ugly” at a Korean-American serviceman when she wanted him to move out of the way.

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