Nature's comeback single 'Rica Rica' MV accused of cultural appropriation

K-pop group Nature’s much-awaited comeback album Rica Rica has instigated a lot of backlash from South Asian and Indian fans, as many accuse the group of cultural appropriation. Certain aspects of the video borrow from South Asian and African cultures.

On January 13, 2022, Nature announced their comeback album, Rica Rica, after two years, through their mockumentary series NATURE Can't Go Down Like This.

However, the music video teaser for Rica Rica appears to have certain fans fuming.

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Nature's 'Rica Rica' teaser released on January 20

On January 20, the girl group dropped a music teaser for Rica Rica, showing off snippets of the new track and the choreography. The video also revealed the concept for the upcoming album. While many fans expressed excitement at the video, it did not take long for several to accuse the group of cultural appropriation.

The members can be seen sporting a bindi, a traditional South Asian accessory, in the video. The headgear and jewelry donned by Nature was also alleged by many to be South Asian in origin.

Fans also pointed out the influences of Native American and African cultures in the group’s concept.

A netizen on Reddit pointed out how the clothes appeared to have been inspired by a dance form from Ivory Coast called Zaouli. The netizen stated that the mockumentary, NATURE Can't Go Down Like This, made the Zaouli influence more evident.

"It's inspired by Ivory Coast dance Zaouli and the clothes at least are loosely inspired by it too (in mockumentary it was more visible with colorful set)."

The netizen further explained that:

"People have more of a problem with face makeup and 0:03 from what I've seen tho, especially that it looks like cherry picking everything that looked "ethnic" no matter from which culture around the world is it and sticking it together."

Critics have accused Nature of blatantly appropriating various cultures and ethnicities and encouraging stereotypes under the circumstances. For many viewers, the music appeared to have Bollywood and Latin American influences, while the dance moves, especially the ones with their hands joined together, appeared to be a South Asian greeting gesture.

The music video teaser infuriated many fans (Image via YouTube)

In response, several netizens have formulated an email for the group's agency, asking them to edit out offensive portions from the teaser and the official music video.

The full email says:

"Regarding the release of the track-list image teaser for RICA RICA Special Album, we are asking you to look into the problem of cultural appropriation seen in the teaser image. Makeup style on members Uchae, Lu and Aurora are cultural appropriation and it is unacceptable. This is a very serious issue that can reflect on NATURE's reputation. We know the group cherishes their international fans a lot and we sincerely hope you will not disregard this issue, as it is very offensive and hurtful for the huge part of international Leafs. We hope that members of NATURE themselves are going to look into the problem, as well as the staff. We won't tolerate cultural appropriation and we hope that it's going to be cut/edited out from the teasers and MV."

So far, the agency hasn't responded to the allegations of cultural appropriation. Nature's special album Rica Rica is set to drop on January 24 KST.

The South Korean girl group made their debut on August 3, 2018, with the album Girls and Flowers. The CH Entertainment K-pop group was well received. Its lead single “Allegro Cantabile,” inspired by Nodame Cantabile’s opening track, received a lot of appreciation, including the "New Artist of the Year" at Soribada Best K-Music Awards.