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Who is Young Lex? Rapper accused of plagiarizing EXO Lay Zhang's 'Lit' music video, angry fans demand apology

EXO fans have made a scene by scene comparison between Young Lex’s music video titled ‘Raja Terakhir’ (‘The Last King’) released on March 8, 2021, and Lay’s ‘Lit’ music video that dropped last year in June

EXO fans are slamming a rapper named Young Lex after the fans discovered some allegedly blatant plagiarism of EXO's Lay Zhang’s ‘Lit’ music video. EXO-Ls took to Twitter to slam the Indonesian rapper and ask him to apologize to SM Entertainment’s vocalist for copying his work.

EXO fans have also made a scene by scene comparison between Young Lex’s music video titled ‘Raja Terakhir’ (‘The Last King’) released on March 8, 2021, and Lay’s ‘Lit’ MV that dropped last year in June to show resemblances in the scenes, background, characters, costumes and even the choreography. Young Lex’s music video apparently follows ‘Lit’ almost in every scene and specifically scenes of a dragon, a woman with long nails and black garb, and the dance break look similar to Lay’s work, they point out.

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Who is Young Lex?

Young Lex, whose real name is Samuel Alexander Pieter, is an Indonesian rapper who got popular with some of his singles like ‘Gas Lah,’ ‘Gue Lo Mereka’, and ‘Cewe Kece’. The rapper has 3.7 million subscribers on YouTube along with over 492 million views. After Young Lex’s music video dropped, fans noticed that despite a telling similarity, Lex hasn’t mentioned Lay’s work or credited it anywhere. After fans asked him to apologize, the rapper uploaded a statement saying, “I am sorry not sorry for the latest music video on my YouTube channel titled ‘The Last King'”. He added that he sang the song but did not participate in the making of the video. He concluded by saying that he is responsible for promoting the content for a certain period.

According to a report, Lex has been in a fight with K-pop fans in the past where he once claimed being "attacked" by Blackpink fans who accused him of making racist remarks against member Lisa. Later he claimed that he "made up" that story.

But with the recent allegation of plagiarism, EXO fans aren’t letting it go until the rapper apologizes to the EXO singer. An EXO-L wrote, “I was really shocked at this, because until now there has been no apology. I really know Lay worked hard for this, please appreciate his efforts. I'm waiting for his apology. young lex, please, akuin aja.” Another fan wrote, “i think this is the best music video i've ever watched. apart from LAY is a member of EXO, i really admire him as ZHANG YIXING. when this video first appeared, i even recommended to my friends to watch it. "it's really amazing" #YounglexApologizetoLayZhang” and added, however, “is ZHANG YIXING's hard work appreciated by everyone? the answer is NO. they took all the hard work and ideas from ZHANG YIXING.” 

To make matters worse, he also engaged with EXO fans apparently slamming them. A user shared a screenshot saying, “Please keep quiet. If you can't admit to being wrong and apologize, then at least you don't have to make things worse” and a fan claimed that the rapper has called an EXO fan (Aeri/EXOL) an ‘earth digger’. 

SM Entertainment hasn’t officially addressed the matter yet but the fans are enraged at what they see as plagiarism and not giving credit to an artist who is getting stripped of their much-deserved acclaim.

Stream Lay’s ‘Lit’ below.