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Year of the Ox’s ‘Viral’ gets a second life for all the wrong reasons

The Korean-American rap duo’s 2020 video spotlights anti-Asian violence

LiFTED | Zita Chan | 5 Mar 2021


Nearly one year ago, Year of the Ox’s ‘Viral’ song and video got a lot of eyeballs because of the mistreatment of Asians in America and other places around the world. Now, it’s coming back into the spotlight because anti-Asian attacks and assaults are still happening at record breaking numbers.

With Trump out of the White House, it would only make sense that the tensions he helped stir up started to slow down. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Senseless violence against Asians have been showing up in videos on a nearly daily basis. Twelve months after Year of the Ox put out ‘Viral,’ it has gotten a second life. Lyricks, half of Year of the Ox, reposted the video on his Instagram stating, “Released last year in 2020. Unfortunately the problems are only getting worse. #STOPASIANHATE.”

He continued in an interview with Complex. “We need solidarity and more media coverage because these assaults are becoming normalized to the point where even our people don’t realize how serious the issue is. The issues aren’t about race or color, they are human issues.”


“We need solidarity and more media coverage because these assaults are becoming normalized to the point where even our people don’t realize how serious the issue is. The issues aren’t about race or color, they are human issues.” - Lyricks

Year of the Ox is composed of two MCs, JL and Lyricks. Their name was given to them by rapper Rekstizzy because they were both born in 1985, which happens to be the year of the ox in the Chinese Zodiac. They strongly stand against discrimination, abuse, threats, bullying, beatings or attacks against anyone for racial reasons.

Watch Year of the Ox’s ‘Viral’ here.