August 02, 2019, 02:22 PM 
Preeti and Subhas Nair, the sibling duo behind an offensive rap video, have issued a public apology for "any hurt that was unintentionally caused".
The apology was posted on their respective Instagram accounts.
Clarifying that the message behind the video was that "opportunities must be for everyone", Preeti and Subhas wrote that the character of K. Muthusamy was selected to address "privilege, power, and censorship".
Preeti, also known as Preetipls, posted the apology on Aug. 2, 2019, three days after a police investigation was officially lodged against the rap video.
The same apology was posted on Subhas' Instagram page:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B0pnsZTFiOY/
Rap video in response to "brownface" ad
The rap video, a remix of Iggy Azalea’s song, F*ck It Up, was a response to a "brownface" ad by Nets' E-Pay service.
The ad featured Mediacorp actor and deejay Dennis Chew (Zhou Chongqing), as four characters: A Malay woman wearing a tudung, an Indian man in office wear, a Chinese woman in a pink jacket, and a Chinese man with moustache in blue overalls.
Chew’s skin tone was artificially darkened to portray this Indian character.
The ad was later withdrawn after it was called out for being racially insensitive.
Rap video slammed by politicians
Singapore's Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam and other members of Parliament later slammed the expletive-laden video as "insensitive" and "offensive".
Shanmugam in particular, said the rap video crossed a line and could damage Singapore’s racial harmony and social fabric.
The rap video was later removed in compliance with a take-down order by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA).
Similar to apology by creative agency behind ad
It also appears that the Nair siblings' apology mirrors the apology that was issued by Havas, the creative agency behind the "brownface" ad:
Top images via Preetipls Instagram page and Youtube pages.
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