On the morning of October 22, Mnet announced the third lineup for the 2024 MAMA Awards. The list includes five big names: G-Dragon, BIBI, (G)I-DLE, Plave, and BOYNETXDOOR. G-Dragon is set to perform at MAMA, which will be held on November 23 in Japan.
The appearance of G-Dragon has surprised and excited fans, as in 2015, he delivered a shocking rap criticizing the MAMA organizers right on their own stage.
G-Dragon’s return to MAMA after 9 years has led fans to speculate that he has resolved the conflict with Mnet following his departure from YG.
Prior to this, YG fans had a long-standing conflict with Mnet and the MAMA Awards. Fans always hold grudges against MAMA because of the award show’s unfair treatment toward YG artists.
Now, take a look at all the times MAMA disrespects YG artists!
Only trying to please everyone when handing out awards and getting dissed by G-Dragon
Kpop fans can never forget G-Dragon’s legendary diss track aimed at MAMA in 2014. Performing on the stage of the most controversial award show, the male rapper did not hesitate to spit out a savage diss track to Mnet.
“It’s been a year, MAMA. Because you set such a large table, you hand it out generously so your children don’t fight. I’m all grown up now so I get full from even watching. Just feed the younger ones”, G-Dragon bluntly dissed MAMA.
Through his rap lyrics, G-Dragon expressed his frustration with MAMA‘s tradition of distributing awards equally among artists so everyone has a share, instead of handing them out based on actual quality. This causes some artists’ contributions and success to be looked down upon.
Blurring out BLACKPINK’s faces in red
The most intense controversy between YG fans and Mnet probably comes from what happened to BLACKPINK at MAMA 2017. Specifically, MAMA prepared a special performance covering the hits of 5 nominees for Best Female Group, including Red Velvet, MAMAMOO, TWICE, GFRIEND and BLACKPINK.
When male singer Jung Sewoon sings to any group’s song, the screen will display their picture. However, fans were infuriated when BLACKPINK members’ faces were blurred out in red, while the images of Red Velvet, MAMAMOO, TWICE or GFRIEND were normal.
This incident caused outrage among BLACKPINK’s fans. In Korea, it’s taboo to write someone’s name or blur out their faces in red, so MAMA’s action was deemed extremely disrespectful to BLACKPINK. Fans also thought that this was MAMA’s attempt to retaliate after being “ignored” by YG.
Leaving YG artists empty handed
Starting from 2015, YG and Mnet officially entered the “cold war”. YG artists were completely absent from Mnet’s shows. It was not until 2020 that YG was believed to reconcile with Mnet after the debut of rookie boy group TREASURE.
In the 4 years from 2016 to 2019, with MAMA‘s tradition of “whoever attends gets their share”, it’s not surprising that YG artists are left empty handed. Although YG’s soloists and idol groups constantly released quality music during this period of time, they could not receive the recognition they deserved at MAMA, excluding a few side awards with no impact.
At MAMA 2017, G-Dragon was nominated for Best Male Artist. Before the awards ceremony took place, BIGBANG’s leader was expected to be the winner of this award by most fans because he outranked other nominees in terms of votes and digital achievements. However, the final result was shocking. G-Dragon was officially ripped off by MAMA. Because of what MAMA did to G-Dragon, every December, the male rapper’s savage diss track is repeated by fans to mock the award show.
WINNER with the smash hit Really Really or “monster rookie” BLACKPINK also did not win that year to the surprise of many fans. This was believed to be MAMA’s intention to snatch all the important awards of YG artists.
In 2021, Mnet and YG seem to have made peace when YG regularly let their artists participate in programs produced by Mnet (iKON joined Kingdom, YGX took part in Street Woman Fighter). Meanwhile, Mnet often mentions BLACKPINK in their awards and variety shows. Therefore, netizens hope that at this year’s MAMA, YG artists will get to receive the awards they deserve even without attendance.
