Oh boy, no wonder people wanted me to continue covering this HYBE gossip rag mess, as somehow even more shit recently came out after the initial mess was all translated, including a pair of official apologies from the company.
Note: If your pet issue isn’t mentioned, just bring it up in the comments like a normal person instead of saying I hate your group or whatever shit. Bud, I’ve just been living on a high for weeks now, and I’m summarizing this for OCD completion’s sake..
======
Okay, so let’s start with the official response from CEO Lee Jae Sang to the internal document/gossip rag leak. Basically he apologizes, says it was basically meant to just summarize reactions around the industry, but says the content went too far and that they are reaching out to individual agencies to apologize (the agencies said had not received any over a week later).
Notably, the statement sorta tries to pass it off as only the writer being involved, saying “personal opinions and evaluations of the author”. And reports followed that CCO Kang Myung Seok was removed from his position, though follow-ups revealed he was just transferred, which drew backlash.
I suppose that was relevant because Bang Si Hyuk reportedly was involved in ordering the report to be compiled, and he had close connections with the editor-in-chief of Weverse Magazine since 2005 when they were both with JYP Entertainment. Eventually an e-mail emerged of him telling the EIC to send it to Zico.
Amid the controversy, on October 30, media outlet Hankyoreh reported that HYBE Chairman Bang Si Hyuk personally instructed company executives to circulate this document. According to email records obtained by Hankyoreh, on January 6, 2022, Bang Si Hyuk replied to Kang Myung Seok, the former head of Weverse Magazine who was known to have authored the document, stating, “Please add Zico to the list of document recipients.” The recipients also included Kim Joo Young, who was the Chief Human Resources Officer at the time and is now the CEO of ADOR.
Zico said he did not see it or open it. Of course.
Not sure this is really a bombshell to anybody but the most delulu stans who think this was a rogue C-suite employee or something, but at least there’s confirmation.
——
Alright, so in terms of the mess-creating stuff, there’s been a bunch more released from the internal document, both as things got sorted and then again as an alleged HYBE employee felt compelled to leak more pages. If you want to read every detail, you may do so (1/2/3/4/5). If not, just know there’s enough in there to piss off just about everybody and this is apparently only the tip of the iceberg.
For sane people, I thought I’d just recap the ones that stood out as especially egregious.
Weirdly enough, the one about MONSTA X isn’t really about MONSTA X as much as it just sorta reinforces their brand as like “the incel company” by including sexist language.
It’s an unusual situation for a team to maintain domestic interest after Shownu’s enlistment. It seems like they’ve managed to attract a steady stream of adult women among the older fans who are tired of the trolls and competitive tensions from the larger companies. They have an image that’s more like genuine tough guys rather than the usual “bad boy” concept, and now they’re appealing to the so-called “Han-nyeo” (derogatory term for Korean women) who might like the likes of a sweet, young Choi Min-soo when it comes to how they treat their women. Their appeal as a physical group has weakened, and their determination to showcase a hip-hop vibe or performance has also lessened, but their position seems to be solidifying, supported by a fanbase that is growing outside of the stage. As a result, their latest album sold 160,000 copies on the first day. Considering that the initial sales for the “Love Killa” album were also 160,000 copies and the previous album hit 280,000 copies, it seems they still have some momentum left.
Then there’s some casual homophobia towards TO1‘s Woonggi.
A team that feels like it’s been killed and revived multiple times. This time, three members—Minsu, Jerome, and Woonggi—were kicked out and replaced. The only member with any notable presence in the community was Woonggi as femme(Translator’s Note: 끼순이, The slur means ‘Femme’ in Korean LGBTQ+ community) role, so the team is essentially in a crisis. The new members include two Japanese contestants who placed 13th and 16th on ‘Produce 101 Japan’ and one Korean trainee. It seems like the direction is to use them as openers at events like KCON and run them as an underground group in Japan.
Their own idols weren’t safe either, as ENHYPEN‘s Sunghoon seemed to take heat for his visuals and the doc gave insight into how the company would look to change the idol.
It was a tight schedule, but the issues that cropped up indicate deeper problems within ENHYPEN. Fans noticed the members looked exhausted, suggesting it may be a mental or psychological burnout issue rather than just physical fatigue. Encouraging and leading members is essential for strong performance, and failure to do so leads to negative energy affecting the group’s momentum.
The visual state of Sunghoon, who was criticized in DCInside with screenshots suggesting a decline in looks, raised concerns. There are also frequent comments about his styling. It seems that if someone is prone to swelling, they should find a solution, and they need to make personal efforts, like reducing weight to avoid risks beforehand. Although it’s not an unattractive team, their appearance’s preference seems to be polarizing, so Sung Hoon’s looks need to play a role in stabilizing demand, similar to how Min Hyun did in NU’EST.
Perhaps most noteworthy was ENHYPEN’s Jake and Palestine with regards to his supporting the boycott.
I previously mentioned how overseas fandoms’ political involvement has been intensifying around issues like Starbucks and McDonald’s due to the Israel issue. In Korea, as a non-combatant country, the most sensible course is to wait for the issue to pass. However, Indonesian fans, starting around the Golden Disc Awards, stirred up pressure on fans through Weverse, pushing them not to consume Starbucks products. Jake responded in agreement to one of these comments and expressed regret, which stirred up some controversy.
Korean fans are quite uncomfortable with the overseas fandom’s use of the term “education on the issue,” and this could be a risk factor. Given that this issue lies in the complex realm of politics rather than personal judgment, Jake’s reply could suddenly become problematic later. Even if his reply smooths things over with fans now, this could accelerate the fandom’s unique identity conflicts, so it’s a time to be mindful of the atmosphere.
Other than them wanting to just ignore things until it “passed”, perhaps the most noteworthy thing is apparently trying to censor the issue, which validates existing suspicions.
Additionally, after this controversy, Weverse has been placing restrictions on words used in foreign fandoms’ public posts. There was an incident with ENHYPEN’s manager that complicated the situation. To summarize roughly, it’s been referred to as the “Starbucks boycott promise” incident. ENHYPEN’s manager posted a picture of a local coffee brand while in Jakarta on their Instagram, which overseas fans interpreted as agreeing with their stance. This led them to say things like, “The manager agrees with us!” and even, “Education is working, let’s try harder!” which heightened Korean fans’ stress and anxiety.
I mean Scooter Braun is a prominent figure in the company, so nothing would surprise me on that front, honestly.
Lastly, in what now feels like a deeply ironic analysis, they suggest trying to position Bang Si Hyuk as the more likeable between him and Park Jin Young and Lee Soo Man.
With Park Jin-young’s upcoming end-of-year concert and Lee Soo-man’s self-promotional ventures, Si-hyuk-nim’s positioning as a “likable” figure may become increasingly vital. While they continue to promote themselves, Si-hyuk-nim could consider being highlighted in major overseas magazines during big events for international recognition. A strategic feature in GQ might be fitting, starting with the phrase, “He is not the king of K-pop,” to frame him as a game-changer who breaks genre limits.
I mean, look, at least that’s evidence they didn’t take every suggestion seriously.
The South Korean producer Bang Si-hyuk—known to admirers as Hitman Bang—handpicked the boy group BTS and helped it become the biggest act in the world. Now, he’s bringing his formula for creating K-pop idols to America. https://t.co/QMWq5nH3ba
— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) October 7, 2024
——
Meanwhile, Weverse Magazine has since released a statement trying to distance themselves as well. They confirmed their former EIC made the document, however, they isolate the mess to just him.
We would like to make clear several facts related to this matter:
• The document in question was something the former editor-in-chief worked on separately, so the Weverse Magazine staff were not even aware of the existence of the document.
• With the exception of the former editor-in-chief, neither the staff involved in the production of Weverse Magazine nor the external writers have ever participated in writing the monitoring document.
• The former editor-in-chief was removed from his position and has been prohibited from any further involvement in Weverse Magazine. As for the workers who were separately tasked with monitoring by the former editor-in-chief, their work has been suspended as well.
We are stating clearly that Weverse Magazine has nothing to do with the controversial monitoring document, and the members of the Weverse Magazine team are opposed to the document in question.
Yeah, good luck trying to wash your hands of it like that.
======
I remain in awe of this, as I’ve never seen a mess seemingly unite this many K-pop fans, and yet HYBE pulled it off. Maybe they are The Special One, so to speak.
Other than their attempts at damage control being amusing, as others have pointed out, it also stands out because of how useless a lot of this information would be for business purposes. The needlessly hateful (anti-feminist, sexist, homophobic, etc) nature of it seemed to be mostly for entertainment — or at least I hope they didn’t act on that stuff — and apparently none of the C-suites had a problem with it (besides maybe Min Hee Jin, I guess). HYBE stans are deep in damage control mode over that stuff, but no matter how much they downplay it, the fact remains that its existence ultimately reflects on the company’s leadership, environment, and attitude, without any signs of recovery from this PR disaster.
