All of this, in retrospect, really sucks for Lesserafim. 😢 So many people blamed them for Gfriend disbanding when it all came down to the loss of funds and bad timing with the members' contracts not renewing (either by choice or by sudden obligation). Lesserafim takes the brunt of the hate for it all, but it really has very little to do with them and all the business of it all. I know this isn't the point of your video. 😅 It's just fascinating how it all worked out. MHJ really was handed everything on a silver platter, come to think of it! Billions of won in investments, complete creative freedom, her favorite trainees from Source, staff, her own company, shares at a discount, and very little debt... Yet this fiasco is happening. 🤔 Wow! Unbelievable!

This explains why LE SSERAFIM had to film there MV in a DANCE STUDIO

The way i see it… MHJ is really dangerous. Talented definitely but dangerous bc she is so unethical & greedy in a bad way.

I really think Hybe will not let her go scot-free even if she proves herself at this point. Also, the other labels will now be under watch now, and they will really be restricted because of this move by MIn hee jin

This helped me understand why source music had to shoulder that cost but it’s still kinda messed up how she took everything and Le Sserafim had to dig them out. Still glad they are at a company where they have more freedom to explore what they want though

Thanks for answering. It's clear to me that Hybe's success is in large part due to their artist management approach.

Anything deleted from computers and servers are recoverable.

If she did it once she will do it again. I think Hybe needs to be careful with the people they get especially f r om other Agency.. intellectual and business secrets.

There's so much gossip about this that I appreciate your objective analysis

In a roundabout way, this whole unfortunate situation has been a benefit to LeSserafim and Source music. I think now the public understands better just how they were left holding the bag after a chaotic storm trying to figure out how to move forward, and have, seemingly come out the other side successfully. I hope this publicity to their situation pushes HYBE/BPD to maybe nullify whatever is left of their debt (if there is any).

This is where Min HeeJin and the K-pop industry will part ways. HYBE will do right by their artists and continue to succeed.

I really appreciate you explaining a little bit about how Hybe operates. I've seen some of this explained in a Boracity Magazine video "Is the Hybe Family a thing?" because people want to compare them to how the big 3 labels operate. Many people still don't seem to get or understand how Hybe functions and that labels under them are responsible for managing their groups etc. We've seen a huge increase especially in 2023 & 2024 of Hybe hate & Bang Pd hate on social media, personally I do think MHJ possibly played a part in this maybe even more then we realize. I find it extremely frustrating that kpop fans blame Hybe for everything, they don't seem to even know the labels not Hybe that manage these things they are getting upset over. I don't hear people going off on Kakoa for things happening with The Boyz etc I've been coming across new "army" that will randomly start spouting off how awful Hybe it's honestly unsettling. No company is perfect and they are going to make decisions that we won't always agree with but they speak of Hybe as if they are the devil constantly sabotaging/hurting their artists. Now I can see why the big 3 companies fandoms would think this about their companies some even more then others because they have legitimate concerns there for years of the handling of their artists. But Hybe hasn't been around very long and personally I've not seen evidence to support them being awful to artists as they don't manage the groups. I know people have dragged politics & the war into it but it's a Korean music company and me being American I assure you there are much more direct involvement to blame for the real world atrocities happening. And I can remember a time when army didn't hate on BTS' company, if there was something we didn't agree with we would talk about it but I never heard army throw the word hate around about their staff or Bang Pd. In fact I remember mass sending "Thank you" to Big Hit staff in 2018 on twitter. We appreciated all they did for BTS. And frankly I didn't personally start seeing this among "army" until 2022, I'd seen other fandoms especially from the big 3 hate on Hybe tho frankly it was still mostly hating on BTS until after Hybe was formed but it's like they turned into everyone's punching bag at this point.

The last question: My answer would be... No.... UNLESS they will be signed under a company like HYBE,... But like what company is like Hybe?? Will they be given the kind of promotion and budget and incentives like what they are receiving at Hybe right now?? Maybe they'll have many investors but will they last with this kind of environment they have with MHJ?? if she can throw these girls under the bus ones i bet she can do it again and again... So will my investment be safe??

The article you show at 1:35 says nothing about Le Sserafim's Yunjin training with NJ's four oldest members. In fact, it says the youngest member, Hyein, was discovered online, and that all five NJ members trained under Source Music, before Min took them to ADOR.

thank you for all your hard work!

As usual, you videos are so well explained!

This is such an informative video!

I read that the idea that Ador did not pay for training costs of NewJeans is a translation error. Ador renumerated Source for the training costs of the NewJeans members, but it was translated into English as something to the effect of "Ador delivered the training costs to Source." People thought it meant that Ador sent the training bills to Source, but the actual meaning was that Ador reimbursed Source for the training costs.

Now this makes since. You can clearly see the 2 concepts in the bands. New Jean lines up with Black Pink and Le Sserafim with BTS, it's very clear to see. NJ took advantage of the slow start of LE Sserafim and took all those fans. Now I feel that Yunjin was not left behind , but SM would not let her go. They should have said as much that's why Bang BTS when got her. Yunjin always in the middle

i dont think mhj care much about new jeans, otherwise she would just suck this all up for the kids, or wait for a good time like after the comeback or when contract near expiring, but instead she also involving them directly, using them as a shield, as a bargaining chip, it doesn't stop there she involved other idol member by name into all these mess, she is evil!

I feel bad for Source music. How is it Le Sserafim debut was so low budget but NewJeans was multiple MV’s. Sounds so shady from the start. Didn’t Enhypen do early 2000s concept with Blessed Cursed in January before NJ even debuted?

Thank you for these information. ❤

I think we need to keep the timeline in mind when discussing these events. My belief is that BSH put a lot of resources, or at least a lot of attention, into debuting Le Sserafim. Hiring MHJ and giving her the trainees who would become New Jeans was most likely an after-thought. If you think about what was happening at this time, Hybe / BSH / Source were not worried about internal competition. They were concerned with IVE. Everyone wanted to debut the first post IZ*One group. IVE came out the gate swinging. Then Le Sserafim launched. Then New Jeans. They weren't expecting New Jeans to blow up so quickly. So, a bunch of stuff happened at once that no one could control. Source had an income stream, but so did Ador. And I think this is where things get sketchy. I can't speak to the motivations of everyone involved, but if I were an ambitious creative type who just got handed a lot of money, would I become greedy? Perhaps. Would I be jealous of everyone else of my peers who launched successful girl groups? I don't know. All I know is that money changes people. And lots of money ... We are in Clash of the Titans territory, and the ones likely to get hurt are the fans and the members.

new jeans should go to another sub company now either belift or source music....poor girls....

So, if I understand correctly, MHJ was given the girls rejected by SM, who in Ador have zero autonomy and are apparently also mentally regressing, while the girls chosen for LSF were the ones with the greatest potential, who are now receiving continuous training, like BTS, and will continue to grow as artists.

Imagine a timeline where songs like Unforgiven, Gods and Drama release after this era. Would have been glorious.

Rumors is NJ members (parents) are on MHJ side and we might see a 50/50 pt 2. And now you understand why they were profitable in just 6 month coz there were no training cost. She is damn good business woman.

Best video on this topic. K-pop drama is like shit coin, highly speculative, your content is very refreshing.

Hey is this confirmed that Le Sserafim paid the debt for New Jeans trainee debt? I haven’t seen a single article online that confirms this.. that would be very sad for LSFM if it’s true but there is no mention of this anywhere

Yeesoul was a trainer at Ador before she joined R U Next

While i do think that hybe tried to capitalize on new jeans success, part of the reason why Illit concept is similar to new jeans can be explained by the promotional material of the plus global audition and the fact that new jeans concept was in part inspired by those ideas. Since these were made in collaboration between source music, big hit and min heejin, its possible that hybe thought that they also had the right to use the coquette / y2k aesthetic they ALL had planned from the beginning, without min heejin being able to do something about it.

Shes's a scary person cause she doesnt care of anyone and her artist clearly.. you can really tell she's just in for money for all of these. and to even leaked and jopardize the personal info of idol of hybe is not so professional.

Que opinais de que Bp dejara que Taehyung lanzara su albúm con Ador, pensaba que no tendría éxito?

MHJ stated that Hybe promised NewJeans' parents, when they signed the contracts, that they would be the first Hybe girl group. But this is impossible, because the five girls were "assigned" to MHJ after being discarded as LSF. The eleven girls did their training together competing to form the LSF group: the five rejected girls moved on to Ador and formed another group. MHJ herself participated in the creative direction of LSF, before being gifted by BSH the position of creative director and CEO of the new label founded by BSH. So the training of LSF began long before the training of NJ, and it is absolutely impossible that BSH, who was finalizing the debut of LSF together with SM, which had been decided for some time, promised the parents without reason that the second group would debut before first. Rather, it is likely that the narcissistic MHJ tormented BSH in every way so that her group had preferential treatment.

Yes that is how i come to understand about this Hybe business too. I remember one time TXT didn't get a enough body guard and someone was say to hybe to give TXT more body guard. At the time txt was only 2 yrs after debuted. It due to not enough fund yet . But now they are ok.

Didnt they thought that Newjeans music is plain and boring and not cut for mainstream media hence the clash on ideas my thought is BSH gave MHJ the green light thinking it wouldnt be as successful as they are today and LSFM would overshadow it and BSH wanted to debut LSFM first to get the hype of HYBE's first gg

Was MHJ part of the reason information on Garahm came out? Why not make making a girl group difficult so that Bang would be more desperate to hire her at her own price?

I feel sorry for Yunjin for getting rejected by MHJ. She almost didn't get to have her idol dreams realized because of her. Thankfully Bang PD wanted his own girl group so they got her back to form LSF. Yunjin's talents as an idol could have been wasted as a result.

I wonder how she manage V’s album

min heejin is a classic case of someone with an overblown sense of self who is greedy and overambitious. hybe owns 80% of ador. min heejin only has 18% (which was given to her by hybe), with 2% owned by other ador directors. in other words, min heejin is just another employee of hybe, albeit with some shares. people forget that unlike bang sihyuk, min heejin is not even a producer, composer, or songwriter. she is just a graphic artist and art director. the truth is, she is an image maker, not even a musician. so all of her talk about "plagiarism" is a joke. she is also making herself look important and her role in hybe much bigger than it actually is. perhaps for the benefit of possible investors to her now-failed and ill-advised adventure? new jeans is only one of the artists under hybe. enhypen, txt, seventeen, and bts are all hybe artists -- much much bigger artists than new jeans -- that are listed as part of the 15 best-selling kpop groups of all time. new jeans does not even come close. so it is highly unlikely that bang sihyuk or other hybe executives are intimidated by min heejin or even threatened by her, as she is trying to project. like all good business people, hybe just want to protect their investments in ador as the majority owner.

Interesting...

Its a dirty fight.

2 si no responde a la auditoría se va presa, una cosa es lo legal y otra la manipulación mediática que al final las perjudicadas serán sus "hijas" NJ #RM #BTS #ComeBackToMe 24 de mayo Stream Full 💜💜🤗

Why didn't MHJ want to run Source Music?

So this woman was the reason GFRIEND disbanded, everybody(including me) thought it was cuz Leeserafim, but it was MHJ indeed, she needed gfriend to disband, so she could create a new companny Ador under Hybe ,with her new group and be the head of that little companny.

Maybe because of the ease and availability of funds, delusions of grandeur and unsurpassability have appeared: when everyone wants to copy you. Her talent was not supported by hard work, nor did she get through a difficult beginning.

I hope the New Jeans girls stay far away from this and don’t make any more questionable posts.

I see, that explains why the foundation for Le Sserafim was very poor, they're like a rushed product. And I didn't know that the NJ members almost didn't debut if haven't for MHJ's doing.

i would not want to invest in a woman who would do that to her mother company. even if NJ was left alone after that the vision of Nj and the music they made still belongs to Hybe so idt they can use their name and the producer who actually made the songs for them is still at ador or Hybe idk about that. the producer could leave and sign with ador. it´s not really the girls themself who made this group sucessful it´s the management team and producers. withut them it will only be some taleneted girls but if they made songs with a diffrent producer the music will probobly change so much that it would not sound like Nj anymore. so i dont se how this is going to work for them. i am surprised that they wanted to stay with that woman because what would actually change for them? maybe they can blame hybe and made them stop copy them. but the songs is not even similar enough to do that. so i can´t s what that will benefit them. will they get paid more? or have more freedom because i doubt that, min hee jin will allow that she seems like a controle freak to me

Without MHJ, members of NJ could be just merely an asset (bench), or if debut would not be the same? That would be a pity! They (NJ) are perfect now. This would be like if "your parents never got married, you would not have been born". So now is like parents quarreling/divorcing most pitiful are the children and we're glad they are born the way they are. Its hard to say who's right/wrong now but based on kdrama experience its usually the talented is the victim while the businessman is the (not baby) monster. Hope NJ stays strong.

How to get on your Patreon?

She was recruited by Hybe, an employee for Hybe, Hybe owns source music. And ador was created by Hybe too. There’s steps to follow before “creating” something. How she did all the secret “master plan” herself? The entertainment industry is cynical and it’s all about money. I think she is the scapegoat and she will be ruined before a big influential conglomerate loses money. You can’t win the rich, they have all the power. There’s no good or bad here, there’s no side to choose. Just protect the members.

Me pregunto si todo este embrollo es por el éxito de Layover de Taehyung, recuerdo que le dieron un premio en América del mejor álbum debut, y a Jungkook lo encuadraron en kpop

Question: why was BLift created to form a group with the same concept and vision Bang Siuk was divergent of? From your analysis (which btw, thank you) it seems she did something that worked. And then HYBE wanted to double down for their own benefit?

MHJ is a crazy spoiled brat 🤭 getwhat she want 😅 i think this woman had a dark past 🤔😂

Just an average Korean dude here trying to understand what the heck is actually going on btw these two. MHJ had a press conference today that took over the news, obviously and I'm even more confused now. MHJ is definitely not a very corporate friendly person, as a lot of creatives in any field to be, including myself... but she didn't have to fight HYBE just as they didn't need to trigger her in so many different ways/times. One thing is for sure. The Korean society just can't form a neutral opinion and they have to take a stand or choose a side. Which is fine, but we have to go to each extreme to see the war end. I'll be back to see your brilliant analysis in the coming days, weeks regarding this saga.

Hybe budget is questionable? every labels in Hybe need to run multiple projects and if most of them are greedy then is it so obvious. as for ador there is another Hybeboy project that she is about to do but I guess the budget is not enough. However, Illit debut could be the cause that reduce the budget for the Hybeboy audition. If she wanted to recruit new boy group for Hybe then she now need to make more profits on her own, and of course with only 1 group to survive in this year. It would not be enough to start any other project. I think the controversy is all focus on Hybe management plan issues. They prefer to make profit but don't have contigency plan for what they can't manage. Need a lot of information to break down this company problem.

It's really not that hard for MHJ to buy her own laptop and transfer the files. Like is she really playing the boomer card?

It’s a big joke that Ador CEO would accuse somebody specially a group from their own mother company of copying when it’s common knowledge that NJ absolutely has no originality to begin with. All NJ has done was to copy ( and not draw inspiration) western music ( beat and melody) down to the minute details. Now talk about the saying “ LOOK WHO’S TALKING??”

So you’ve said it yourself, MHJ’s vision didn’t fit Chairman Bang’s. And he would have passed on the NJ girls if she didn’t ask to use them. So you can’t blame MHJ for being upset. After she was proven right and her vision was more successful than Bang’s, he turns around and copies her vision to the letter, and creates a rival group. How would you feel if your employer did that? Using your ideas and giving them to your coworker to create work that rivaled your own.

Look, I'm Fearnot forever. But I also think NJ are awesome, cute, great songs etc. But this whole thing really turns me off and that's why this is so toxic. Bunnies better not support this lunatic and triple down on all of it. She's gonna ruin their rep. Already making them and their family sound weird and cult-like.

The facts that NJ'S girls became ambasadors of famous brand houses thru connections is of no value. Can they command the sales of branded items thru their impact?. Poor girls being taken for a ride..

When it was first reported that Bang PD hired MHJ, it realy wasn't sitting well with. There is something about her I don't like but cannot put a finger on. FYI: I have no idea about her history, I don't know who she is. I just know that she used to be with SM as reported. I know nothing about SM except that they are control freaks, they control every single aspect of their artists' lives, that is. Now that I am watching all this unfold, I knew it! There is something really off with her.

WTF wrong with her?

For some reason I just can’t really like ANY of the girl groups. They all appear the same to me. Overse$ualized young ladies. To me they look like they lost the plot. Music. Imo

Are there any cited sources for this info? I want to read more

I hope MHJ starts her own company and NEWJEANS join her. I feel better if MHJ or a woman managed NEWJEANS than a guy who's for greed and power. The adult children need to grow up and take care of the kids. Greed and power run the World. A woman in a man's world. The 5 kids together are very very talented and a cash cow.

I have no idea what you are talking about and if it really doesn’t affect BTS, then it’s none of my business 🤷🏼‍♀️

So BangPD really doesnt give a fck about TXT. Because when he has some kind of promotion and artist vision (that works so incredibly well for others) then why does he/bh pay TXT dust? Free TXT i cant anymore....

She’s definitely “eccentric” it doesn’t make her a bad person..SHE “Created” New Jeans..NOT PD Bang NOR HYBE.. She’s being RIPPED-OFF BY PD Bang & HYBE🎯