Min Hee-jin, a gold producer who promoted well-known Korean groups such as Girls' Generation, SHINee, f(x), Exo, and Red Velve, to the international market, jumped to ADOR, a subsidiary of HYBE, as CEO after leaving SM Entertainment, and successfully created the popular girl group NewJeans that is taking the world by storm.
Unexpectedly, on April 22, there was the amazing news of her infighting with HYBE!
According to Korean media reports, Min Hee-jin wanted to take away NewJeans to stand on her own, and a series of small actions deployed ahead of time detonated the dissatisfaction of HYBE's senior management, and held a shareholder meeting to demand that Min Hee-jin step down immediately, shocking the entertainment industry.
And Min Hee-jin was not to be outdone, pointing out that the new girl group ILLIT was suspected of plagiarism, and the controversy became more and more intense.
Who is Min Hee-jin?
Producer Min Hee-jin joined SM Entertainment in 2002 and has since jumped from graphic designer to creative director.
During her 16 years at SM, she has successfully won the ranks of Girls' Generation, SHINee, f(x), Exo and Red Velvet, and her innovative and unique artistic taste has made her a gold medal producer in everyone's eyes.
NewJeans之母
In 2019, Min Hee-jin joined ADOR, a subsidiary of HYBE, as the CEO, and once again created the popular girl group NewJeans all over the world.
The concept and image of the girl group were created by Min Hee-jin from scratch, so she also gained the name of "Mother of NewJeans".
In 2023, BTS Kim Taehyung V's first solo album "Layover" is also created by Min Hee-jin. This shows the producer's unshakable position in the Korean music industry.
Quarrel with HYBE, conspiracy theories are rife
But during the rise of the girl group NewJeans, producer Min Hee-jin reported that he was fighting with HYBE's top management.
Not only may the activities of the members be affected, but HYBE's share price has directly evaporated by 749.7 billion won.
According to Korean media reports, HYBE issued an official document against Min Hee-jin and ADOR's senior management, questioning her who owns 20% of the shares (HYBE itself owns 80% of ADOR's shares) with the intention of leaking business secrets within the company.
Including the artist's personal information, some of HYBE's core company information, etc., with the intention of seizing the management rights of ADOR, and asking Min Hee-jin to step down immediately.
As a boss and mentor, NewJeans is in a dilemma
The most innocent of this turmoil is, of course, the members of NewJeans.
After all, on the one hand, he is the mentor who grew up, and on the other hand, he is the boss who supports himself, and at the same time that the upper executives are stiff, the endorsements and activities of the five talented women, and even the future, will be more or less affected.
Fans are also quite worried about a repeat of the FIFTY FIFTY event in 2023.
Min Xizhen shot back and choked ILLIT plagiarism
Not to be outdone, Min Hee-jin certainly wouldn't let anyone slaughter her, and she responded immediately, clarifying that she wasn't trying to take ADOR.
On the contrary, HYBE did not say a word about the plagiarism challenge she raised about Belift Lab at the beginning of the year, and ignored it and then took a bigger move to fire her, which made her feel cold.
Belift Lab同为HYBE旗下厂牌，近期推出新女团ILLIT，套路跟风格和NewJeans颇为相似。
Min Hee-jin said, "HYBE claims to be the best leader in KPOP, but it is blinded by short-term interests and does not care about copying the template of other people's success. 」
"ADOR has never allowed anyone to replicate NewJeans' work, and after discussions with members and legal representatives, we decided to take this position. 」
Public opinion fermentation on the Korean network
At the same time as ADOR Min Hee-jin released a statement, public opinion on the Korean Internet also began to ferment, and everyone began to discuss the style, mode, model, and dance moves of ILLIT and NewJeans.
Due to the high similarity between the two groups, Min Hee-jin's betrayal of HYBE's wind direction gradually turned into attacking HYBE's unreasonable behavior of trying to bully Min Hee-jin.
Who is the new girl group ILLIT?
South Korea's new girl group ILLIT is a 5-member girl group that will be selected to debut in the talent show "R U Next?" in 2023. There are three Korean members YUNAH, MINJU, AND WONHEE, and two Japanese members, MOKA and IROHA.
On March 25, 2024, ILLIT released its first mini album "Super Real Me" and officially debuted, of which "Magnetic" has become a brainwashing divine comedy and has been washed on major communities.
粉丝名冒犯前辈BLACKPINK、NMIXX
However, the plagiarism controversy of ILLIT is not only for NewJeans, but also for fan names. Recently, they released their official fan name and named it LILLY.
As soon as the name was announced, it immediately caused dissatisfaction among fans of the girl group NMIXX, because of the name collision with member Lily.
There was a lot of scolding on the Internet, and ILLIT hurriedly changed the name of the fan to LILLYs, but this time it stepped on Lisa's fan LILIES, and the negative comments were out of control on the Korean Internet.
Belift Lab immediately issued a statement to extinguish the fire, saying that it had decided to re-select the official name due to various concerns, and that it would be announced later, and that it was sorry for the confusion.
The plagiarism controversy between NewJeans and ILLIT may take some time to come to an end. Only if the high-level leaders of the two sides can deal with it peacefully, can the talented and promising children develop well.