ADOR and NewJeans creative director Min Hee Jin has been no stranger to the headlines recently, though she’s seemingly been making them for worse than better. Well, she’s found herself under fire again due to comments in a recent interview where she seemed to downplay HYBE‘s role in the success of NewJeans and allegedly took shots at her former employer SM Entertainment.
People easily label ‘HYBE capital’, but it’s an expression that I personally don’t agree with. The actual detailed label management strategy after the investment was decided and the investment was completed is at the discretion of my label unrelated to HYBE, and I received an investment proposal of a similar size in addition to HYBE at the time. At the time, I had a variety of options, and no matter where I received investment, the provisions of ‘independence of creation’ and ‘non-interference’ was my first priority so there is no strong reason for me to specifically pick HYBE. Of course you can ask me “Why must you have gone to HYBE?”, but the aim of the interview would be completely different.
The budget planning of NewJeans’ 1st EP was not thought out carelessly. Even with the production cost of four music videos, there was a lot of talk about HYBE capital. HYBE cannot confirm one-handedly ADOR’s production plan or how the money will be spent. This is because operational autonomy was guaranteed [for me]. [HYBE’s] budget was not very different from that of other companies or labels. It is because I planned the production budget based on experience points and market research on the budget.
I figure she must’ve said something to piss off a lot of people cause I already see her fans (NewJeans fans?) claiming she didn’t say the above, even though I checked and it’s definitely in the interview.
After reading it, I get why it’s a problem to company stans in particular. Min Hee Jin basically tries to divorce herself from the belief that HYBE had much to do with the success of NewJeans and essentially gives credit to her team (and herself) instead. Creatively, there’s definitely merit to that view and company stans are insane in their existence, but it’s safe to say from a popularity/relevance standpoint it’s a bit deluded considering almost every subsequent group that’s debuted at HYBE has received a massive boost via osmosis from BTS going supernova. Just reminds me of Big 4 fans pretending their faves hit a triple when they were born on third, which is off putting to many.
That said, I also don’t think it’s a big deal, especially compared to the rest of the issues people have with her, it’s just that giving off that entitled vibe and bringing negative attention to ADOR and NewJeans is certainly not going to help any in the long-run. And good luck with the company stans, I guess.
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Additionally, netizens thought she was taking a shot at SME, and Kwangya in particular, in a conversation about worldviews.
Min Hee Jin: “Recently, there are many cases of adding a specific worldview or narrative, but I don’t think NewJeans has a noticeable prominent stem.”
Reporter: “Was it intentionally to escape from the construction of a worldview where the K-pop industry recently settled?”
Min Hee Jin: “To put it simply, I am a person who has a lot of antipathy to the worldview that K-pop refers to.” “Some people who have consistently seen our message can name our message a kind of worldview. The perception of the worldview from that point of view is welcome.”
(But) there was no reason to be obsessed with the worldview (concept). NewJeans will be quick to throw the topic that needs to be thrown every time.”
Not sure if it’s a direct shot, but given how all-encompassing Kwangya has become as a worldview or metaverse for SME, and that it’s where she left, it’s not hard to read between the lines here.
That said, do I disagree with her? No. And I think a lot of people agree with her on this point as well, which is why it’s not getting as much run.
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Anyway, on the plus side, through the interview I realized that BANA and XXX‘s FRNK work with NewJeans, which makes a lot of sense. I’m happy for the creatives involved, because the product in terms of music and all that have certainly been amazing.