Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
Former iKON member and current soloist B.I left the group back in 2019 due to a drug controversy that is amazingly still going as Yang Hyun Suk looks to wriggle off the hook yet again. While the members did previously open up about his departure back in 2022, Bobby took to the comments on Instagram to share some especially candid thoughts on what happened back then.
Not exactly sure what prompted this, but based on his comments it seems like fans were making a mess in his mentions or something and he wanted to vent on the situation a bit.
Predictably people are arguing over the exact language he used here to express himself, but I don’t see much that’s controversial. Bobby’s basically just explaining his feelings about the situation, during which he was seemingly freaking out due to fear that everything was going to implode, but then says that once things settled down he realized B.I was the same guy and he still has love for him. Seems … like a reasonable human reaction where people aren’t completely logical robots in the moment regarding potentially life-changing events. International fans want him to say B.I is a flawless angel or something, but for the Korean side of things Bobby is probably the one taking the risk here with not much to gain.
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Update
Yeah, he’s already getting heat from Korean fans and has replied to one.
Fan: Whether or not you guys work together or eat together behind-the-scenes, we don’t have to know. If you were a soloist, or if you were a K-Hiphop rapper, we wouldn’t care. But you’re doing a concert as part of iKON right now. Why did iKON flop? It’s because of your brother whom you love to death. Sigh. Even if you guys hugged it out and resolved everything, just who will hug us and the hurt we felt?
Bobby: To be honest, we feel nothing but gratitude towards iKONics. We know that you guys were very hurt, and that you guys cried many tears in real life for us. We know that you guys worked hard for us, even as you lost your appetites, how you guys put in effort to love us in any way possible. I can assure you, I’m not telling you guys to support whatever he did. I’m just saying we should stop fighting between supporting OT6 or OT7. We don’t feel anything towards him anymore, but we’re all just people who are trying to live on. I’m sorry. I’ll apologize from the bottom of my heart. I know so so well, just how much iKONics have worked hard and shed tears of blood for us, just to help us create a good image. It just hurts my heart so bad, to see you guys fighting, when I’m too busy just loving you guys even.
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Perhaps Bobby’s mistake is being too candid about it for K-pop fans to process — one of the benefits of setting out on your own, but a risk as well — but personally, that’s why I appreciated it. There’s a difference between “opening up” with carefully crafted statements on edited talk shows, and random spur of the moment thoughts, and this certainly felt as genuine as we’re ever going to get.
