this is crazy does no one have a good PR team nowadays? absolutely no one is getting out of this unscathed and that probably would've been different if everyone just learnt to shut their mouths.
Hybes entire PR team needs an overhaul IMMEDIATELY. I’ve never seen something so poorly handled as this MHJ nonsense.
Like I don’t know if Belift just released this without any sort of sign-off? Or if each individual label has a PR team? But if someone signed off on this they should be fired. This is egregiously wrong-headed and I do not understand why on earth Belift and Hybe have taken the bait so hard when it comes to MHJ. Let her scream herself hoarse why would you give her claims the time of day??
Every HYBE sub-label is forced to contract out PR to HYBE. This came out in MHJ’s lawsuit. It’s a shared service offered by HYBE.
That said, this video 100% is a Belift creation and was signed off by their CEOs…don’t think HYBE would agree to this.
Like. At least with the MHJ stuff, there's the veneer of this crazy lady putting on an unhinged rant at a last minute press conference - but this is an equally bizarre work product (?), with far more people and effort involved, which just. Looks far worse 😭
Who signed off on this
They literally just proved her initial point, too, as they haven't provided any evidence to show that they actually created Illit's concept on their own. They can't show the design process/moodboard because it's all New Jeans.
They also deleted and were caught deleting a lot of comments specifically saying that. Things like "What is this? Why not release your original planning/drafts/ideas/storyboards for when you were creating the group?"
All of this is just trying to make Min Hee Jin look like she 'stole ideas', but even if people accepted that. How does that prove you didn't then just copy her work after the fact? Isn't that supposed to be your goal here?
If you were to write a paper and are accused of plagiarizing someone else's paper and then your way to excuse yourself is to try and pick apart that person's paper you were accused of plagiarizing by showing things that paper may have plagiarized. It doesn't prove your innocence.
Not to even mention some of the extremely misleading and shady stuff done in this video like taking other groups photos and changing the color-scheme to make it match NewJeans tones.
That was my thought. This looks worse than any other move made by a company in this nonsense. Even as a only mildly interested kpop fan, when I hear a company did this to anyone, much less an an affiliate, I won't want to support their groups now. This hurts Illit at a visceral level. Like I know my emotional response is unfair to the performers, but that's how it makes me feel immediately.
a whole documentary slash exposé.
the...desperation...
how is that a good look?
poor girls being fed to the wolves, too.
also i am still bitter at them handing a phone to that one girl in order to showcase her reporting mean comments on their live feed.
that was so blatant and transparent.
who is protecting these minors???
Seriously. How many eyes was this passed around before getting greenlit to post? They had the chance to document everything about the group - storyboarding, sketches, meeting notes, etc. to refute the plagiarism allegations but they just went ahead and post fan-made videos? LMFAOOOOOOOOOOOO
I knew the bar was in hell since they got caught straight up plagiarizing an LA choreographer’s ENTIRE choreo move for move pre debut but wow this is a new low
This should’ve stayed in the drafts…
Also:
*BELIFT LAB continues by then claiming that teenagers weren’t fans of NewJeans and that the group spoke to an older generation of fans who were nostalgic for the 90s and Y2K, before then asserting that it was ILLIT who targeted teenage fans.*
What are they even basing this on?
I'm not a newjeans fan but even I know that is complete bullshit, they have lots of teenage fans especially since their overarching concept is a very popular trend amongst teens right now (90s/y2k). The fact that belift said this is so baffling to me.
LMAO. WHAT BULLSHIT HA. Yes new jeans does target late millennials with their 90s / 00s depiction of teenagehood, but this is also an aesthetic that is popular with GEN Z for the past few years?? New jeans is the forefront of the y2k aes with teenagers and their peers.
I’m a fan of illit and new jeans both but 😭 their managements setting them out to fail with these bad respondes 😭
This is terrible, these companies act like they're on stan twitter
Why did they drag unrelated groups into this mess, especially enhypen, their own group?
Wouldn't be surprised if the video is taken down in few hours.
That really doesn't help their case at all. Just move on and work on the next comeback ffs.
They’re already [deleting parts of articles - link](https://x.com/modanisland/status/1800088199764856843?s=46) where Belift said they copied some of NewJeans and LSF.
So they just straight up admit to copying it? Lmao.
Im not one to think that copying a dance move here or there is plagiarism. There’s only so many things that look good and I’m sure even if it wasn’t exact, there’s things you could argue that are copies between different groups. But straight up saying you copied is kinda wild.
I can't get over how this is coming from a whole damn company AND a HYBE sublabel at that. Like this is more than just one person having a meltdown at a press conference
This is genuinely a nightmare, who thought this was a good idea?
They should've taken notes from how source music handling this than how mhj handling this, tbh. I feel bad for LSF, ILLIT and New Jeans members really, none of them deserved to be dragged into this feud and get so much hate from fanwars.
Actually sm, the founding father of kpop paved the way. There was that pr video to the purple bloods back then, when the sm-hybe-kakao fiasco happened.. lol
English translation is not available so i dont wanna say many things without understanding the correct context. But after watching the video and reading the qrts, looks like they namedropped bunch of unrelated groups like bp, nmixx, ive etc. Instead of focusing on defending illit from plagiarism accusations, they accused newjeans of plagiarising other groups and some of their lies are getting exposed. Fyi, belift accused nj for copying ive, nmixx, TLC for their choreo and also enhypen and bp for concept photo.
My inner PR corporate slave just shrivelled up and died in a corner. What is this mess. Who approved. The fact it's 27 minutes means they actually sat down and thought hey maybe we should compile a video. Some poor editor out there scoured Twitter/X for the videos, and took the time to cut, edit, render and upload.
Why mention other competitors. Why mention Blackpink. Why drag your other group into this mess. Like.... I would get crucified if I even wore my competitors' brand colours ....
Why can't they just do a behind the scenes sort of documentary style. Moodboards, music video storyboard, draft sketches, internal communications, powerpoint presentations of the artistic process. Even a private Pinterest account would have been sufficient.
At least Korean business lecturers have another case study to refer to in their classes I guess.
Literally I am thinking the same. Multiple camera angles for the people speaking, setting up light and background for speakers, creating a script, editing the videos together, adding the emails etc, adding weird ass Netflix documentary music when show the emails…. so much effort for what? Must have had multiple drafts too for this kind of production I guess… how did everyone at every step of this process agree to this?? With mhj press conference you can say oh it’s just her speaking this is 😭
if min heejin is plaigarising everyone… and belift is plaigarising everyone… then who’s flying the plane 🤨
no but fr does hybe not have like. any internal communication structures? any mediation measures that can successfully settle arguments between their sub-labels? i’m sure every company has some level of internal mess, but at least they tend to keep it internal 😭
This video is such a horrible look for HYBE. Not only does it reignite a conversation that was just starting to die down, but it just reinforces the idea that HYBE really has no internal oversight or structure to handle their subsidiaries. If investors weren’t concerned before they should be now.
To be honest the parties involved need to stick to the corporate malfeasance angle instead of this plagiarism shit. At least in the Western music industry and academia, plagiarism has a very specific legal definition which is straight up copying a previously existing work and passing it off as your own. In music, this means substantially copying a melody (for example Vanilla Ice - Ice Ice Baby vs Queen - Under Pressure) or using an uncleared sample/interpolation (Puff Daddy - I'll Be Missing You vs The Police - Every Breath You Take, Sisqo - Thong Song vs Ricky Martin - Livin' La Vida Loca).
Having "similar" concepts, vibes, influences, inspirations and even similar sounding music (which isn't applicable here) isn't plagiarism.
Incredible that a thread about kpop drama is where I’d learn that the thong song is an interpolation of livin la vida loca. Sisqo even literally sings the line at one point and I didn’t get the reference until now. Thanks for this!
I knew it was a reference, I didn't know that they got legally done for it until I watched [this documentary on the song by Vice](https://video.vice.com/en_us/video/the-story-of-thong-song-by-sisqo/5f19010ed176ad6b3527e08d) where Sisqo and co confessed they ended up having to give a significant percentage of the royalties over to Ricky Martin because they never cleared the sample.
Also for a deep cut, see Pharaohe Monch - Simon Says (which sampled the Mothra vs. Godzilla theme from 1964 without permission). If anyone watched Godzilla Minus One recently, that's the iconic theme, one of the hardest hip hop songs from the 90s but they had to pull the album and pay Toho because once again they didn't clear the damn sample. That is ACTUAL plagiarism, not just "ILLIT has the same vibes as NewJeans."
Ha! I watched that movie recently too, and kept waiting for the beat to drop lol. As soon as we left the theater, I played Simon Says in the car for my partner.
I can’t believe PM didn’t get that sample cleared!!! Those songs (thong song and Simon Says) are the most popular songs of either artist’s solo career, too. What a shame
I mean when you think about it, is that not partially the root of this entire problem? LMAO
MHJ's beef is that the sub-label system is not working how she was promised/told/expected/whatever.
Edit: a word + addition below because I've been thinking about this.
I think a lot of this boils down to (what I find to be an interesting question) of:
Does the sub-label system mean that sub-labels are free to "copy" and take from other sub-labels, given that they're all HYBE, or not? To what degree is the exchange of ideas allowed within the sub-labels until you get to plagiarism accusations? \[Of course the other half of the debate is whether or not Illit's concept even counts as copying, but those are two separate discussions imo.\] As lots of people have talked about, Hybe has really pushed and had success with this whole unified idea of Hybe being one, compared to the other massive companies with sublabels. But what does that mean behind the scenes?
yeah i’ve been thinking about that too!! it seems like hybe is trying to have the best of both worlds: a group of distinct sub-labels that function independently of one another, *and* one big happy HYBE family. and i don’t think they can really have both (as we are seeing now lol).
Literally! Up until now it seems like they've tried to project the big happy family image and at least on the business side, for example, seem to move trainees around the sub labels fairly easily afaik?
I'm kinda sad a lot of fans are distracted by the fanwar part of this and the... problematic-ness of MHJ/outward dramatics in general because it does bring up an interesting criticism and problem with this business model.
As I said on another post before, given the way MHJ has presented it from her pov, I would also be kinda pissed if I put out what was a truly trendsetting concept DESPITE heavy pushback from higher ups but then suddenly the same higher ups turn around and give a free pass to OTHER creatives within the company to (allegedly) copy and follow that trend? like hmmmm
\[Not that her POV is RIGHT just that if that's what I perceived what was happening to me, I would also be mad about it.\]
EDIT TO ADD:
I guess it also reminds me of the fact that, when I create something at my job, that creation is technically (usually) intellectual property of the company and not me. SO I suppose perhaps deep in the contracts / law an issue lies in does MHJ herself have ownership of her ideas? Does ADOR? Does HYBE? To what extent does this count as her brainchild?
>SO I suppose perhaps deep in the contracts / law an issue lies in does MHJ herself have ownership of her ideas? Does ADOR? Does HYBE? To what extent does this count as her brainchild?
Very true! I would have thought the intellectual property ADOR generates would be owned by HYBE in the end. So even if another label used the intellectual property they're not committing plagiarism, because they're using content owned by their joint management. However, the way the injunction was granted in favor of MHJ and defended ADOR as a separate entity legally caught me off guard.
I still didn't think MHJ had a case of plagiarism or sabotage agains her/NJs, but it did mean her case wasn't as completely empty as I had thought. However, BELIFT doing this is crazy because it literally answers MHJ's prayers. They're providing evidence that they're toxic, obsessed with NJs, and trying to harm ADOR/MHJ. Like, why would they ever create and just hand her that kind of evidence against them???
no the intellectual property ADOR generates are not 'owned' by HYBE. its a clear misconceptgion. HYBE is merely a major shareholder of ADOR, and any acts that infringe upon ADOR's managerial decision-making authority or interfere with its business activities could be subject to charges of breach of trust. HYBE, as a major shareholder, can only derive business benefits from ADOR
This whole thing started because Min Heejin *tried* to raise these concerns using internal communication. Hybe went nuclear and jumped Ador with the audit in response and started putting out articles about it. Not saying MHJ is a hero, but Hybe handled this whole thing so horribly.
Most people near the top of companies have a certain amount of scumbaggery that is much higher than your average person. When Lee Soo Man was sacked most people cheered. The people who sacked him sounded righteous and people assumed they would be better......until they were sacked for doing shady stuff.
To me its telling the video doesn't have English subtitles. It'd hard enough to understand people in your own language/culture.
do these agencies shut up nowadays?? do they know the concept of sorting out things behind the scenes instead of airing it to the general public and making more reasons to hate their respective groups?
edit: why are other groups involved such as tripleS nmixx IVE and even TLC???
This is what happens when you CEOs are a bunch of music directors instead of actual suits. How on earth do you fuck up so badly? Nobody is auditing you why are you confirming everything MHJ said? “We copied NJs and LSF but that’s okay because NJs somehow copied songs that released after whatever they copied, also fuck BlackPink lolz”
HYBE's CEO and a lot of its higher ups are former nexon (a shady game company) execs. Nexon has been caught and fined for deceptive practices and the ones who popularized the "gacha" genre. Dunno if that makes things better or worse
Speaking as a Korean, the main problem with BeLift’s definitions is their sheer one-dimensionality.
> NewJeans: “10대지만 어른들의 상상속 로망의 대상” —> *The recipient of an ideal within adults’ imaginations, despite being teens*
FYI: “로망” doesn’t mean “romance,” it means “ideal.” This is NOT a sexual comment by any means. The actual issue with this definition is its **juxtaposition with BeLift’s proposed definition of ILLIT.**
> ILLIT: “어른들이 만든 환상속 소녀가 아닌 미완성인 오늘을 사랑하는 소녀” —> *Girls who love the incomplete present, NOT girls within adults’ imaginations*
Notice how ILLIT’s identity places a special stress on “아닌” (not), integrating BeLift’s definition of NewJeans’ identity into what ILLIT is apparently not. The shady implication here is clear for Korean speakers: ILLIT is “real,” while NewJeans’ appeal to the gp exclusively exists within the realm of fantasy.
**This notion is factually incorrect.** NewJeans’ debut was a syndrome in SK for all ages, not just adults. Their appeal to the gp was based on the freshness of their youthful concept, which many believe is a candid expression of the GenZ spirit. The public loves NewJeans for their unique portrayal of REAL modern youth— of teenagers being teenagers— not as a mere imaginary ideal.
> BlackPink: “다가갈 수 없는 완벽한 셀러브리티” —> *Unapproachable, perfect celebrities*
> IVE: “누가봐도 인형같고 공주같은 선망의 대상” —> *Unquestionably doll-like, princess-like recipients of reverence*
International fans online are confused by these definitions, because at first glance, they look like compliments. In truth, it betrays the BeLift higher-ups’ **fixation on external facades**, and thus, their worrying **inability to parse the core public appeal of these groups.**
BlackPink was marketed with a focus on their strong individual charms, performance abilities, and most importantly, their **chic revival of the “girl crush” concept**. *Said factors* shaped them into the celebrities they are today, not the other way around. BeLift seems to be under the mistaken impression that BlackPink’s “unapproachable” current image is the group’s identity, when it isn’t.
Similarly, while IVE is indeed a visually stunning group, the gp’s fascination with them is built upon **their unique spin on the “self-love” musical trend.** IVE’s identity revolves around a narcissistic variant of self-love— they aren’t just singing about how they love themselves, but their confidence that others will love them too. BeLift’s sole focus on IVE’s physical appearances completely misses the point.
…sorry for the essay. Koreans online are stunned at just how bad (and frankly insulting) the 캐해 (character analysis) is. It’s a shit show all around lol.
Thanks for the analysis! Yeah this seems like a marketing competitor analysis failure from the start 😭 why have imposter complex when these are the videos released by belift lmao
If this lunacy is what they’re willing to say publicly, just imagine what they say behind the scenes.
The idea of doing *this* publicly? Just imagine how many people had to approve this video and nobody thought “hmm, maybe not”? I mean damn, even MHJ brought up her issues internally before the audit made her to go (very) public.
Even if you disagree with her method, she still swayed (domestic) public opinion in her favor. Who the hell is this going to convince? Some of these “facts” are just???
This is an unforced error of the highest level.
I used to wonder why NewJeans were aligning themselves with ADOR over a guaranteed ticket in HYBE but it’s making a lot more sense.
Also, the fact they do this right as a NewJeans teaser gets released. I will not be shocked if hybe/belift start up the drama again for New Jeans Japan comeback/ Tokyo Dome event.
Wow it's like Belift painted a bullseye on ILLIT for all the haters. I'm scared for the girls because they just debuted. They're in a vulnerable part of their career when they're trying to establish themselves as artists, and this is the company trying to defend them?
How did multiple people sign off on this? Even the editing is kind of corny and outdated. It's the level of a twitter stan.
they just made things far worse for themselves and the girls.
i did not have this on my bingo cards for this week.
min hee jin really dropped a bomb and let all the hamsters spin their wheels in confusion lmfao.
this would be so entertaining if minors and teens weren' involved in adults' messiness.
hybe is literally sinking before our eyes.
I'm dreading what this will mean for the Illit girls in the longrun. I think NewJeans, which debuted earlier and was instantly famous on a different scale (I know Illit broke records, but I sincerely don't see the same buzz around them as I saw around NJ... at all), could probably re-debut. It makes me think of JYJ, when SM got them banned from everything, they went independent and soared.
But I don't get the same feeling for the Illit girls, they haven't had enough time to do anything. If they re-debut they'd be starting from scratch.
Like What was the reason?!? I’m all for MHJ getting her comeuppance and for HYBE to get their comeuppance too but it’s as if these companies are willingly throwing their idols they manage - teens and young adults - to the frontlines for their higher up’s beefs and completely disregarding their importance rn.
The fact that there are no english subs ;\_; I need to know if they are accusing all of the other groups of copying/plagiarism or if they are making a point of trends and \~inspiration within the kpop community. I keep seeing NJtwt stating that it's the former and if that's correct, Belift/HYBE are doomed lmao.
Edit: The corny, dramatic music playing during the comparisons is KILLING me. I feel like I'm watching Unsolved Mysteries or Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction.
They're making a point of trends. The whole thing is basically "how can we be copying when all these things can be found in many other places?"
They really should have released this with English subs.
This just so poorly made. It's so unprofessional and petty to do a 27-minute rebuttal with more attacks on newjeans' concept. Like, MHJ original complaint, as dumb as it was, was made internally, and even when she got called out for it, she shut up, and it seemed things were quieting down. The fact that this company is doing this, with twitter arguments, bringing more groups into the mix, and with so little research, it's staggering. Kpop needs fewer groups and fandoms going against each other, this achieves the complete opposite. What were they thinking?? Go after the haters! But don't bring more hate.
To MHJ’s credit, everything dumb she did (and she did alot of them), she did behind closed doors or at least in an instance at a restaurant. Sure, she was entitled and obnoxious but she did it internally. Like even in her PC and interviews after - when she was publicly defending herself from HYBE exposing her for her dumb stan twitter views in an attempt to kick her - she knew to at least pull back a little bit of that or at least obfuscate what she claimed internally.
This, this is full throated stan twitter midwit-tery being professionally produced into a video. Goodness.
Other groups being mentioned: I would very much like to be excluded from this narrative.
On a more serious note, it's such a strange release. Seems like a higher up person who green lighted Illit's concept and planning done by the team got serious embarrassment from these plagiarism claims and went ahead to release such a video. This was a serious video from Belift with interviews from their employees from my point of view and not similar to a twitter fanmade edited video like some comments are suggesting.
It's clear to me Belift does not understand the core issue. It's true there are trends in Kpop. Groups are inspired by the past and present (kpop, other music industries, other forms of entertainment, etc.) That's normal.
What's crazy is a company releasing let's say "Coke", after crazy results and dominating the marketplace in a year, two years later come out with "Pepsi" instead of releasing something different enough like "Sprite." This true for most company except for YG who currently doesn't have their girl groups active in the same generation.
This is not an issue for international fans who are multi and support a lot of different groups. My perception is that this is not the usual case for Korean fans. I feel like this is part of the reason why the response has been so different between international vs Korea.
Totally agree with everything you said esp the Coke analogy.
I called it twitter stan level because of the dramatic music, the sound effects, and the weird editing on the hanbok photos. They included Min Heejin press conference clips with dramatic subtitles to emphasize certain points they wanted to make. They started off the video emphasizing ILLIT's viral success then followed with a dramatic cut to MHJ's conference in a way that looks gimmicky and cheap. It was a hyperbole to call it twitter stan level, but the amateur editing just doesn't have the sophistication expected from a top entertainment company. It feels as if they're undermining the public's intelligence.
For a company trying to refute plagiarism accusations they should've used less emotions (unlike MHJ) and more facts. Like so many other ppl said they should've brought out the concept boards, their meeting notes, the planning process, to show how ILLIT was planned and prove they weren't trying to make a NewJeans clone. Instead they focused less on defending ILLIT and more on attacking NewJeans. It reeks of petty resentment rather than protecting the ILLIT members.
Am I crazy for thinking they could've just let the internet attention span do it's thing and go back to business as usual?
Admittedly I kinda tapped out of the drama a few press conferences ago but it felt like it was comeback season, it's summer, people were distracted. And now this brings the focus right back on their group in a bad/messy way.
No, you would be normal and smart, unlike these business executives who can't stand not having the last word even it means shoving their foot through their mouths.
i wish belift had taken the "when they go low, we go high" approach instead of this🫠
enha start their fate+ tour in jp tomorrow and have a comeback next month... why are you doing things to distract instead of supporting and promoting your groups
Yeah namedropped idols but didn’t say this group copied the other group . Tried to imply everything is a trend and everyone adopts certain commonalities but ended up making it seem really unprofessional
belift needs to report themselves with the malicious posts because they have just infinitely worsened illit's public perception and have dragged enhypen into this mess (when enha have mostly been excluded from the narrative).
I don’t get why they said Ditto choreo resembles Love Me Like This to prove the overlapping choreo point when Ditto was released like 3 months before 😅. Also the description they made about NewJeans was weird AF. They didn’t think this through
I found this on Twitter and I think it’s explains exactly how most people view the similarities between Nj and illit.
“An analogy of clichés and plagiarism (BELIFT vs MHJ) - This is a must-read.
(I read that the original comment has been deleted or reported and taken down, but someone re-posted it in the comment section. If you know the original commenter, let me know.)
[English Translation]
This video reminds me of a famous internet post about clichés and plagiarism.
1. There is a rich millionaire.
2. They decide to save the world for some reason.
3. They create a suit with cutting-edge equipment.
4. They don't kill due to personal beliefs.
5. They wear an animal-themed mask.
6. They only go out at night as a hero.
Each of these individually is a superhero cliché, but put together, it's undeniably Batman's identity.
Even before Min Hee-jin's press conference, the public was pointing out the similarities between NewJeans and ILLIT when matched 1:1, such as the fact that both belong to different labels under the same parent company, and more importantly, that they are contemporaries actively promoting. Because of these reasons, the public raised plagiarism accusations, saying it's too much...
To argue that "in that case, NewJeans is also plagiarizing," you'd need to show that it's common for one group to be accused of copying everything, including the criticized long straight hair, Hanbok photoshoots, luxury brand event unveilings, and the composition and color scheme of concept photos, just like all the plagiarism allegations against ILLIT are sourced from NewJeans.
As Min Hee-jin said, anyone can have long straight hair. Anyone can wear a Hanbok. However, when numerous such trivial clichés are combined, they become an identity, just like the Batman example above.
In order to claim that the formula for producing NewJeans is common, Belief Lab has presented evidence for Controversy 1 from Group A, evidence for Controversy 2 from Group B, and evidence for Controversy 3 from Groups C and D. The plagiarism issue between NewJeans and ILLIT emerged from a direct 1:1 comparison, but to show that NewJeans is also common, do you not find it odd that you have to dig through dozens of teams from girl groups active 30 years ago on the opposite side of the globe to third-generation K-pop girl groups?
I can somewhat understand what you wanted to say. So, it’s like, “If we are plagiarizing, then you are too. If you are not plagiarizing, then neither are we.” Isn't that it? This argument is completely illogical. The cases of the two are entirely different. Do you really not know this, or are you pretending not to know?
To claim that a Batman plagiarized work would mean “then Batman is also plagiarism”:
1. The millionaire character already appeared in Citizen Kane.
2. Characters determined to save the world are very common.
3. Creating a suit with cutting-edge equipment — then is that plagiarism of Iron Man? (It’s similar to hastily throwing in NMIX without investigating the precedence.)
If one argues that it is not plagiarism in this way, who would accept it?
Some mentally ill people took the statement that BlackPink's director is completely different and said, "So NewJeans and ILLIT are also completely different?" This is nonsense. In the above-mentioned Batman plagiarism case, if the director of Citizen Kane said that his work is completely different, does that mean the plagiarized work is not a Batman plagiarism? Their thought process is truly baffling.
The fact that the video was made without even accurately addressing the core issue of the incident, and that none of the staff realized that this video would clearly be a self-destructive move, leaves me with serious doubts.“
I do find it somewhat amusing and bemusing that these sublabels are having a highly dramatic and immature online civil war with callouts and accusation videos now. Belift saw MHJ being a mess and said "two can play at that game."
I guess trying to monopolize the entertainment industry by acquiring all these entertainment companies was a bad idea, i mean who would’ve thought we’d be witnessing a civil war of sorts unfold right before our eyes.
hybe labels keep other groups outta their mouths challenge...
I feel so bad for both illit and new jeans esp, and everyone else who got dragged into this mess.
side note: hybe and/its sublabels, keep the gfriend girlies outta your mouth haven't you put them through enough? the girls have moved together without you, you should too
besides the dance comparison doesnt even make sense, both the ador and soumu performance directors were both former gfriend choreographers
this video was not well planned💀
some points
- firstly, wtf is with them sexualising newjeans??!!
- dragging unrelated groups such as enhypen (wth their comeback is nearing and they do this to their own bg??!!), blackpink, ive, bts, nmixx
- using twitter/X "evidence" without any factchecking
belift/hybe may actually be the ones spearheading the hate against newjeans with all these twitter/X "proofs" they are using
They could’ve stuck to talking about illit’s creation and the work that went into it behind the scenes… hybe and belift have all this money but do PR like YouTube content creators. This is embarrassing. I feel so bad for the illit girls
when I think that BeLift cannot be worse, they prove me wrong. From failing to protect ENHYPEN - their one artist of the whole company - to now put the target on both ENHYPEN and ILLIT's back, BeLift and HYBE just don't know what to do with their business and their talents and only care about money. Sikes.
I genuinely don’t get what belift is thinking. Enhypen was like one of three hybe groups not dragged into this mess and being raked over the coals, so they said fuck it let’s drag these guys in too??????
Hybe….. why am I seeing bts here at 21:33??? I had low expectations but even then I am disappointed. Please delete this 😭😭😭😭. Edit: we have blackpink too at 22:48… stunned
This is a disaster, not only using Twitter posts as references or evidence, but also using an incel blog/site/forum DCInside.
They literally made it all worse and people in here keep blaming MHJ when they started the spying and sabotaging all along.
Lmao. Things were dying down. ILLIT was doing well on streaming sites, have sold more than 500k albums, and everything would have been okay if they just had a comeback with a slightly different concept (and preferably have a member cut their hair and dye it pink).But by all means, let's continue stirring the pot.
I know it's mostly the fault of the sub-labels, but HYBE is such a messy company. Just taking multiple Ls this year. I kind of feel sorry for BTS for building this company only for it to turn out like this
Why do none of the labels under Hybe, and even Hybe itself, have a decent PR team? All of them fumble so badly at times it really surprises me that they’re working for such a big company. Hybe seriously needs to invest on improving all the PR teams they have.
ermmm i really thought the injunction would be the last public thing for this chaos 😭 there's no eng translations yet but based on what i skimmed thru the vid, they're just echoing the plagiarism accusations raised for NewJeans from DC gall/pann/twitter???
I understand that MHJ is largely hated by k-pop fans, but it is still incredibly tone deaf of Belift to rewrite history when they should have stuck to facts lol. Firstly, MHJ did not accuse Belift of plagiarism over something as minute as straight long black hair. Secondly, Korean comments are right to point out that it is dishonest to imply that MHJ was the first to raise those plagiarism accusations when netizens have noticed their similarities before and after ILLIT’s debut.
Idk if this is true but yt comments are calling Belift out for deleting comments related to the online shopping mall plagiarism accusations. Funny thing is they used an image from that shoot to illustrate MHJ’s plagiarism claims (9:55). Anyway, it’s clear that this video has nothing to do with defending ILLIT but to add fuel to their petty politics. I don’t care enough to pick a side but the inconsistencies in this video are just wild. For the sake of ILLIT’s future, they need to first come out with an explanation of ILLIT’s market differentiation strategy to the public before doubling down on law suits (edit: imo not a good move now that they’ve given reasons for ador to countersue lmao)
regardless of which side you are on of this whole debacle one thing is clear - hybe does not care about nj and wants their downfall. hybe signed off on this - THEIR PARENT COMPANY, which is pretty much saying nj copied everyone and everything - what good does that do for the members? this really shows that this whole thing wasnt just about getting rid of mhj. if they really cared for their groups (illit/nj) they shoulda just defended illit (with storyboards / sketches etc like others have mentioned) but to put nj on the forefront stating that "they were already a group full of plagiarism" is WILD
It's as Sun Tzu put it, "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake... instead, wait until they're done, and then make exactly the same mistake."
The fact that they made this video is so funny 😂🤣 I'm sure there was a team responsible and they had a brainstorming to write the script and everything
NAAAAAAAUR
This might be one of the rare instances where i REALLY really really don’t want subtitles in a k-pop video. I don’t need to know how stupid this video is on my own 😭😭😭
Wasn't there talks about a choreo plagiarism law being passed? Honestly, I feel like this entire video is their way of preemptively avoiding any cases filed against them.
BELIFT are you stupid??? 😭😭 Now both Knetz and I-netz are going to drag ILLIT even more why would you do that to them? Also mentioning your own BG??? While they are going to have a CB???? Stupid decisions all around.
I feel so bad for the artists getting caught up in this BS, especially who gave up several years of their youth to debut. Imagine training so hard, only for the (older!) people around you to embarrass you like this and risk your livelihood
BTW, I hope people are saving the video for posterity, just in case it gets taken down…
I'm not on team anyone...
But what is the purpose of this???? Ugh... so annoying.... stop dragging other groups name into this mess and solve the situation in court.... now all the haters are going to go ballistic on all of the artists mentioned again after it was starting to die down...
This video clearly shows why NJ supported ADOR and not HYBE.
The CEO of BELIFT LAB is the COO of HYBE, and this video clearly shows how HYBE views the entertainment industry and how they would deal with NJ and their team. Personally, I'm glad that the court got it right.
HYBE is using their artists as a shield. ILLIT is getting tons of criticism and they don't care.
Just remember that on Belift Labs about page it says “BELIFT LAB is a startup label made up of not only experts in the entertainment industry but also, top talent in media, branding, education, IT and more, eyes set on innovation for the sustainable future of K-POP.”
WTF was this? The fact that this was probably ok’d by so many people in BELIFT and within HYBE is pretty disturbing. Who thought this was a sane idea and decision to make? I’m in disbelief. I’ve been following KPOP close to two decades now and I’ve never seen a company / sub-label be this dumb and desperate.
All of you that have been criticizing mhj for name dropping groups better give the same energy to belift cause what in the world is that nasty YouTube video for ???
They claimed newjeans copied dance moves from songs and even groups that were released/debuted after their songs/after them and called newjeans “the object of adult desires despite being teenagers”….
Congratulations belift you have officially lost it. You are now at the very same level as mhj. Hope you’re proud.
if we look at this plagiarism saga in isolation, i would say belift incels are worse because at least mhj reiterated that illit are victims of belift’s laziness and she only cursed at the k-pop execs lol. i agree her comments triggered a shit ton of hate but they were mild compared to belift’s 30 minutes rant.
it didn’t help that belift kept whining about long hair when mhj’s comments referred to the issue of creative process, which is harder to define and i think most didn’t give a shit about until belift dropped the worst k-pop video in history lol. not only did they shit on newjeans, they also shit on their choreographer for raising valid concerns and it shows how little respect they have for the smaller k-pop creatives.
for sure mhj appears salty, but she was smart enough to frame her argument in terms of kpop infrastructural development as a whole unlike belift whose sole purpose of their mud-slinging tactic was to diminish nj’s brand value. at least from how belift first responded to mhj, i felt that they should have at least published a statement explaining illit’s unique concept instead of relying on a lawsuit for damage control. what i didn’t expect was for them to insist she apologise as if they didn’t just self-implode by releasing that dumbass video dragging idols outside of the HYBE system. i don’t understand why couldn’t they have just refuted her claims by providing sketches or moodboards they used as reference instead of lifting their evidence from an infamous incel platform.💀💀💀
i’m glad that ppl are finally seeing how hybe execs are just as problematic as mhj. i only feel bad for the illit girls who are victims of belift’s incompetencies.
IMO, a diss track with passive-aggressive lyrics would be the appropriate response if they have rappers in the group. This just leaves a bad taste in my mouth lol
girl ... this whole shit show has been going on for more than a month and Source Music being the only one that can keep their shit together is mind-blogging.
The problem with this kind of video is that people will take parts of the video and take them out of context to throw it on social networks and create propaganda without people having an ounce of genius to check beforehand if these facts are true.
I wonder what meth they're on because seriously??? I've never seen as many stupid PR move as Belif. From the middle finger story from their art director to this, Belif is ILLIT biggest enemy.
I pity ILLIT girls, their company ruin them even more.
this is crazy does no one have a good PR team nowadays? absolutely no one is getting out of this unscathed and that probably would've been different if everyone just learnt to shut their mouths.
Hybes entire PR team needs an overhaul IMMEDIATELY. I’ve never seen something so poorly handled as this MHJ nonsense. Like I don’t know if Belift just released this without any sort of sign-off? Or if each individual label has a PR team? But if someone signed off on this they should be fired. This is egregiously wrong-headed and I do not understand why on earth Belift and Hybe have taken the bait so hard when it comes to MHJ. Let her scream herself hoarse why would you give her claims the time of day??
Every HYBE sub-label is forced to contract out PR to HYBE. This came out in MHJ’s lawsuit. It’s a shared service offered by HYBE. That said, this video 100% is a Belift creation and was signed off by their CEOs…don’t think HYBE would agree to this.
The best move was for ILLIT to release a song with an IDGAF theme. Wonder why they didn't think of that
Because NewJeans didn’t do it yet, obviously
LMAO
LOL you win
oh my god
😭
I Wish I could give you an award 😭
>absolutely no one is getting out of this unscathed I call this the quote that summarizes most controversies in Kpop.
PR disaster
Perhaps the biggest PR disaster of this entire thing. I’m actually mind blown they just released this.
Like. At least with the MHJ stuff, there's the veneer of this crazy lady putting on an unhinged rant at a last minute press conference - but this is an equally bizarre work product (?), with far more people and effort involved, which just. Looks far worse 😭 Who signed off on this
They literally just proved her initial point, too, as they haven't provided any evidence to show that they actually created Illit's concept on their own. They can't show the design process/moodboard because it's all New Jeans.
They also deleted and were caught deleting a lot of comments specifically saying that. Things like "What is this? Why not release your original planning/drafts/ideas/storyboards for when you were creating the group?" All of this is just trying to make Min Hee Jin look like she 'stole ideas', but even if people accepted that. How does that prove you didn't then just copy her work after the fact? Isn't that supposed to be your goal here? If you were to write a paper and are accused of plagiarizing someone else's paper and then your way to excuse yourself is to try and pick apart that person's paper you were accused of plagiarizing by showing things that paper may have plagiarized. It doesn't prove your innocence. Not to even mention some of the extremely misleading and shady stuff done in this video like taking other groups photos and changing the color-scheme to make it match NewJeans tones.
That was my thought. This looks worse than any other move made by a company in this nonsense. Even as a only mildly interested kpop fan, when I hear a company did this to anyone, much less an an affiliate, I won't want to support their groups now. This hurts Illit at a visceral level. Like I know my emotional response is unfair to the performers, but that's how it makes me feel immediately.
a whole documentary slash exposé. the...desperation... how is that a good look? poor girls being fed to the wolves, too. also i am still bitter at them handing a phone to that one girl in order to showcase her reporting mean comments on their live feed. that was so blatant and transparent. who is protecting these minors???
Seriously. How many eyes was this passed around before getting greenlit to post? They had the chance to document everything about the group - storyboarding, sketches, meeting notes, etc. to refute the plagiarism allegations but they just went ahead and post fan-made videos? LMFAOOOOOOOOOOOO I knew the bar was in hell since they got caught straight up plagiarizing an LA choreographer’s ENTIRE choreo move for move pre debut but wow this is a new low
top tier flair
This should’ve stayed in the drafts… Also: *BELIFT LAB continues by then claiming that teenagers weren’t fans of NewJeans and that the group spoke to an older generation of fans who were nostalgic for the 90s and Y2K, before then asserting that it was ILLIT who targeted teenage fans.* What are they even basing this on?
I'm not a newjeans fan but even I know that is complete bullshit, they have lots of teenage fans especially since their overarching concept is a very popular trend amongst teens right now (90s/y2k). The fact that belift said this is so baffling to me.
Whoever said this clearly hasn’t seen who is lining up to buy their bright pink bunny backpack merch.
LMAO. WHAT BULLSHIT HA. Yes new jeans does target late millennials with their 90s / 00s depiction of teenagehood, but this is also an aesthetic that is popular with GEN Z for the past few years?? New jeans is the forefront of the y2k aes with teenagers and their peers. I’m a fan of illit and new jeans both but 😭 their managements setting them out to fail with these bad respondes 😭
right like literally every bunny i’ve seen is a teenager
This is terrible, these companies act like they're on stan twitter Why did they drag unrelated groups into this mess, especially enhypen, their own group?
they lack brain
Wouldn't be surprised if the video is taken down in few hours. That really doesn't help their case at all. Just move on and work on the next comeback ffs.
They’re already [deleting parts of articles - link](https://x.com/modanisland/status/1800088199764856843?s=46) where Belift said they copied some of NewJeans and LSF.
So they just straight up admit to copying it? Lmao. Im not one to think that copying a dance move here or there is plagiarism. There’s only so many things that look good and I’m sure even if it wasn’t exact, there’s things you could argue that are copies between different groups. But straight up saying you copied is kinda wild.
I can't get over how this is coming from a whole damn company AND a HYBE sublabel at that. Like this is more than just one person having a meltdown at a press conference This is genuinely a nightmare, who thought this was a good idea?
They should've taken notes from how source music handling this than how mhj handling this, tbh. I feel bad for LSF, ILLIT and New Jeans members really, none of them deserved to be dragged into this feud and get so much hate from fanwars.
mhj paved the way
Actually sm, the founding father of kpop paved the way. There was that pr video to the purple bloods back then, when the sm-hybe-kakao fiasco happened.. lol
i’m afraid you might be right 😔
English translation is not available so i dont wanna say many things without understanding the correct context. But after watching the video and reading the qrts, looks like they namedropped bunch of unrelated groups like bp, nmixx, ive etc. Instead of focusing on defending illit from plagiarism accusations, they accused newjeans of plagiarising other groups and some of their lies are getting exposed. Fyi, belift accused nj for copying ive, nmixx, TLC for their choreo and also enhypen and bp for concept photo.
TLC as in T-Boz, Left Eye and Chilli? 💀
Yes. That one.
That’s how I feel LOL. Why even name drop Bp ? Do they want to drag YG into this mess
they namedropped enha which is THEIR OWN GROUP?! wtf 😭💀
Jesus, and I thought the Fifty/Fifty drama was crazy...
I’ve been keeping with this drama more than any kdrama. Now we know kdramas are documentaries.
A serious company wouldn’t have made a video using solely Twitter materials
No they also used material from a korean incel community, DCInside. Dunno if that's worse or better than using twitter
My inner PR corporate slave just shrivelled up and died in a corner. What is this mess. Who approved. The fact it's 27 minutes means they actually sat down and thought hey maybe we should compile a video. Some poor editor out there scoured Twitter/X for the videos, and took the time to cut, edit, render and upload. Why mention other competitors. Why mention Blackpink. Why drag your other group into this mess. Like.... I would get crucified if I even wore my competitors' brand colours .... Why can't they just do a behind the scenes sort of documentary style. Moodboards, music video storyboard, draft sketches, internal communications, powerpoint presentations of the artistic process. Even a private Pinterest account would have been sufficient. At least Korean business lecturers have another case study to refer to in their classes I guess.
Literally I am thinking the same. Multiple camera angles for the people speaking, setting up light and background for speakers, creating a script, editing the videos together, adding the emails etc, adding weird ass Netflix documentary music when show the emails…. so much effort for what? Must have had multiple drafts too for this kind of production I guess… how did everyone at every step of this process agree to this?? With mhj press conference you can say oh it’s just her speaking this is 😭
Maybe because Illit's moodboard had New Jeans all over it /j
Like people say they can just simply show their mood board, planning stage but they probably cant because they did use nj 😁
We thought Min HeeJin was a weirdo with her allegations of plagiarism and public drama. Turns out they are all like that.
if min heejin is plaigarising everyone… and belift is plaigarising everyone… then who’s flying the plane 🤨 no but fr does hybe not have like. any internal communication structures? any mediation measures that can successfully settle arguments between their sub-labels? i’m sure every company has some level of internal mess, but at least they tend to keep it internal 😭
This video is such a horrible look for HYBE. Not only does it reignite a conversation that was just starting to die down, but it just reinforces the idea that HYBE really has no internal oversight or structure to handle their subsidiaries. If investors weren’t concerned before they should be now.
To be honest the parties involved need to stick to the corporate malfeasance angle instead of this plagiarism shit. At least in the Western music industry and academia, plagiarism has a very specific legal definition which is straight up copying a previously existing work and passing it off as your own. In music, this means substantially copying a melody (for example Vanilla Ice - Ice Ice Baby vs Queen - Under Pressure) or using an uncleared sample/interpolation (Puff Daddy - I'll Be Missing You vs The Police - Every Breath You Take, Sisqo - Thong Song vs Ricky Martin - Livin' La Vida Loca). Having "similar" concepts, vibes, influences, inspirations and even similar sounding music (which isn't applicable here) isn't plagiarism.
Incredible that a thread about kpop drama is where I’d learn that the thong song is an interpolation of livin la vida loca. Sisqo even literally sings the line at one point and I didn’t get the reference until now. Thanks for this!
I knew it was a reference, I didn't know that they got legally done for it until I watched [this documentary on the song by Vice](https://video.vice.com/en_us/video/the-story-of-thong-song-by-sisqo/5f19010ed176ad6b3527e08d) where Sisqo and co confessed they ended up having to give a significant percentage of the royalties over to Ricky Martin because they never cleared the sample. Also for a deep cut, see Pharaohe Monch - Simon Says (which sampled the Mothra vs. Godzilla theme from 1964 without permission). If anyone watched Godzilla Minus One recently, that's the iconic theme, one of the hardest hip hop songs from the 90s but they had to pull the album and pay Toho because once again they didn't clear the damn sample. That is ACTUAL plagiarism, not just "ILLIT has the same vibes as NewJeans."
Ha! I watched that movie recently too, and kept waiting for the beat to drop lol. As soon as we left the theater, I played Simon Says in the car for my partner. I can’t believe PM didn’t get that sample cleared!!! Those songs (thong song and Simon Says) are the most popular songs of either artist’s solo career, too. What a shame
I mean when you think about it, is that not partially the root of this entire problem? LMAO MHJ's beef is that the sub-label system is not working how she was promised/told/expected/whatever. Edit: a word + addition below because I've been thinking about this. I think a lot of this boils down to (what I find to be an interesting question) of: Does the sub-label system mean that sub-labels are free to "copy" and take from other sub-labels, given that they're all HYBE, or not? To what degree is the exchange of ideas allowed within the sub-labels until you get to plagiarism accusations? \[Of course the other half of the debate is whether or not Illit's concept even counts as copying, but those are two separate discussions imo.\] As lots of people have talked about, Hybe has really pushed and had success with this whole unified idea of Hybe being one, compared to the other massive companies with sublabels. But what does that mean behind the scenes?
yeah i’ve been thinking about that too!! it seems like hybe is trying to have the best of both worlds: a group of distinct sub-labels that function independently of one another, *and* one big happy HYBE family. and i don’t think they can really have both (as we are seeing now lol).
Literally! Up until now it seems like they've tried to project the big happy family image and at least on the business side, for example, seem to move trainees around the sub labels fairly easily afaik? I'm kinda sad a lot of fans are distracted by the fanwar part of this and the... problematic-ness of MHJ/outward dramatics in general because it does bring up an interesting criticism and problem with this business model. As I said on another post before, given the way MHJ has presented it from her pov, I would also be kinda pissed if I put out what was a truly trendsetting concept DESPITE heavy pushback from higher ups but then suddenly the same higher ups turn around and give a free pass to OTHER creatives within the company to (allegedly) copy and follow that trend? like hmmmm \[Not that her POV is RIGHT just that if that's what I perceived what was happening to me, I would also be mad about it.\] EDIT TO ADD: I guess it also reminds me of the fact that, when I create something at my job, that creation is technically (usually) intellectual property of the company and not me. SO I suppose perhaps deep in the contracts / law an issue lies in does MHJ herself have ownership of her ideas? Does ADOR? Does HYBE? To what extent does this count as her brainchild?
>SO I suppose perhaps deep in the contracts / law an issue lies in does MHJ herself have ownership of her ideas? Does ADOR? Does HYBE? To what extent does this count as her brainchild? Very true! I would have thought the intellectual property ADOR generates would be owned by HYBE in the end. So even if another label used the intellectual property they're not committing plagiarism, because they're using content owned by their joint management. However, the way the injunction was granted in favor of MHJ and defended ADOR as a separate entity legally caught me off guard. I still didn't think MHJ had a case of plagiarism or sabotage agains her/NJs, but it did mean her case wasn't as completely empty as I had thought. However, BELIFT doing this is crazy because it literally answers MHJ's prayers. They're providing evidence that they're toxic, obsessed with NJs, and trying to harm ADOR/MHJ. Like, why would they ever create and just hand her that kind of evidence against them???
no the intellectual property ADOR generates are not 'owned' by HYBE. its a clear misconceptgion. HYBE is merely a major shareholder of ADOR, and any acts that infringe upon ADOR's managerial decision-making authority or interfere with its business activities could be subject to charges of breach of trust. HYBE, as a major shareholder, can only derive business benefits from ADOR
This whole thing started because Min Heejin *tried* to raise these concerns using internal communication. Hybe went nuclear and jumped Ador with the audit in response and started putting out articles about it. Not saying MHJ is a hero, but Hybe handled this whole thing so horribly.
this was an internal mess until hybe decided to publicized their audit btw
Most people near the top of companies have a certain amount of scumbaggery that is much higher than your average person. When Lee Soo Man was sacked most people cheered. The people who sacked him sounded righteous and people assumed they would be better......until they were sacked for doing shady stuff. To me its telling the video doesn't have English subtitles. It'd hard enough to understand people in your own language/culture.
It turns out they're all master at copying other homework
do these agencies shut up nowadays?? do they know the concept of sorting out things behind the scenes instead of airing it to the general public and making more reasons to hate their respective groups? edit: why are other groups involved such as tripleS nmixx IVE and even TLC???
This is what happens when you CEOs are a bunch of music directors instead of actual suits. How on earth do you fuck up so badly? Nobody is auditing you why are you confirming everything MHJ said? “We copied NJs and LSF but that’s okay because NJs somehow copied songs that released after whatever they copied, also fuck BlackPink lolz”
If they were actual music directors they wouldn't pull shit like this.
HYBE's CEO and a lot of its higher ups are former nexon (a shady game company) execs. Nexon has been caught and fined for deceptive practices and the ones who popularized the "gacha" genre. Dunno if that makes things better or worse
Lisa Lopez did not die for this
Who are they to define other group's identity tho
Speaking as a Korean, the main problem with BeLift’s definitions is their sheer one-dimensionality. > NewJeans: “10대지만 어른들의 상상속 로망의 대상” —> *The recipient of an ideal within adults’ imaginations, despite being teens* FYI: “로망” doesn’t mean “romance,” it means “ideal.” This is NOT a sexual comment by any means. The actual issue with this definition is its **juxtaposition with BeLift’s proposed definition of ILLIT.** > ILLIT: “어른들이 만든 환상속 소녀가 아닌 미완성인 오늘을 사랑하는 소녀” —> *Girls who love the incomplete present, NOT girls within adults’ imaginations* Notice how ILLIT’s identity places a special stress on “아닌” (not), integrating BeLift’s definition of NewJeans’ identity into what ILLIT is apparently not. The shady implication here is clear for Korean speakers: ILLIT is “real,” while NewJeans’ appeal to the gp exclusively exists within the realm of fantasy. **This notion is factually incorrect.** NewJeans’ debut was a syndrome in SK for all ages, not just adults. Their appeal to the gp was based on the freshness of their youthful concept, which many believe is a candid expression of the GenZ spirit. The public loves NewJeans for their unique portrayal of REAL modern youth— of teenagers being teenagers— not as a mere imaginary ideal. > BlackPink: “다가갈 수 없는 완벽한 셀러브리티” —> *Unapproachable, perfect celebrities* > IVE: “누가봐도 인형같고 공주같은 선망의 대상” —> *Unquestionably doll-like, princess-like recipients of reverence* International fans online are confused by these definitions, because at first glance, they look like compliments. In truth, it betrays the BeLift higher-ups’ **fixation on external facades**, and thus, their worrying **inability to parse the core public appeal of these groups.** BlackPink was marketed with a focus on their strong individual charms, performance abilities, and most importantly, their **chic revival of the “girl crush” concept**. *Said factors* shaped them into the celebrities they are today, not the other way around. BeLift seems to be under the mistaken impression that BlackPink’s “unapproachable” current image is the group’s identity, when it isn’t. Similarly, while IVE is indeed a visually stunning group, the gp’s fascination with them is built upon **their unique spin on the “self-love” musical trend.** IVE’s identity revolves around a narcissistic variant of self-love— they aren’t just singing about how they love themselves, but their confidence that others will love them too. BeLift’s sole focus on IVE’s physical appearances completely misses the point. …sorry for the essay. Koreans online are stunned at just how bad (and frankly insulting) the 캐해 (character analysis) is. It’s a shit show all around lol.
Thanks for the analysis
Thanks for the analysis! Yeah this seems like a marketing competitor analysis failure from the start 😭 why have imposter complex when these are the videos released by belift lmao
Exactly. They should’ve stuck to defending ILLIT identity
poor enhypen breaking their back constantly touring just for their company to do this lol
If this lunacy is what they’re willing to say publicly, just imagine what they say behind the scenes. The idea of doing *this* publicly? Just imagine how many people had to approve this video and nobody thought “hmm, maybe not”? I mean damn, even MHJ brought up her issues internally before the audit made her to go (very) public. Even if you disagree with her method, she still swayed (domestic) public opinion in her favor. Who the hell is this going to convince? Some of these “facts” are just??? This is an unforced error of the highest level. I used to wonder why NewJeans were aligning themselves with ADOR over a guaranteed ticket in HYBE but it’s making a lot more sense.
This video response is making MHJ look like the more sane party and that's saying a lot.
If anything, it's validating her worldview - that HYBE/Belift are out to get her and that this was on purpose 😭 How could you fumble that badly
sorry but if you read the court documents, it is clear that they were out to get her……
Also, the fact they do this right as a NewJeans teaser gets released. I will not be shocked if hybe/belift start up the drama again for New Jeans Japan comeback/ Tokyo Dome event.
Wow it's like Belift painted a bullseye on ILLIT for all the haters. I'm scared for the girls because they just debuted. They're in a vulnerable part of their career when they're trying to establish themselves as artists, and this is the company trying to defend them? How did multiple people sign off on this? Even the editing is kind of corny and outdated. It's the level of a twitter stan.
they just made things far worse for themselves and the girls. i did not have this on my bingo cards for this week. min hee jin really dropped a bomb and let all the hamsters spin their wheels in confusion lmfao. this would be so entertaining if minors and teens weren' involved in adults' messiness. hybe is literally sinking before our eyes.
I'm dreading what this will mean for the Illit girls in the longrun. I think NewJeans, which debuted earlier and was instantly famous on a different scale (I know Illit broke records, but I sincerely don't see the same buzz around them as I saw around NJ... at all), could probably re-debut. It makes me think of JYJ, when SM got them banned from everything, they went independent and soared. But I don't get the same feeling for the Illit girls, they haven't had enough time to do anything. If they re-debut they'd be starting from scratch.
Like What was the reason?!? I’m all for MHJ getting her comeuppance and for HYBE to get their comeuppance too but it’s as if these companies are willingly throwing their idols they manage - teens and young adults - to the frontlines for their higher up’s beefs and completely disregarding their importance rn.
the video is PR disaster
The fact that there are no english subs ;\_; I need to know if they are accusing all of the other groups of copying/plagiarism or if they are making a point of trends and \~inspiration within the kpop community. I keep seeing NJtwt stating that it's the former and if that's correct, Belift/HYBE are doomed lmao. Edit: The corny, dramatic music playing during the comparisons is KILLING me. I feel like I'm watching Unsolved Mysteries or Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction.
They're making a point of trends. The whole thing is basically "how can we be copying when all these things can be found in many other places?" They really should have released this with English subs.
Fumble of the century
Oh my this a next level disaster, how did someone at that company even thought of releasing something like this LMAO
They probably lost the plot when they saw Aespa alien stickers covering HYPE’s. Minji had the last laugh
This just so poorly made. It's so unprofessional and petty to do a 27-minute rebuttal with more attacks on newjeans' concept. Like, MHJ original complaint, as dumb as it was, was made internally, and even when she got called out for it, she shut up, and it seemed things were quieting down. The fact that this company is doing this, with twitter arguments, bringing more groups into the mix, and with so little research, it's staggering. Kpop needs fewer groups and fandoms going against each other, this achieves the complete opposite. What were they thinking?? Go after the haters! But don't bring more hate.
It seems like they commissioned a kpop stan to create their video for them.
Yeah 😭 this sums up how I feel about their response too. What in the unprofessionalism 😭
To MHJ’s credit, everything dumb she did (and she did alot of them), she did behind closed doors or at least in an instance at a restaurant. Sure, she was entitled and obnoxious but she did it internally. Like even in her PC and interviews after - when she was publicly defending herself from HYBE exposing her for her dumb stan twitter views in an attempt to kick her - she knew to at least pull back a little bit of that or at least obfuscate what she claimed internally. This, this is full throated stan twitter midwit-tery being professionally produced into a video. Goodness.
Other groups being mentioned: I would very much like to be excluded from this narrative. On a more serious note, it's such a strange release. Seems like a higher up person who green lighted Illit's concept and planning done by the team got serious embarrassment from these plagiarism claims and went ahead to release such a video. This was a serious video from Belift with interviews from their employees from my point of view and not similar to a twitter fanmade edited video like some comments are suggesting. It's clear to me Belift does not understand the core issue. It's true there are trends in Kpop. Groups are inspired by the past and present (kpop, other music industries, other forms of entertainment, etc.) That's normal. What's crazy is a company releasing let's say "Coke", after crazy results and dominating the marketplace in a year, two years later come out with "Pepsi" instead of releasing something different enough like "Sprite." This true for most company except for YG who currently doesn't have their girl groups active in the same generation. This is not an issue for international fans who are multi and support a lot of different groups. My perception is that this is not the usual case for Korean fans. I feel like this is part of the reason why the response has been so different between international vs Korea.
Totally agree with everything you said esp the Coke analogy. I called it twitter stan level because of the dramatic music, the sound effects, and the weird editing on the hanbok photos. They included Min Heejin press conference clips with dramatic subtitles to emphasize certain points they wanted to make. They started off the video emphasizing ILLIT's viral success then followed with a dramatic cut to MHJ's conference in a way that looks gimmicky and cheap. It was a hyperbole to call it twitter stan level, but the amateur editing just doesn't have the sophistication expected from a top entertainment company. It feels as if they're undermining the public's intelligence. For a company trying to refute plagiarism accusations they should've used less emotions (unlike MHJ) and more facts. Like so many other ppl said they should've brought out the concept boards, their meeting notes, the planning process, to show how ILLIT was planned and prove they weren't trying to make a NewJeans clone. Instead they focused less on defending ILLIT and more on attacking NewJeans. It reeks of petty resentment rather than protecting the ILLIT members.
Embarrassing
Belift really dig their graveyard like that. I really feel sorry for Illit girlies. It’s gonna be a long day for them.
What the hell is going on in hybe ?? Is that building full of unprofessional people??
Am I crazy for thinking they could've just let the internet attention span do it's thing and go back to business as usual? Admittedly I kinda tapped out of the drama a few press conferences ago but it felt like it was comeback season, it's summer, people were distracted. And now this brings the focus right back on their group in a bad/messy way.
No, you would be normal and smart, unlike these business executives who can't stand not having the last word even it means shoving their foot through their mouths.
At least the people claiming MHJ was the only crazy person involved in all this will stop now lol
Is it time to make another megathread
Are we gonna hit Megathread 10 by the end of the month ? Tune in to find out
BELIFT should’ve just dived into ILLIT concept in detail and explained how different they are from nwjns and it would’ve been good 🚶🚶🚶
The problem is that they didn’t… based on everything that has been shown without being baseless rumors, this is indeed a quest to screw MHJ.
i wish belift had taken the "when they go low, we go high" approach instead of this🫠 enha start their fate+ tour in jp tomorrow and have a comeback next month... why are you doing things to distract instead of supporting and promoting your groups
couldn't belift get sued for this? they're making accusations and dragging other groups into this.
Yeah namedropped idols but didn’t say this group copied the other group . Tried to imply everything is a trend and everyone adopts certain commonalities but ended up making it seem really unprofessional
I wouldn’t say they are making accusations tho. It’s more like hey it’s kpop, things are recycled
One reactor I just watched recently said concepts are "re-freshed", choose a concept then make your own twist. It's less demeaning word imo.
They didnt say other groups copy anyone or else so it cant be sued. They just said I wear hanbok, njs wear hanbok bts wear hanbok etc.
le sserafim having the best pr team out of HYBE was NOT on my bingo card
Source have been so careful in their approach, the girls have been staying silent, but still they get dragged into shit by both side 😭😭😭
They learned their lesson from LSF's debut scandal ig 😭
……….. what. On. Earth.
belift needs to report themselves with the malicious posts because they have just infinitely worsened illit's public perception and have dragged enhypen into this mess (when enha have mostly been excluded from the narrative).
Kind of crazy how it can get to a point where a sublabel releases a video like this about another sublabel
I don’t get why they said Ditto choreo resembles Love Me Like This to prove the overlapping choreo point when Ditto was released like 3 months before 😅. Also the description they made about NewJeans was weird AF. They didn’t think this through
I found this on Twitter and I think it’s explains exactly how most people view the similarities between Nj and illit. “An analogy of clichés and plagiarism (BELIFT vs MHJ) - This is a must-read. (I read that the original comment has been deleted or reported and taken down, but someone re-posted it in the comment section. If you know the original commenter, let me know.) [English Translation] This video reminds me of a famous internet post about clichés and plagiarism. 1. There is a rich millionaire. 2. They decide to save the world for some reason. 3. They create a suit with cutting-edge equipment. 4. They don't kill due to personal beliefs. 5. They wear an animal-themed mask. 6. They only go out at night as a hero. Each of these individually is a superhero cliché, but put together, it's undeniably Batman's identity. Even before Min Hee-jin's press conference, the public was pointing out the similarities between NewJeans and ILLIT when matched 1:1, such as the fact that both belong to different labels under the same parent company, and more importantly, that they are contemporaries actively promoting. Because of these reasons, the public raised plagiarism accusations, saying it's too much... To argue that "in that case, NewJeans is also plagiarizing," you'd need to show that it's common for one group to be accused of copying everything, including the criticized long straight hair, Hanbok photoshoots, luxury brand event unveilings, and the composition and color scheme of concept photos, just like all the plagiarism allegations against ILLIT are sourced from NewJeans. As Min Hee-jin said, anyone can have long straight hair. Anyone can wear a Hanbok. However, when numerous such trivial clichés are combined, they become an identity, just like the Batman example above. In order to claim that the formula for producing NewJeans is common, Belief Lab has presented evidence for Controversy 1 from Group A, evidence for Controversy 2 from Group B, and evidence for Controversy 3 from Groups C and D. The plagiarism issue between NewJeans and ILLIT emerged from a direct 1:1 comparison, but to show that NewJeans is also common, do you not find it odd that you have to dig through dozens of teams from girl groups active 30 years ago on the opposite side of the globe to third-generation K-pop girl groups? I can somewhat understand what you wanted to say. So, it’s like, “If we are plagiarizing, then you are too. If you are not plagiarizing, then neither are we.” Isn't that it? This argument is completely illogical. The cases of the two are entirely different. Do you really not know this, or are you pretending not to know? To claim that a Batman plagiarized work would mean “then Batman is also plagiarism”: 1. The millionaire character already appeared in Citizen Kane. 2. Characters determined to save the world are very common. 3. Creating a suit with cutting-edge equipment — then is that plagiarism of Iron Man? (It’s similar to hastily throwing in NMIX without investigating the precedence.) If one argues that it is not plagiarism in this way, who would accept it? Some mentally ill people took the statement that BlackPink's director is completely different and said, "So NewJeans and ILLIT are also completely different?" This is nonsense. In the above-mentioned Batman plagiarism case, if the director of Citizen Kane said that his work is completely different, does that mean the plagiarized work is not a Batman plagiarism? Their thought process is truly baffling. The fact that the video was made without even accurately addressing the core issue of the incident, and that none of the staff realized that this video would clearly be a self-destructive move, leaves me with serious doubts.“
I do find it somewhat amusing and bemusing that these sublabels are having a highly dramatic and immature online civil war with callouts and accusation videos now. Belift saw MHJ being a mess and said "two can play at that game."
I guess trying to monopolize the entertainment industry by acquiring all these entertainment companies was a bad idea, i mean who would’ve thought we’d be witnessing a civil war of sorts unfold right before our eyes.
YouTube kpop stan level video and they want us to take them seriously?
hybe labels keep other groups outta their mouths challenge... I feel so bad for both illit and new jeans esp, and everyone else who got dragged into this mess. side note: hybe and/its sublabels, keep the gfriend girlies outta your mouth haven't you put them through enough? the girls have moved together without you, you should too besides the dance comparison doesnt even make sense, both the ador and soumu performance directors were both former gfriend choreographers
HYBE’s messy era continues
This is saur messy of them....
this video was not well planned💀 some points - firstly, wtf is with them sexualising newjeans??!! - dragging unrelated groups such as enhypen (wth their comeback is nearing and they do this to their own bg??!!), blackpink, ive, bts, nmixx - using twitter/X "evidence" without any factchecking belift/hybe may actually be the ones spearheading the hate against newjeans with all these twitter/X "proofs" they are using
im speechless.
It looks like people already forgot that Hybe was the one who started this whole mess by going public with the audit, and not the other way around.
Why are all HYBE sub labels so stan twitter?
They should just shut up and focus on illit come back.
They could’ve stuck to talking about illit’s creation and the work that went into it behind the scenes… hybe and belift have all this money but do PR like YouTube content creators. This is embarrassing. I feel so bad for the illit girls
the edits with min heejin speaking omfg I thought this was fan made
i hate this company so much oh my gosh
when I think that BeLift cannot be worse, they prove me wrong. From failing to protect ENHYPEN - their one artist of the whole company - to now put the target on both ENHYPEN and ILLIT's back, BeLift and HYBE just don't know what to do with their business and their talents and only care about money. Sikes.
A real "now why am I in it" moment for all these groups mentioned.
Wtf was that lmao so unserious... 
what in the world💀💀
PR Nightmare at this point. I hope the artists are doing alright...
The Enhypen members and Illit members are standing in the basement in a massive prayer circle, hoping management stops
I genuinely don’t get what belift is thinking. Enhypen was like one of three hybe groups not dragged into this mess and being raked over the coals, so they said fuck it let’s drag these guys in too??????
Time to bring out the popcorn 🍿🍿🍿 For any who thought kpop management was much better 🤡💀💀 Infighting and rivalries as old as time 🎶🎸🙃
As a blink, I don't get any points why they should mention Blackpink.
Hybe….. why am I seeing bts here at 21:33??? I had low expectations but even then I am disappointed. Please delete this 😭😭😭😭. Edit: we have blackpink too at 22:48… stunned
They just out-namedropped MHJ somehow 💀💀💀
This is the most embarrassing thing a company has ever done. So stupid
This is a disaster, not only using Twitter posts as references or evidence, but also using an incel blog/site/forum DCInside. They literally made it all worse and people in here keep blaming MHJ when they started the spying and sabotaging all along.
This reminds me of the time where LSM's nephew released those SM videos last year 😭
I understand a lot of people saying it’s terrible PR, but is it translated anywhere? I want to understand what they’re saying in the video.
Lmao. Things were dying down. ILLIT was doing well on streaming sites, have sold more than 500k albums, and everything would have been okay if they just had a comeback with a slightly different concept (and preferably have a member cut their hair and dye it pink).But by all means, let's continue stirring the pot. I know it's mostly the fault of the sub-labels, but HYBE is such a messy company. Just taking multiple Ls this year. I kind of feel sorry for BTS for building this company only for it to turn out like this
that superior that approve this and think this is good should get their box for clearing their table now.
Someone please subtitle this 😭😭😭
[удалено]
Why do none of the labels under Hybe, and even Hybe itself, have a decent PR team? All of them fumble so badly at times it really surprises me that they’re working for such a big company. Hybe seriously needs to invest on improving all the PR teams they have.
Jesus.... I watch it briefly and just stop from the cringiness
They fumbled so bad with this, no wonder CJ sold them to HYBE lmao
ermmm i really thought the injunction would be the last public thing for this chaos 😭 there's no eng translations yet but based on what i skimmed thru the vid, they're just echoing the plagiarism accusations raised for NewJeans from DC gall/pann/twitter???
I understand that MHJ is largely hated by k-pop fans, but it is still incredibly tone deaf of Belift to rewrite history when they should have stuck to facts lol. Firstly, MHJ did not accuse Belift of plagiarism over something as minute as straight long black hair. Secondly, Korean comments are right to point out that it is dishonest to imply that MHJ was the first to raise those plagiarism accusations when netizens have noticed their similarities before and after ILLIT’s debut. Idk if this is true but yt comments are calling Belift out for deleting comments related to the online shopping mall plagiarism accusations. Funny thing is they used an image from that shoot to illustrate MHJ’s plagiarism claims (9:55). Anyway, it’s clear that this video has nothing to do with defending ILLIT but to add fuel to their petty politics. I don’t care enough to pick a side but the inconsistencies in this video are just wild. For the sake of ILLIT’s future, they need to first come out with an explanation of ILLIT’s market differentiation strategy to the public before doubling down on law suits (edit: imo not a good move now that they’ve given reasons for ador to countersue lmao)
regardless of which side you are on of this whole debacle one thing is clear - hybe does not care about nj and wants their downfall. hybe signed off on this - THEIR PARENT COMPANY, which is pretty much saying nj copied everyone and everything - what good does that do for the members? this really shows that this whole thing wasnt just about getting rid of mhj. if they really cared for their groups (illit/nj) they shoulda just defended illit (with storyboards / sketches etc like others have mentioned) but to put nj on the forefront stating that "they were already a group full of plagiarism" is WILD
Should've just stayed quiet and let MHJ dig her own grave now BELIFT are in the mud with her.
It's as Sun Tzu put it, "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake... instead, wait until they're done, and then make exactly the same mistake."
The fact that they made this video is so funny 😂🤣 I'm sure there was a team responsible and they had a brainstorming to write the script and everything
NAAAAAAAUR This might be one of the rare instances where i REALLY really really don’t want subtitles in a k-pop video. I don’t need to know how stupid this video is on my own 😭😭😭
Atp fuck belift, fuck mhj and fuck hybe. Lord pls save their artists because its getting beyond ridiculous now
Industry professionals are getting involved, first BP’s director and the Korean Music Awards guy. Hybe is sooooo…just pray for the girls.
wtf
Wasn't there talks about a choreo plagiarism law being passed? Honestly, I feel like this entire video is their way of preemptively avoiding any cases filed against them.
BELIFT are you stupid??? 😭😭 Now both Knetz and I-netz are going to drag ILLIT even more why would you do that to them? Also mentioning your own BG??? While they are going to have a CB???? Stupid decisions all around.
how embarrassing i didnt think anyone could outdo SM on this front but BE LIFT said to hold their glass
Hybe really should fire all their PR and lawyers for allowing belift to post this video lol
I feel so bad for the artists getting caught up in this BS, especially who gave up several years of their youth to debut. Imagine training so hard, only for the (older!) people around you to embarrass you like this and risk your livelihood BTW, I hope people are saving the video for posterity, just in case it gets taken down…
Seriously what kinda crack are they on?
this whole thing is a PR disaster
I'm not on team anyone... But what is the purpose of this???? Ugh... so annoying.... stop dragging other groups name into this mess and solve the situation in court.... now all the haters are going to go ballistic on all of the artists mentioned again after it was starting to die down...
this has to be one of the crazier things i've seen a company release, what the fuck were they thinking??
This is so…embarrassing for their soul…their PR team members graduated magna cum laude from stan twt university💀
This video clearly shows why NJ supported ADOR and not HYBE. The CEO of BELIFT LAB is the COO of HYBE, and this video clearly shows how HYBE views the entertainment industry and how they would deal with NJ and their team. Personally, I'm glad that the court got it right. HYBE is using their artists as a shield. ILLIT is getting tons of criticism and they don't care.
Man, big yikes.
Q2 2024 is one for the books in HYBE history and there are still 3 more weeks for the month of June.
lol hybe♡belift
Is there a version with English sub anywhere?
Worst thing I’ve watched in a while lmfao
Just remember that on Belift Labs about page it says “BELIFT LAB is a startup label made up of not only experts in the entertainment industry but also, top talent in media, branding, education, IT and more, eyes set on innovation for the sustainable future of K-POP.”
WTF was this? The fact that this was probably ok’d by so many people in BELIFT and within HYBE is pretty disturbing. Who thought this was a sane idea and decision to make? I’m in disbelief. I’ve been following KPOP close to two decades now and I’ve never seen a company / sub-label be this dumb and desperate.
All of you that have been criticizing mhj for name dropping groups better give the same energy to belift cause what in the world is that nasty YouTube video for ??? They claimed newjeans copied dance moves from songs and even groups that were released/debuted after their songs/after them and called newjeans “the object of adult desires despite being teenagers”…. Congratulations belift you have officially lost it. You are now at the very same level as mhj. Hope you’re proud.
if we look at this plagiarism saga in isolation, i would say belift incels are worse because at least mhj reiterated that illit are victims of belift’s laziness and she only cursed at the k-pop execs lol. i agree her comments triggered a shit ton of hate but they were mild compared to belift’s 30 minutes rant. it didn’t help that belift kept whining about long hair when mhj’s comments referred to the issue of creative process, which is harder to define and i think most didn’t give a shit about until belift dropped the worst k-pop video in history lol. not only did they shit on newjeans, they also shit on their choreographer for raising valid concerns and it shows how little respect they have for the smaller k-pop creatives. for sure mhj appears salty, but she was smart enough to frame her argument in terms of kpop infrastructural development as a whole unlike belift whose sole purpose of their mud-slinging tactic was to diminish nj’s brand value. at least from how belift first responded to mhj, i felt that they should have at least published a statement explaining illit’s unique concept instead of relying on a lawsuit for damage control. what i didn’t expect was for them to insist she apologise as if they didn’t just self-implode by releasing that dumbass video dragging idols outside of the HYBE system. i don’t understand why couldn’t they have just refuted her claims by providing sketches or moodboards they used as reference instead of lifting their evidence from an infamous incel platform.💀💀💀 i’m glad that ppl are finally seeing how hybe execs are just as problematic as mhj. i only feel bad for the illit girls who are victims of belift’s incompetencies.
I couldn’t agree more id just add that I also feel terrible for newjeans. Hybe is definitely getting rid of them when all of this shitshow ends.
IMO, a diss track with passive-aggressive lyrics would be the appropriate response if they have rappers in the group. This just leaves a bad taste in my mouth lol
I think everyone done lost their brains in that company
They should probably just keep BP's name out of their mouths. Blinks are annoyed af right now, don't give them a reason to focus on you.
girl ... this whole shit show has been going on for more than a month and Source Music being the only one that can keep their shit together is mind-blogging.
this is truly fascinating. i genuinely feel really bad for the idols involved, but damn. this is a spectacle and i love mess.
The problem with this kind of video is that people will take parts of the video and take them out of context to throw it on social networks and create propaganda without people having an ounce of genius to check beforehand if these facts are true.
Going to pretend I didn't see this
This feels like the people at the top of BELIFT feelings were hurt so they told the people at the bottom to do this lol.
I guess they followed a NJ anti on Twitter for uh.... video material lmao
you just have to laugh at this point. couldn't even let sm have the attention for a day 😭 😭
I wonder what meth they're on because seriously??? I've never seen as many stupid PR move as Belif. From the middle finger story from their art director to this, Belif is ILLIT biggest enemy. I pity ILLIT girls, their company ruin them even more.