A whole lot has happened in the month of July in terms of the current Hybe VS Ador case!
In case you missed anything, here is a round up of important events that happened in the month of July!
July 20th
Shakatak VS New Jeans
On July 18th UK company Wise Music Group filed a suit against New Jeans claiming that their new song “Bubble Gum” plagiarized UK group Shakatak’s song “Easier Said Than Done”. Ador was quick to respond to the plagiarism claims, saying they had two analyses of the songs done and there is no plagiarism, and said if Shakatak wanted to take this situation further they need to provide their own proof of plagiarism. Shakatak later responded to Ador saying Wise Music Group will be handling the case and a musicologist has been hired. They also said to stay posted for further updates.
July 21st
Min Hee-Jin’s Instagram
In light of New Jean’s 2nd anniversary, Min HeeJin shared some never before seen pictures of New Jeans on her instagram, showing that despite the legal troubles her and the girls still seem to have a good relationship. The pictures show the girls in casual clothes with no makeup celebrating with Min Hee-Jin and a cake.
July 22nd
Shakatak VS New Jeans
On this day Ador took to instagram to further address the plagiarism claims made by Shakatak. Ador said that the creators of bubble gum have never heard of Shakatak’s song “Easier Said Than Done” before, therefore they did not plagiarize it. They then went on to further explain the differences between the songs and once again asked Shakatak to provide an analysis proving the plagiarism. Ador then criticized Hybe, who handles their PR and Legal Issues, for not working hard enough to protect the New Jeans members and said Min HeeJin will personally be meeting with CEO’s to track down people who leave malicious comments towards New Jeans and get them removed.
Dispatch report on predebut New Jeans
Dispatch released an article about “N-team”, the name for Source Music’s pre debut girl group which included the 5 members of New Jeans + two girls who did not make the cut.
In some released documents about N-Team from 2020 it was revealed that Source Music was in charge of choreography and managing the group, Band PD was to make the music, and Min Hee-Jin was only in charge of branding. Min Hee-Jin later wanted more control over the group and by 2021 Min Hee-Jin was the sole person in charge of all aspects of the group. The article then talks about troubles that arose between Min Hee-Jin, BandPD, and Source Music. The main issues seemed to be Min Hee-Jin not properly communicating her ideas to Source Music and Bang PD, who were waiting on her. Min Hee-Jin would also consult a shaman for all of her decisions during this time and spent almost $30,000 USD in two months alone talking to this shaman and started having thoughts about leaving Hybe and starting her own company since she preferred to work alone.
Due to Source Music and Hybe not receiving progress updates on N-Team from Min Hee-Jin but still being determined to debut a group by the date they wanted, they then began creating “S-Team” ( The group that would become Le Sserafim) so a group can still debut.
Source Music wanted N-team to debut at their company by the debut date, Min Hee-Jin wanted to remove N-Team from her company, debut them under hers, and get the title herself of having “Hybe’s first girl group”. In the end Min Hee Jin got to take N-team into her own company, but S-Team debuted as LE SSERAFIM and got the “first Hybe Girl Group” title themselves since Min Hee-Jin could not debut N-Team in time.
July 23rd- July 24th
Ador’s response to the dispatch article.
Ador released a statement saying false information was released in the previous dispatch article. They claimed the dispatch article released text messages between Min Hee-Jin and a shaman showing that Min Hee-Jin used this shaman to pick out the final line up of New Jeans, though Min Hee-Jin has denied relying on the shaman for anything.
Ador also said they will be taking strong legal action against this dispatch article due to the “false information” and saying the leaking of this information is a felony. They then released their timeline of events.
Ador also said they will be taking legal action against Hybe for “Immoral Behavior”
New Jeans and BTS
New Jean’s members Hanni and Minji made cameo appearances in BTS’s “Permission To Dance” MV before their debut. Min Hee-Jin released a statement in which she revealed an email showing HYBE did not get her permission to include the girls in the music video and said they are making it hard for her to trust them in the future.
For some further context I would like to clarify the timeline of these events: New Jeans officially got transferred to Ador around September 2021. The Permission To Dance MV was released on July 8th 2021 with the MV being filmed way before this date, which means during this time the Hanni and Minji were still legally Source Music trainees and Hybe would not have needed Min Hee-Jin’s permission to include the girls in the music video, only Source Music’s permission.
SM VS HYBE
It was also revealed on this day that SM had hired a PR firm, Astaphe, to go on online forums and manipulate the public to have negative opinions towards Hybe. It was reported this happened last year in February. The intention was to create a positive image of SM and negative opinion on Hybe and a contract costing almost 1 million dollars was made to carry out this plan.
This was around the time when Hybe was thinking of buying SM but later changed their mind.
Hybe CEO Retires
Amidst all of this it was announced that Hybe’s CEO, Park Ji Won, will be retiring from his position as CEO. He became CEO in 2020 and has held the job for about 4 years. It was stated that his decision to step down was for Hybe’s future and he will be succeeded by Lee Sae Jang, who is the company’s CSO (chief strategy officer).
July 24th
On this day it was announced that Ador and the New Jean’s parents were planning on suing Hybe. Parents of the members then went to the media to talk about their mistreatment from Source Music/Hybe.
Minji
Minji first joined Source Music at 13 years old in 2017. Her parents were not allowed to visit her at the dorms for the whole first year she was a trainee and when they could eventually visit they discovered her dorm was full of roaches and mold. She would have to walk back and forth from school by herself and be forced into trainee practices until 2am, all while having to be up and at school by 6am. Some days she would straight-up not sleep and go straight from practice to school. Minji was determined to keep up her studies, and when they asked Source Music what to do regarding school they encouraged her to drop out and focus on her idol training. Minji did not want to drop out, and in the end was able to join an arts high school at the last minute.
After one year of being a trainee Minji was worried about whether or not they would debut her, and as the years went by and her and her parents found out a “famous idol” (Chaewon and Sakura) would be joining Source Music’s girl group they lost hope about ever debuting. Worried about debuting, they later left Source Music/Hybe and signed a contract with Ador since Min Hee-Jin promised to debut her. They stated they are really happy and ADOR and criticized HYBE for their terrible treatment of her.
Danielle
Danielle’s mother was shocked about the trainee videos being leaked, claimed any accusations of Min Hee-Jin stealing Source Music trainee’s was untrue, and claimed HYBE lied about the debut timeline of the trainee’s and LE SSERAFIM and New Jeans. Danielle’s mother claimed there was never any talk about already debuted idols joining Source Music’s new girl group when they signed the contract, insisting New Jeans was supposed to debut under Source Music first. She also said upon signing Danielle’s trainee contract she was promised that if Danielle made the debut team she would be in Hybe’s first girl group (also further insisting that New Jeans was supposed to debut before LE SSERAFIM). She criticized Hybe for leaking the trainee videos and said Hybe does nothing to protect it’s artists.
Haerin and Hyein
Haerin and Hyein’s mothers lamented about the media labeling New Jeans as “The New Fifty Fifty”. They also said they are happy at Ador and have no plans on making their daughters leave. They said that after their daughters became trainee’s and were being evaluated for the debut team, Source Music took too long to get back to them and, anxious about whether or not they would debut, left for Ador because Min Hee-Jin promised to debut them. They claimed Source Music told them everything they wanted to hear when they signed the trainee contracts, such as being promised they would be in HYBE’s first girl group, but then never heard from them again. They both also criticized Hybe for leaking the trainee videos, claimed Hybe never treated them well, and threatened to release proof of neglect.
Min Hee-Jin Sues Hybe Yet Again
Once again, Min Hee-Jin has filed yet another lawsuit against Hybe. This time she is suing former HYBE CEO Park Ji Won, Audit Committee Chairperson Lim Soo Hyun, Chief Legal Officer Jung Jin Soo, Chief Financial Officer Lee Kyung Joon, and Chief Communication Officer Park Tae Hee. Some of the things she is suing them for are for leaking her private messages that were obtained during her police audit, falsifying messages, and much more including: obstruction of business, detection of contents of electronic records, violation of the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection, information and communications network infringement, violation of the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection, defamation, and more.
July 25th
New Jeans Predebut Lineup Revealed
Although New Jeans is currently a 5 member group, during their trainee days New Jeans was originally supposed to be a 7-8 member group while they were still under Source Music. They were originally called “N-Team” and this line up was revealed through a leaked photo to have been: New Jean’s Haerin Hyelin and Danielle, Illit’s Youngseo, Japanese actress Ryu Hanbi, and Gong Yubin from Triple S.
I would like to note that that LE SSERAFIM’s Yunjin was originally reported to have been in this lineup as well based on previous Source Music trainee photos, this photo was probably after Yunjin got cut as a trainee. Yunjin has mentioned that she was originally a Pledis trainee, then got transferred to Source Music during the merger, was let go at some point and moved back to the states assuming her chances of becoming an idol was over, and then was later called back to Korea to join Le Sserafim last minute when all of the remaining trainee’s moved to Ador and they were left with nothing.
July 26th
Min Hee-Jin‘s Leaked Text Messages.
Hybe has leaked text messages gained through one of the company audits that Min Hee-Jin has sent to other people where she curses and bad mouth others.
Some of the things she have allegedly said includes:
- Calling herself so good at her job and thinking of herself as smart, saying everyone in the company except her sucks at their jobs, and saying bangpd looks like a R****D when he tries to do important things
- Wanting to K**l feminists, calling them the B word, and thinking they need to be punished
- Talking about how much she hates feminists with her shaman, calling a TV personality (unnamed) a feminist B****, and thinking they are ruining men.
- She also told the Shaman she thinks SM is copying her.
- Saying New Jeans’s are immature kids who are crazy to be famous, saying she’s running on hatred, wasting time trying to make a living for “these immature kids”, thinking they need a reality check if they think dancing is actually considered working.
- Saying she’d want to k**l them (New Jean’s) if they don’t thank her in their acceptance speeches, hating that she has to make them look cool when she’s not sleeping working on their albums, thinking they need to be more humble, that they didn’t get popular because they were good, criticizing that they can’t even lose weight, and that she’s getting the popularity for them while they gain weight and become pigs.
Min Hee-Jin’s Shaman Disappears
In previous articles about these lawsuits, it has been revealed that Min Hee-Jin has paid almost $30,000 USD to a shaman for consultations. It was revealed that The shaman Min Hee-Jin used has now left the temple she used to work at, cannot be reached, is now working somewhere else under a new name. The place the shaman used to work at is also claiming the shaman had no relations to Min Hee-Jin.
July 27th
Not entirely related to this but I thought I would include this anyway.
It was revealed on this day that Bang Si Hyuk (Aka Band PD) has used a hidden subsidiary of HYBE America to buy a 26.4 million dollar mansion in LA previously owned by celebrity Trevor Noah. The purchase was made in April 2023. This was revealed through an investigation on Hybe by the Korean Fair Trade Commission. It was revealed that in December 2023 Hybe had a new subsidiary registered called “BEL AIR STRADELLA, LLC” owned only by Band Si Hyuk himself. It seems the home was bought under this subsidiary as a real estate entity, most likely to avoid taxes in some way.
July 31st
Danielle Protects Min Hee-Jin
As part of their 2 anniversary, Min Hee-Jin shared on her instagram a handwritten letter Danielle wrote to her. In the letter she thanks Min Hee-Jin for loving and protecting them like a mom and warrior. She also says it breaks her heart seeing Min Hee-Jin struggle everyday but Min Hee-Jin shields them (New Jeans’s) from her struggles and only shows them love and promises to stay by her no matter what decisions she makes.
Well, that wraps up all of the HYBE vs Ador news for now! Tune in next time for more HYBE VS Ador Updates!
GFX BY: Russian Roulette
PROOFREAD BY: SeoyeonJelly
