What’s The HYBE? NewJeans Controversy Roils South Korean Music Conglomerate

For all of K-pop’s squeaky clean teen idol imagery, for all its brilliant lockstep choreography, for all its heartfelt, pitch-perfect R&B glissandos and facsimiles of hip-hop phrasings, posturing, fashion and breakdancing, every once in a while something sordid explodes the oeuvre’s tightly controlled image machine. This because, well, we’re only human after all (Daft Punk reference intentional). And in K-pop, as much as in every other genre under the sun, there’s torrid romances, pregnancies, mental health issues, drug use and brutal industry machinations among other foibles our imperfect species trades in.

Humanity, warts-and-all, again reared its head April 25, revealing K-pop industry intrigue not often seen. That’s when Min Hee-Jin, the CEO of ADOR, the label and management company of NewJeans, orchestrated a hastily called press conference. Over the course of an emotional two hours, complete with sobbing and cursing, Hee-Jin addressed allegations of wrongdoing made earlier in the week by HYBE, ADOR’s corporate parent company. The K-pop multinational announced they were auditing ADOR and that Hee-Jin had allegedly attempted a rear-guard takeover of the popular girl group seeking outside investment and leaking sensitive information to get back her company and group. HYBE demanded her resignation.

ADOR, which stands for All Doors One Room, formed NewJeans in 2022 with members Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin and Hyein, whose ages range from 16-20. They have already played major festivals including Lollapalooza and Mexico City’s Music Bank K-pop Festival. In 2023, the group landed on 10 Billboard charts.

Before the gathered reporters in Seoul, Hee-Jin denied the accusations and leveled her own, claiming HYBE had plagiarized NewJeans’ sound/approach for other acts, cut her out of the action, gave her an unfair deal and favored other groups over NewJeans. “It’s not me who betrayed HYBE, it’s HYBE that betrayed me,” the BBC quoted the ADOR head saying. “I don’t know what you think, but I wanted to focus on NewJeans.” The event was broadcast on all three major South Korean networks and livestreamed.

Welcome to the high-stakes K-pop game, which when billions of dollars are at stake is hardly a game. HYBE’s shares fell nearly 5% on the Korea Exchange April 26 and nearly 15% in the following week. “NewJeans are also becoming a new favorite of investors,” the BBC reported, noting the group works with several global fashion brands and are now the face of tourism advertisements at the Incheon Airport. Hee-Jin, however, only owns only 18% of ADOR with HYBE controlling 80% and 2% to other investors.

On a business level, HYBE is incredibly impressive. They’ve turned a booming K-pop business into a publicly-traded multinational corporation. Founded in 2005 as Big Hit Entertainment, the company went public in 2020 and rebranded as HYBE in March 2021 with holdings now including BigHit Music, Belift Music, Source Music, Pledis Entertainment, Koz Entertainment, ADOR, HYBE Labels Japan, NAECO and HYBE America. The latter is run by famed manager Scooter Braun (who has managed Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato and J. Balvin among others), and includes Nashville-based Big Machine Label Group. In November HYBE acquired Latin music label Exile Music and in March the company announced Fernando Grediaga as General Manager to oversee the newly formed HYBE Latin America. In March, HYBE announced a “global alliance” involving distribution with Universal Music Group.

“This whole conflict is unprecedented and her press conference was truly something I don’t think anyone saw coming,” said Jeff Benjamin, a reporter and Billboard columnist covering K-pop. “The public and/or fans may change their feelings about NewJeans if the members do speak out, but at the moment there is nothing to necessarily worry about when it comes to the NewJeans members or their brand since this issue is specifically between HYBE and ADOR, not necessarily the artists. If anything, this might garner more interest in NewJeans’ upcoming music and activities because of all the hubbub around them…I don’t see this affecting their plans for new music or touring.”

In its statement, HYBE wisely put the interests of NewJeans first. “HYBE will continue to provide attentive mental and emotional care to the company’s artist NewJeans and best support for their upcoming comeback,” it said. And all Hee-Jin may be guilty of is simply fighting like hell for her artists, which is part and parcel of being a good manager.