G-Dragon’s Comeback to MAMA After 9 Years: Revisiting the Tensions Between MAMA and YG Entertainment Artists

On October 22, Mnet revealed the latest lineup for the 2024 MAMA Awards. Featured in this lineup are five major artists: G-Dragon, BIBI, (G)I-DLE, Plave, and BOYNETXDOOR. Notably, G-Dragon will make his appearance at the MAMA ceremony scheduled for November 23 in Japan.

The news of G-Dragon’s participation has left fans thrilled and astonished, especially considering his controversial rap directed at MAMA’s organizers during the 2015 awards show.

Marking his return to MAMA after nine years, fans speculate that G-Dragon may have patched things up with Mnet following his exit from YG Entertainment.

Previously, there was a prolonged conflict between YG’s fanbase and Mnet, as many felt that the MAMA Awards provided unfair treatment towards artists from YG.

Let’s highlight instances where MAMA has disrespected YG artists!

Award Distribution: Attempting to Satisfy All, Yet Facing G-Dragon’s Backlash

K-pop enthusiasts still recall the iconic diss track from G-Dragon that was aimed at MAMA in 2014. While performing at this prominent yet contentious award show, he boldly delivered a scathing critique of Mnet.

“It’s been a year, MAMA. Because you’ve set such a grand table, you generously distribute awards so everyone else won’t fight. I’m grown up now; I can get full just by watching. Just feed the younger ones,” G-Dragon remarked candidly.

Through his lyrics, G-Dragon voiced his dissatisfaction with MAMA‘s philosophy of equally distributing awards among all nominees rather than recognizing true talent and merit, which diminishes the accomplishments of deserving artists.

G-Dragon's notable diss at MAMA 2014 — G-Dragon’s notable diss at MAMA 2014

BLACKPINK Faces Blur at MAMA 2017

The most significant controversy between YG supporters and Mnet likely stems from the incident involving BLACKPINK at the 2017 MAMA Awards. During a special segment that highlighted the songs of the five nominees for Best Female Group – including Red Velvet, MAMAMOO, TWICE, GFRIEND, and BLACKPINK – viewers were outraged when the screens blurred the faces of the BLACKPINK members in red, while other groups appeared clearly.

This sparked anger among BLACKPINK fans. In Korean culture, it is considered highly disrespectful to write names or obscure faces in red; thus, MAMA‘s actions were seen as a significant offense to the group. Many concluded that this was an act of retaliation for what they perceived as YG’s disregard of Mnet.

MAMA accused of disrespecting BLACKPINK by blurring their faces in red

YG Artists Receiving No Recognition

Beginning in 2015, YG and Mnet entered a prolonged dispute, resulting in the absence of YG artists from Mnet’s productions. It wasn’t until 2020 that YG appeared to thaw relations with Mnet, coinciding with the debut of the new boy group, TREASURE.

During the four subsequent years, from 2016 to 2019, when MAMA operated under the premise of “whoever shows up gets something,” it’s no surprise that YG artists ended up with nothing. Despite their continual production of high-quality music in that period, they failed to receive significant recognition at MAMA, other than a few inconsequential side awards.

At MAMA 2017, G-Dragon was nominated for Best Male Artist. Leading up to the ceremony, many fans anticipated his victory, citing his superior vote count and digital achievements. However, the outcome was staggering. G-Dragon was inexplicably denied the award, leading to annual revisits of his strong diss track by fans as a way to mock the awards show.

G-Dragon's Best Male Artist Snub — How could G-Dragon not win?

WINNER, known for their hit “Really Really,”and the highly praised BLACKPINK, were also overlooked that year, much to the surprise of fans who believed MAMA was deliberately attempting to exclude prestigious awards from YG artists.

WINNER's Snub — Even WINNER with the hit Really Really…

By 2021, it appeared that Mnet and YG had reconciled, as YG artists began to take part in Mnet-produced shows (with iKON featuring in Kingdom and YGX participating in Street Woman Fighter). Additionally, Mnet frequently acknowledged BLACKPINK in their awards and variety broadcasts. Consequently, fans are hopeful that this year’s MAMA will see YG artists finally receive the honors they have rightfully earned, even if they do not attend.

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