Min Hee-jin’s representative released a statement on July 23rd addressing the accusation that the female CEO had recruited trainees, who are now members of NewJeans, from Source Music. The CEO vehemently denied the allegation, stating, “It is completely untrue,”and further stated, “We will pursue legal action in response.”
On the same day, allegations were made that Min Hee-jin had been involved in Source Music’s debut project for the trainee group N Team (now known as NewJeans). It was claimed that her dissatisfaction with not having control over the project had deliberately caused a delay in their debut.
According to sources, Source Music has been working on N Team’s project since 2018 with the goal of debuting them in the third quarter of 2021. The debut song “Attention”by NewJean was originally prepared for the group in 2021 when they were still trainees under Source Music.
The recently released Kakaotalk conversations between Min Hee-jin and a shaman reveal Min Hee-jin expressing her desire to have the company and its resources at her disposal, believing it would be a shame to let them go to waste. She also shares her determination to win over Source Music CEO So Sung-jin and have her label’s name become synonymous with the girl group. Min Hee-jin also expresses gratitude to the shaman for their guidance and assistance, acknowledging how difficult it would have been without their help.
Despite HYBE and Source Music initially planning to debut N Team in the third quarter of 2021 and S Team (currently known as LE SSERAFIM) in the first quarter of 2022, repeated delays from Min Hee-jin ultimately resulted in the cancellation of these plans.
In spite of Min Hee-jin’s statement during her urgent press conference that she personally selected the members, she also asserted that HYBE had failed to fulfill their promise of debuting NewJeans first by revealing LE SSERAFIM’s debut prior to introducing NewJeans. She further alleged that Source Music had disregarded the NewJeans members.
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