Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
Hongbin of VIXX recently got himself into trouble after getting shitfaced on his Twitch channel and doing some … uh, candid commentary on groups like SHINee, EXO, Red Velvet, and INFINITE, which he then ended up apologizing for like three separate times.
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The incident that initially made its way over to the international side of things were his remarks about SHINee’s “Everybody”, when he commented, “Who combines this kind of idol music with band music? It sucks.”
He also remarked about one part of the choreography for INFINITE’s “Be Mine”, saying, “Personally, I would have beaten the choreographer for that routine. What is that? That’s a cool song. Why would anyone choreograph that kind of dance to such a cool part?
He later compared EXO to VIXX, talking about how SM Entertainment even coaches their gestures, “You wanna know something cute? SM teaches you everything from every gesture to every move. There will be someone that teaches you the gestures and someone that doesn’t. They break down each person. But we (VIXX) produce everything ourselves.”
Hongbin goes on to comment about “Wolf” as well, “I’m sorry but I’ve always been a vampire and these people (EXO) were wolves. It was always funny to me because vampires always won. In history, the people who remain are the ones who win. In modern day, when comparing who will win between vampires (VIXX) and wolves (EXO), I think its vampires. Try and keep up. Ah~sad to say that there is no one that can keep up to us. I mean there is no one from the wolves that can keep up.”
Then there’s Red Velvet’s “Red Flavor”, which he also had a take on, “Ew This is too much of a mania level it’s too idol-like. The color is too strong. Don’t you know what mass appeal means? YouTube is mass appeal since everyone watches it but your choice was a failure.”
Guess it’s yet another reminder of why entertainment companies don’t let idols just do whatever they want, though to our detriment as it would certainly add to mess.
Like honestly, for me it’s not even that bad. Yeah, it’s disrespectful and it’s understandable that he’s gonna get some level of shit for it, especially because they’re peers (honestly, the EXO stuff was the most bitter sounding), but for the most part it was just opinions. If that’s the worst there is when he’s drunk, then it’s kinda whatever to me, at least it was entertaining. Could’ve been far worse.
As expected, Hongbin held another broadcast hours after the initial one, essentially because he must’ve seen the backlash and decided to apologize.
“I didn’t say those things to demean any group. I tried to differentiate between my live broadcast and my work as an idol. I’m sorry. I made a mistake. I said those things as a fan, thinking, ‘They could have looked much cooler,’ but I think it makes sense that their fans are angry. I didn’t think that far.”
He added that the remarks that were pointed out were only a small portion of the broadcast, saying, “I didn’t want to talk about my main job during my personal broadcast. That’s why I made negative comments about those songs, the songs of people I know. I think that those who are speaking [about the controversy] haven’t seen my previous broadcasts.”
But speaking of entertaining, somebody with sense seemed to catch on and during that apology broadcast he had to answer the door cause somebody from his company told him to basically get his shit together.
I’m crying laughing thinking about people at his agency just relaxing and being tasked with monitoring his broadcast, then him saying all this shit and having to scramble like in those cartoons, grabbing shit from their desk and bursting out the door to stop him from ruining everything.
“An employee from my agency came. They told me to just leave the team if I’m going to be like this. I think that makes sense. If my team tells me to leave, I’ll leave. Please don’t criticize my team. I made the mistake, not them.”
Shit, my man got told.
Furthermore, both he and Jellyfish Entertainment released apologies for the incident.
Hello. This is Lee Hong Bin (Hongbin). I sincerely apologize to the artists and the fans of those artists who were hurt by my improper words and actions from my previous late-night live broadcast. I also apologize to the VIXX members and fans for causing them to worry. There is no room for excuse. No matter what reason it was for, I am deeply reflecting on acting carelessly and not thinking deeply. I once again bow my head in apology to those who were disappointed by me. I will take care to ensure that something like this does not happen again, and I will reflect on myself. I am truly sorry.
Hello. This is Jellyfish Entertainment. Our artist Lee Hong Bin has caused great pain and concern to other artists and their fans with the words and behavior he showed during his personal live broadcast. We bow our heads in apology. We also sincerely apologize to the fans who support VIXX and Hongbin. We feel responsible about our artist’s words and actions and are reflecting on ourselves. We will pay closer attention to the management of our artists so that this kind of issue does not arise again. Once again, we apologize for causing concern.
Look, obviously this was a terrible idea and all that, but getting booted from the group would be over the top. Personally, I don’t find it to be all that big of a deal, but I also get why fans would be pissed, it’s part of it. And I know that it’s probably gonna make less of a splash internationally than it does in Korea, I just hope things don’t get out of hand.
