This year, HYBE’s chairman Bang Si-hyuk got into an intense feud with NewJeans’ creator and ADOR’s (HYBE’s affiliated company) CEO Min Hee-jin. Amid the different remarks and comments the woman brought to light, there was a series of messages she shared with Bang Si-hyuk. In these texts, the HYBE owner told Min Hee-jin he wanted her to create a girl band that could “crush” aespa.
[NOTPANNKPOP]
Bang Si Hyuk's KakaoTalk conversation revealed by Min Heejin "You can crush Aespa, right?", Knetz react pic.twitter.com/VpWTbHHEfJ
— notpannkpop & notnetizenbuzz (@notpannkpop_) April 25, 2024
After the controversy between the two executives unfolded, aespa responded to the claims made by Bang Si-hyuk. While the feud in HYBE seemed to be never-ending, the quartet revealed they barely paid attention to these malicious remarks. In an official statement made by Karina on May 27th, she said:
“We know about the issue and people around us have been telling us about it. But because we had our first full-length studio album coming up, we were so focused on preparing for the album only.”
NewJeans' Minji reveals she put up aespa's ‘Armageddon’ alien invasion stickers across the HYBE building. pic.twitter.com/fCXWgj5Gqm
— Pop Base (@PopBase) June 8, 2024
Fast-forward to now: We can confirm the aespa vs NewJeans rivalry was all lies. Need proof? Well, it has been reported that NewJeans’ Minji decided to paste aespa’s alien invasion stickers all over the HYBE facilities. How did she do that? Well, aespa and NewJeans got together to record some dance TikToks. While doing so, they were gifted some stickers Minji used to decorate HYBE!