For those of us not in the Los Angeles area for KCON 2013 with better things to do this weekend, here are some of the top stories that happened the past week in the K-popiverse for you to peruse in case you missed them.
Who’s in Control?
The biggest story coming out of the Korean Entertainment scene has to be the feud brewing in K-hip hop. The rapper Swings who was most recently on the K-variety program Show Me The Money 2 has been releasing a string of raps calling out and throwing down against various veteran rappers in the community such as J-Tong and the Buckwilds and Do’main crews with members of both crews responding. What blew up this battle even further though was a responding release by E-Sens formerly of Supreme Team and Amoeba Culture in which he disses his former company and calls out Gaeko of Dynamic Duo (and a founding member of Amoeba Culture). Swings responded back calling out Simon D for not standing by E-Sens and both Gaeko and Simon D have responded. Phew. There’s more to this story all about how, this K-hip hop life got flipped turned upside down… stay tuned to Seoulbeats for Ambika’s take on the whole situation. (StarNews)
In K-pop:
- C.N. Blue released “Feel Good” written by Yonghwa as part of Samsung’s Galaxy Music Project 2013, Henry released “1-4-3 (I Love You)” featuring Amber of f(x) as his follow up promotion to his successful solo debut with “Trap,” Nu’est wakes up with “Sleep Talking,” Exo keeps up its win streak with “Growl” and released a second version of the MV and Defconn continues his release of new music this time with “N.G.” featuring Boni.
- Rookie boy band History made a come back with the song “Tell Me Love,” new girl group BeBop united with Humming Urban Stereo for “Maem Maem,” 24K released a dance version of the MV for “U R So Cute,” AA is “OK About It” if their girl wants to break up, and male soloist K-Hunter who debuted earlier this summer with the release of a digital single reappears with two MVs for “Marry Me’ with Bomi from A Pink helping him out. There’s a dance version and the original which tells the story of a sweet first love.
- KARA pre-released the song “Runaway” ahead of their official comeback. The MV for the song features scenes from their drama short Secret Love. The song marks the first time the group is trying out the ‘Blues’ genre and features a mid tempo beat.
- SuperStar K4‘s Honey G released their debut MVs for “Baboya” and “My Love” backed by some powerful vocals and powerful friends. Check out the MV for “My Love” featuring Lee Hyori and Busker Busker‘s Brad.
- Beast released a free download of the track “I Am A Man” for fans and Sunmi formerly of the Wonder Girls makes her solo debut with “24 Hours.”
- The band Every Single Day released an MV for their song “Echo” which was the theme song of a little K-drama you may have heard of —I Hear Your Voice.
- Lyn teased her “High Heel” featuring Joo Young and a “Song For Love,” we’ll get to see the affects Lee Hyori’s guidance has had on SPICA with the release of their teaser for “Tonight“and Teen Top is sure to have a “Rocking” come back after seeing the teaser for the MV of the song which was filmed in Hawaii.
In K-drama:
Two star-studded guaranteed to be a hit K-dramas that will debut in October have started filming:
- Medical Top Team which stars Kwon Sang-woo, Jeong Ryeo-won, Joo Ji-hoon, Oh Yeon-so, SHINee‘s Minho and veteran actor Ahn Nae-sang, to name a few, has released some pictures from the set of the drama. Minho looks good in scrubs. (nspna)
- And The One to Possibly Rule Them All, The Heirs, began filming on the 22nd. The film stars Lee Min-ho, Park Shin-hye, Kang Min-hyuk, Kim Woo-bin, Choi Jin-hyuk, Kang Han-eul, f(x)‘s Krystal, Ze:a‘s Hyung-sik, Kim Ji-won and Yun Son-ha. The drama will reportedly be headed to California for filming in Los Angeles and Malibu–wonder if Krystal will go right into filming after appearing at KCON? Another rumored location for filming–Hawaii, maybe. This I gotta see. (bntnews)
In K-variety:
YG Entertainment finally introduced the eleven trainees they have vying for the chance at debut with the release of the first episode of WIN: Who Is Next. In it, the 5 members of Team A and 6 members of Team B battle it out for the chance at super stardom. I’m still thinking that losing might not be so bad of a deal as the losing team still might have a chance at debuting and at least WON’T have to debut with the name WINNERS–that is such a lame name.
In K-film:
- The trailer for Kkang-chulie, the movie in which Yoo Ah-in stars as Kim Hae-sook’s son was recently released. He plays a tough guy trying to do his best in taking care of his mother who has Alzheimer’s Disease while also staying out of trouble. The movie will debut in October. (OSEN)
- T.O.P. is ‘favorably considering’ a leading role in the movie Tazza 2: The Hand of God, the upcoming sequel of the hit 2006 movie Tazza which starred Jo seung-woo, Kim Hye-soo and Yoo Hae-jin and was based upon the popular manhwa of the same name written by Huh Young-man and Kim Se-yeong. The story revolves around the world of illegal gambling and professional gamblers. (imaeil)
The girl every teen boy tragically falls in love with in every K-drama, the awesome Kim Yoo-jung, takes on her first ‘mean girl’ role in the upcoming movie Elegant Lie. In the movie a 14 year old girl played by The Queen’s Classroom star Kim Hyang-gi commits suicide and her sister and mother, played by Go Ah-sung and Kim Hee-ae, try to find out why. Kim Yoo-jung turns out to be the ‘friend’ who drove the girl to suicide through constant bullying. The film will start filming this month and is slated to be released sometime next year. (Newsis)
- JYJ‘s Park Yoochun has signed on to star in his first movie, Sea Fog. The film is a thriller based on a play that depicted actual events about the crew of a fishing ship that turns to the illegal smuggling of people after falling on hard times and the perilous events they face.(SportsDonga)
