So, most of you probably already know what this article is going to be about. The summarized rundown of the situation — Park Bom got dissed by some rookie female idol, her fans subsequently exploded while her acquaintances lashed back online, Korean netizens imploded simultaneously. Suddenly, there’s news that the rookie supposedly apologized… but wait, it’s not actually her.
On 1st August, rookie female idol Kemy from A.KOR (who debuted on July 24th) released a diss track titled “Do the Right Rap.” No names were explicitly named in the track, but the allusions to a drug controversy, extensive plastic surgeries, as well as inclusions of several 2NE1 song titles made it pretty obvious who she was talking about.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYEIrgq4AwA]Your bloated, swollen face.
You’re not satisfied no matter what you put in it.
You’re going to become an old person next to an ugly child
You drag your entire body and slap it onto your face
You’re at the point of addiction, “STOP IT!”
The Samsung employee had 29 pills, and was detained at the detention center
You had 82 pills, and why are you innocent? They’re super cool.
The ambassador of the Ministry of Justice? You had a very fitting role, huh?
You took the title of the first smuggling-dol, huh? Amphetamine shit.
The lyrics alone are pretty hard-hitting, not to mention that she’s directing this to a K-pop sunbae. Korean netizens immediately took to the web, bashing Kemy for her disrespectful behaviour, and slamming her for her unscrupulous attention-seeking antics. On the other end of the spectrum, a few actually applauded her for her courage to speak up about the murkiness of the Bom drug-smuggling situation.
Many people have not been happy with how YG and Bom have essentially been keeping mum about the scandal save for one “personal letter,” preferring to let the situation blow over by deviating the attention to Winner. Especially with YG’s history of dealing with such drug-related scandals, Kemy’s rap might have been something that a portion of the Koreans have been itching to voice out.
However, the story didn’t end there. A couple of days later, Bom’s stylist coordinator took to her personal Instagram account and left a message with Kemy’s ID and picture:
I guess nowadays everyone thinks they can do hip hop and act up like this with a diss. The ink on your new social security card hasn’t even dried up yet and you’re speaking informally to your senior like that? ㅋㅋ Your gut must be swollen to the point of popping out of your belly if you think you can do that without facing a retirement at your debut~ If you want to diss, you need to at least make sure it’s someone you’re close enough with that you can go face to face and grab a meal with ㅋㅋㅋ
Ben Baller, an acquaintance of Bom from the international rapper community also left a few harsh tweets directed at Kemy. These social media posts essentially re-fired up the whole hullaboo, however, swinging the bat in the other direction. Netizens now raised their ire against the third-party interferences, whom they believed had no business getting involved in this issue that was seen as being strictly between Kemy and Bom. If something were to be said, it should be by Bom, and not two acquaintances acting as her figureheads.
Netizens also felt that these two adults were behaving immaturely, being way too severe on a teenager, given that diss tracks are a common sight in the rap world. While Kemy’s diss track might not have been the smartest move, it definitely did not deserve the threats and rude comments she received.
And the drama didn’t end there; Bom’s fans also took it upon themselves to show their support for Bom by lashing back with a few personally-penned diss tracks, directed at Kemy. Lyrics range from “21 million blackjacks are tryna rip your guys out / All because you had the nerve to even call all of us out / Chose the wrong person to try to get your fame up / 21 million of us tryna beat your brains up” to “Run now, bitch, hide in a hole /
We don’t want to see your face, it’s fucking gross / What you’ve done ended your career / Save your parents’ money, you’ll need that.”
A day later, it was reported that Kemy posted an apology on Twitter, saying “I didn’t know that my diss towards Park Bom sunbaenim would become this big… I’m really sorry to 2NE1’s fans and Park Bom sunbaenim…. I’m so sorry, everyone. Please love A.KOR a lot!!” A.KOR’s agency, DOO Republic, was contacted, and the apology was found out to be posted from an imposter social media account.
DOO Republic also commented that the diss track was merely intended to be a submission for a rap competition, and not supposed to be a direct insult at Bom. However, because of the ensuing chaos, A.KOR plans to wrap up promotions as soon as possible to avoid any more hurt directed at Kemy and the group.
Frankly speaking, this entire fiasco has gotten way out of hand. A diss track written by an idol? Yeah, pretty rebellious. But diss tracks written by fans to attack the idol, as well as hate comments from prominent K-pop “sidekicks?” That pretty much scaled the situation from a mere diss battle, to a legitimate hate fight.
Some may say that Kemy practically invited all this hate to be spewed on her for targeting a widely-loved idol, but given the unknown-in-size but vocal support group behind Kemy, it seems that her perspective is not entirely wrong and it would seem wise for YG to someday step up to the plate and mitigate the situation before this becomes even more out of hand.
What’s your take on the development of this diss track issue so far?
