February 21, 2026 • 25 mins
Get ready for a deep dive into the buzzing world of K-Pop! This week, we're celebrating CORTIS, making history as the first K-Pop group to headline the NBA All-Star Crossover Concert! And their new "Friends of the NBA" partnership, and why they're the group to watch. Plus, we're tackling the spicy Grammy controversy surrounding Bruno Mars and Rosé's hit "APT" – was it a snub, a curse, or just the usual award show drama?
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Listen
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Hello everybody, and welcome back to The K Factor Everything
k Pop, a iHeartRadio podcast hosted by your favorite former
K pop training Bauman. It's me In this show, we'll
be delivering our latest East Asian entertainment news, updates, gossips
and more. Here's a little reminder before we start that
you can find this show on iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
(00:36):
or wherever you get your podcasts. Without further ado, As
Joe brightens our first segment, before we start, we always
start with the K pop top ten in music. That's
what K pop is about. It's always gonna be about
the music, not about the drama the gossips, no matter
how much we love to talk about it. So coming
in the number one spot, we have the group Hearts
to Heart with their song Rude. This was literally released
(00:59):
February if we're recording this February twenty first, and they've
jumped straight to the number one spot with a wonderful
successful comeback. So congratulations to Hearts of Heart for your
new song Rude. Coming at number two, we have Ive
Bang coming in at number three. We have group Idle formerly
known as g Idol with their song Fates coming in
(01:21):
at number four we have Huasa with their song good Goodbye,
and number five we have seventeen with God of Clones.
At number six we have Straight Kids with La La
La La. How are they still up here? Straight Kits
is ruling the world. They did release their new tour
movie that hit the theaters kind of last month, so
(01:42):
maybe that has nothing to do with it. Number seven
Black Pin jump with as they kind of tease their
new comeback deadline. Number eight we have en hyphen hyphe
I mean sorry. At number eight we have n hyphen
Knife that we kind of talked about in the last
episode that we did, and number nine we have ESPA Drama.
(02:03):
And number ten we have Set Dreams Smoothie and that
concludes our k Pop top ten charts for this week's episode.
Jumping in to K Pop News and Drama, Hibe, the
biggest K pop company in the world, escalates their conflict
(02:23):
with their former director of new genes Minhegen. We kind
of talked about this conflict on our comeback episode and
the first episode that we did this year when I
talked about their member Danielle and all at her side
of the case, and I told you guys, I would
update you as this situation escalates as things proceed, and
(02:46):
this has been the latest escalation in this case, and
coming from Minhegen side, they published private insider text including
which is what this controversy is about, a text from
BTS's b where he claims similarities between the group ill
(03:08):
It and New Genes themselves. The situation escalated because BTS,
as you guys know, the Great Ticket War is going
on right now, BTS is announcing the World's War. All
these things, all these activities are happening. And V comes
out and publicly defends himself and he says that these
were published without his consent. There's context that he was
(03:30):
just trying to empathize with the person that he was
talking to, and you can't use this as evidence in court.
And this puts all of the other evidence that was
kind of coming up in this way. Also, it's a
question and at the end of the day, it's a
violation of his privacy. It wasn't supposed to happen. And
this made headlines because you know it's BTS's b you know.
(03:53):
So still the Great Ticket War is going on. My
aunt is texting me, hey, do you want to go
to BTS. So I'm not gonna say anything about this.
I'm still going to BTS's concert and we missed you, BTS,
please come back. And it's kind of unfortunate that these
(04:16):
things are happening as they're preparing and working really hard
towards us comeback, and a lot of their brother groups
such as Cordus TXT, they're all kind of in support
of this comeback and like helping them tease this whole thing,
and like it's kind of like a full circle moment
because BTS has been watering these seeds. They have been
(04:37):
showing support to their to their younger members, and these
these groups are following their footsteps and now they're supporting
them back as they come back, and it's kind of
like a beautiful three sixty things to watch. So as
Black Pink has their comeback with their deadlines or as
similar time as BTS, there's fan wars kind of happening
(04:57):
between the two groups, and people are even speculating there's
like a st teacher attack on BTS, but who knows.
On the other side of Hive News, we have TXT Dungeon.
This is a little bit more serious and I kind
of wanted to do like a little discussion about this topic.
Gungjin was diagnosed with here we go, rab doma loosis,
(05:19):
no rab doma eulosis. It's too many syllables, I can't
pronounce it, but it's basically a potentially life threatening condition
where he'll be hospitalized for about a week and his
condition is caused by extreme physical exertion, dehydration, heat stroke, traumas,
or medications or even underlying health issues. But this is
(05:41):
kind of like a headline about like K pop idols
work ethics being overworked to the point of literally contracting
a life threatening condition. And this kind of brings me
back to TXD Young June's first viral video at least
(06:03):
that I saw. It was right after his debut, and
he was he was doing like a sound check for
a a music show and music accidentally played and then
while he was unprepared and kind of strolling around the stage,
his body instinctively reacts to the music and he goes
(06:25):
straight into choreography even though it was like a like
a music error. And then the clip was was was
was going viral across TikTok, Instagram, social media talking about
like oh my god, like how long did they keep
this kid? In the dungeon. For him to like react
like this, Oh my god, they must have struck the
(06:46):
K pop beer in his soul. And I'm like, six
years later, like he's diagnosed with rabbit dumblocious. I'm so
sorry that I can't pronounce this word is rabbit, but
rabidum me loosis. Nah, I can't do it. You guys,
you guys will figure it out. And it's it's it's
(07:09):
it's a it's a testament to his work ethic and
how hard uh he works and how seriously he takes
his craft was also unfortunate because of the standards that
are kind of set around him. And I kind of
wanted to take this opportunity to kind of like also
start a conversation about how hard it is that these
K pop idols work, and I want to share my
(07:31):
own personal experience, and like I remember going to Korea
as like a seventeen year old kid and being given
like these schedules that were like NonStop and what I
mean like NonStop. It was seven days a week. It
would start at ten am and we would have rehearsals
(07:53):
all the way until literally six am. And this would
be seven days a week and we would go NonStop.
We would have like a thirty minute lunch break with
like a small per dm. Of course, these bigger companies
they have like cafeterias, they have like all these other things,
but my company was a little bit smaller. They would
give us like five dollars a day to like go
to like the convenience store to like grab a quick
(08:14):
like rice ball before like going back into practice. Our
dance practice was twelve am to six am, and then
after six am we were like walk home because it's
like it's late, like no, no, like staff is there,
and like, hearing this news is very unfortunate. Hearing about
the dehydration, hearing about the extreme physical exertion and all
(08:37):
these things like leading to like literally something that could
affect your entire life. So our prayers go out to
tx yung Jin. Is really unfortunate that this is happening.
Hopefully that the conversations get a little bit deeper, get
a little bit more serious, and there's some kind of
(08:58):
enforcement that goes on until like making sure that these
idols are taken care of. Of course, like they're athletes
in a way, of course, there is an expectation for
them to work a little bit harder than a regular
person and hopefully, like you know, if they're taking care
of like, for example, even like NBA players like athletes,
like yeah, they work hard. Yeah, they have like these
extreme jobs where they have to like take flights, do
(09:20):
like training camps and all these things. But there's also
like twenty seven doctors on hand at all time, icing
their knees, making sure they get like the right baths,
making sure like makes you really sure. There's like massage
therapists taking care of them after games. I'm I'll tell
you right now. Kapab Idols don't have that. And they're
just there. They're starving themselves. They're they're dancing for like
(09:43):
eight hours a day, especially during a comeback. Oh it
gets so extreme with like the weight loss expectations. That's
probably where the dehydration comes from. And it's like they're
literally just just blindly going for it. Is like is
like the Olympics and and you don't know what kind
(10:03):
of situation. You don't know what kind of harm it
can do to your health because everybody around you just
kind of like goes like yeah, this is this is good.
And you have like seven other team members that are
doing the same thing, and like there's almost like an
expectation for you to like just destroy your health in
a way while you're like performing at a high level
and like doing dance at a high level and touring
at a high level. So yeah, hopefully there's like hopefully
(10:30):
this is taken serious. I hope that he recovers well.
But the conversation that this strikes can bring about more
regulations in the K pop space there already is from
like six years ago. I remember when I first signed
my contractors like stuff where like, oh, we're like entitled
to therapy in case we have depression. We're entitled to
like asking for a day off if we feel like
(10:52):
we're gonna die. And it's like, yeah, that's cool. But
then like you know, I just hope that like it
doesn't like I just hope I just pray for like
don Juice health and uh, yeah, it's very unfortunate. And
I'm kind of on the similar topic of like potential overworking, potential,
like poor health and like all these things. Cats I
(11:17):
manone also announces a temporary hiatus from group activities to
focus on her health. Uh, and they're letting it. They're
like yeah, that's cool. Go take care of yourself, girl,
you know, And as she is taking care of herself,
and that expectation being a little bit lighter. Even in
this case, even though hib is like the Cat's Eye
(11:38):
branch is like run by a more western company, it's
important and I hope that her break is respected by
the fans also by the company, and that Monogon can
recover and feel as though she's in a safe place
to heal. And and yeah, this is kind of like
a serious topic. It's kind of like a very deeply
(12:00):
personal one to myself too, because you know, kind of
like the expectations and the physical burnout kind of like
not being acknowledged led to like a lot of like
mental health stuff for me too. So uh yeah, sorry,
I got a little bit slow. Sorry got a little
bit grim, But uh yeah, I just advocating for advocating
for regulations and for kebatos be taken care of. There
(12:25):
is a lot of expectations there is. It is a job.
At the end of the day, you do have to tour,
you do have to like perform, you have to show up,
but you know, go take a bath, go eat a meal.
You know, also not to like kind of diminish Dungeon's
like condition, like serious conditions to just like, oh, hey,
you should just go get some rest. I'm not I'm
not trying to do that. It's just like hopefully destrikes
(12:46):
the conversation about you know, regulations. But yeah, as we
move more west, uh K pop has hit a lot
of massive milestones. We mentioned Cat's I. Cats I recently
performed at the Grammys with their song Gnarly, and uh,
it was freaking awesome. To me, it was awesome. Everybody,
(13:06):
I know what you're thinking. Oh, of course Bolmhind thinks
it was awesome. But there was like like a controversy
about how like the quality of the song is not
like up to par with like the talent that they're
able to show. And that's very very obvious. You can
see by the by the heart that they performed with
the amount of rehearsal like like time that they put in,
(13:29):
and like their dance break was probably like one of
the best amongst all of like the Grammys, and then
and then and then and then they're talking about Boba
te Gnarly. You know, people love that song. You know,
I'm not gonna lie Gnarley was like my vocal stem.
For about like three months. I'd just be walking around
the house and Gnarley, you know what I mean, and
it's just like, okay, well, is this the appropriate stage
(13:51):
for it? Is Grammy's the place where you should be
doing this? Is this the song that you want to
like represent their talent and their future? Like, yeah, it
was a fun song, but then you know, you do Gnarley,
and then you do Internet Girl, and it's like, okay,
you know what, let's let's let's let's show yourself more,
you know, or maybe maybe this is all discussion and
maybe this is Kats Eye showing themselves because you know,
(14:12):
they are popping on TikTok. This is their rise to fame.
They are this like gen Z group, who's like kind
of like quirky, a little bit weird. You know, maybe
they're a little bit gnarly. Maybe that's dumb. And it
took them to the Grammys all everybody hating from like
their computer. Are you at the Grammys? No? Did you
have a crazy performance dance break at the Grammys? No?
(14:35):
Cats I did, though, you know, so, like at the
end of the day, the controversy is there. The fans
are letting them know what they want to see from Katsi,
and uh, we'll see where Katsi takes it. Maybe it's
another internet girl, you know, maybe it's a a banger album.
Either way, they have the stage and uh, and we'll
(14:57):
see where they go next. I'll on the Grammys. We
have Rose and Bruno Mars with three Grammy nominations. Holy crap.
And the connection between kats I and Rose is like
they had like yuniche from kats I had like a
little like cute interaction with Rose when to talk about
it on her live and it was like a cute
(15:17):
little moment and Rose was there performing as well with
Bruno Mars. They got snubbed of three Grammy nominations, and
there's controversy with and like of course there's gonna be
controversy because you know, fans are disappointed, they're frustrated. This
is the furthest we have gone in this Western music scene.
And we got snubbed. We didn't win a single thing,
Like come on, guys, like like we didn't win, we
didn't win one thing. And uh, they went as far
(15:39):
as being like, Yo, the Grammy's rigged, Yo, Like the
recording Academy. You guys have this bias like da da
no nout. They're pulling up all these evidence, but it's like,
you know what, at the end of the day, like
I get it, you guys are frustrated, and like I'm
frustrated too, Like this is like but but there's also
space for celebration. Yo. We came so far and it's
like like when I was a kid, like like like
we I can't even dream of like coming this far.
(16:01):
And like I know with the stint of like Rose
and Bruno, Mars and Apats like they this is gonna
inspire a new generation who's gonna push even further. And
this is what this is. This is the power of
accomplishment and the next person is gonna take that be
inspired to take that even further. You know. So it's
frustrating that we didn't win anything, but yo, y'all are
(16:23):
at the Grammys. Let's go. You know. That's freaking awesome.
And uh. Next, my my favorite milestone deeply connected to
my heart and soul is Cordus, a group that we've
been raving about on this show. They went and performed
for the NBA All Star Celebrity Game. Oh my God,
(16:46):
my dream is so hard watching someone live your dream.
Uh you know what, No, if you're listening and you
work for the NBA, please please call me and sorry.
This establishes Cortuses kind of like deep connection with the
NBA because they also did the song mentioned me for
(17:10):
the animated film Goats, which is also a basketball film.
So this performance the celebration of that, and it was
kind of establishing a long term connection between K pop
and the NBA and and the and the bridge between
these two cultures. Of course, there's pop music, there's hip
hop music, there's NBA culture, there's all these things, and
and K pop is is is becoming mainstream in these aspects,
(17:33):
and it's literally the mainstream media and with like the Grammys,
the NBA, Western media, we're we're we're slowly finding our
way in and we're showing out and like fans are
coming out to support Cordis showing like this culture that
that like of music and like Korean like heritage and
like all these things. So so congratulations Cordus. The other
(17:55):
story with kind of K pop idols coming over into
like the Western world is at the eighty third Golden
Globes twenty twenty six that was held at the Beverly
Hilton in California, and it was hosted by celebrity hosts
Nikki Glazer and many Koorian celebrities appeared at this event,
including Lisa. However, the one that made the headlines the
most was seventeen's Joshua. First of all, his outfit freaking amazing.
(18:20):
I was looking at his outfit, people were like, oh
my god, who's his tailor? All this stuff like hating
on him, but no, I think he ate that up
and he looks amazing. And he appeared by himself, which
is incredibly brave without his gang up brothers, and like
all these things, and the kind of thing I wanted
to talk about is is now BTS army versus seventeen Joshua?
(18:43):
Because you know, a reporter came out to him and
asked him that question of like, oh, hey, like there's
this undeniable wave of K pop demon hunters and is like, like,
what do you think about K pop demon hunters? And
all he did he went go, it's pretty cool. I
think I think it's opening a lot of new doors
(19:04):
for K pop. I can't I can't even believe it
got this big, Like it's amazing and and and and
people are jumping him, they're they're they're tearing him apart. Hey, Joshua,
go go go go go eat Pope because because you
know who paved the way, BTS paved the way or
not k pop demon House. They're talking and then like
(19:26):
just like kind of like just just slamming him for
the most the most pr appropriate response of all time.
And and and I'm like, oh my god, this is
going crazy. What did what did seventeen? Joshua said? He
just went, you know like, I'm really happy is opening
new doors for K pop and I can't believe we
(19:48):
got this big. And yeah, that's literally it. But he
looks amazing at the Globe and Global Golding. He looks
amazing at the Golden Globe Awards and lots of appearances,
and you know what, even him appearing is brave. It's strong,
and it marks another milestone of kind of capop idol
stepping into Western mainstream media. And yeah, it's kind of
(20:11):
like a funny, little, funny little thing that's been happening.
And yeah, that kind of concludes this week's kind of
segment about K pop news updates, drama Top ten list,
the music and all that, and I kind of wanted
to like slow down because if you're listening to this podcast,
nice to meet you. My name is Boumhan, also known
(20:32):
as Harry and and uh yeah, I'm the host for
this show. I was a former k Poup trainee, and like,
you know, I'm doing my own artists like Western Pursuits
right now. And if you're listening to this from my
pages and kind of like how I've been promoting the
show personally, you also know that like I've been a
little bit inactive and like kind of taking like a
(20:54):
whole like break for the past month, kind of going
like radio silent. The last thing that I did was
a show in New York City with me and my
best friend Anthony, who was also a former guest on
this show. It was on the episode where he was
like talking about his life and how K pop affected
him and like his school and like his experience like
training under Cube and all these things, and like we
(21:16):
formed the group together and the group is called Capture,
and we're touring and we're setting up all these things,
and then we did our first show in New York City.
It went amazing, like literally like my dream come true
of like having all our friends and family there. Like
ever since I came back to New York, I've been
going to like these like underground rock shows and like
(21:37):
bringing all these like underground rock elements of people moshing
and like being super intimate with like the performers and
all these things, like kind of bringing that element to
a KPE hop show. Literally like everything I envisioned came true,
and it's like I know that you guys will love it.
So we're kind of like working on like bringing that
(21:59):
to the front right now and kind of going radio silent,
working hard on capture and like bringing that to your city.
And also like I've had like some kind of personal
issues and a lot of like life changes going on
with like some family members getting sick and like kind
of like kind of like moving into new places and
(22:21):
just kind of like not having the appropriate space to
be public facing and kind of like recognizing that and
like not forcing myself into a space where like I'm
uncomfortable to create and coming from like a space of
like desperation to kind of like okay, you know what,
I'm gonna slow down, take care of myself and whatever
bleeds into this art is is an abundance that kind
(22:42):
of like overflows from a full cup rather for a
desperation that comes from an empty cup. And I know
that like kind of like the health of like my
family is like very important to me, so as I
want to like take some time to like kind of
take care of them and that kind of like I
just wanted to like kind of like update you and
catch you guys up on like what's going on, especially
(23:02):
if you if you're following me deep enough to like
be listening to this podcast. Even so, thank you for
supporting me, Thank you for waiting for me, Thank you
for supporting every little thing that I do and capture.
This Coming to your city is literally a project that
I'm putting my whole heart and soul behind. And if
you love concerts, if you love coming out and like
making memories, and you love hanging out with your friends,
(23:24):
you love k pop, you love sharing community and like
all these things, no matter where you live, I'm gonna
find you and I'm gonna come to you and we're
gonna put on the most amazing, amazing show that you've
ever seen. So yeah, this is Bomhan, the host of
K Factor Everything K Pop. This is This is this
week's episode. Thank you, guys for listening. I hope you
(23:44):
guys have been entertained on your on your little car
ride to work, or or or as you're as you're
walking around cleaning the house listening to this podcast. Thank
you for spending your energy with me. I love you
guys very dearly, and I'll see you guys next week
on iHeart Radio app podcast Wherever you games.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
I get this father, But you really want to leave
with me? Yeah? Yeah, girl. You must be treaming if
you think you get up from me. Oh, I'm just
looking for company.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Save yourself.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
You don't want to get too wrapped up in the
middle of it. I just want to seek your dance.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Don't think about it.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Oh, save myself. I don't want to get to attached
tothing know your body.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
I'm just trying to link.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
I'm just being honest. Oh. I don't want to get
caught up. You don't want to get done. Let's not
take this, father, I don't want to get caught up.
Way too young to No, Please don't make this hord
Hello everybody, and welcome back to The K Factor Everything
k Pop, a iHeartRadio podcast hosted by your favorite former
K pop training Bauman. It's me In this show, we'll
be delivering our latest East Asian entertainment news, updates, gossips
and more. Here's a little reminder before we start that
you can find this show on iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
(00:36):
or wherever you get your podcasts. Without further ado, As
Joe brightens our first segment, before we start, we always
start with the K pop top ten in music. That's
what K pop is about. It's always gonna be about
the music, not about the drama the gossips, no matter
how much we love to talk about it. So coming
in the number one spot, we have the group Hearts
to Heart with their song Rude. This was literally released
(00:59):
February if we're recording this February twenty first, and they've
jumped straight to the number one spot with a wonderful
successful comeback. So congratulations to Hearts of Heart for your
new song Rude. Coming at number two, we have Ive
Bang coming in at number three. We have group Idle formerly
known as g Idol with their song Fates coming in
(01:21):
at number four we have Huasa with their song good Goodbye,
and number five we have seventeen with God of Clones.
At number six we have Straight Kids with La La
La La. How are they still up here? Straight Kits
is ruling the world. They did release their new tour
movie that hit the theaters kind of last month, so
(01:42):
maybe that has nothing to do with it. Number seven
Black Pin jump with as they kind of tease their
new comeback deadline. Number eight we have en hyphen hyphe
I mean sorry. At number eight we have n hyphen
Knife that we kind of talked about in the last
episode that we did, and number nine we have ESPA Drama.
(02:03):
And number ten we have Set Dreams Smoothie and that
concludes our k Pop top ten charts for this week's episode.
Jumping in to K Pop News and Drama, Hibe, the
biggest K pop company in the world, escalates their conflict
(02:23):
with their former director of new genes Minhegen. We kind
of talked about this conflict on our comeback episode and
the first episode that we did this year when I
talked about their member Danielle and all at her side
of the case, and I told you guys, I would
update you as this situation escalates as things proceed, and
(02:46):
this has been the latest escalation in this case, and
coming from Minhegen side, they published private insider text including
which is what this controversy is about, a text from
BTS's b where he claims similarities between the group ill
(03:08):
It and New Genes themselves. The situation escalated because BTS,
as you guys know, the Great Ticket War is going
on right now, BTS is announcing the World's War. All
these things, all these activities are happening. And V comes
out and publicly defends himself and he says that these
were published without his consent. There's context that he was
(03:30):
just trying to empathize with the person that he was
talking to, and you can't use this as evidence in court.
And this puts all of the other evidence that was
kind of coming up in this way. Also, it's a
question and at the end of the day, it's a
violation of his privacy. It wasn't supposed to happen. And
this made headlines because you know it's BTS's b you know.
(03:53):
So still the Great Ticket War is going on. My
aunt is texting me, hey, do you want to go
to BTS. So I'm not gonna say anything about this.
I'm still going to BTS's concert and we missed you, BTS,
please come back. And it's kind of unfortunate that these
(04:16):
things are happening as they're preparing and working really hard
towards us comeback, and a lot of their brother groups
such as Cordus TXT, they're all kind of in support
of this comeback and like helping them tease this whole thing,
and like it's kind of like a full circle moment
because BTS has been watering these seeds. They have been
(04:37):
showing support to their to their younger members, and these
these groups are following their footsteps and now they're supporting
them back as they come back, and it's kind of
like a beautiful three sixty things to watch. So as
Black Pink has their comeback with their deadlines or as
similar time as BTS, there's fan wars kind of happening
(04:57):
between the two groups, and people are even speculating there's
like a st teacher attack on BTS, but who knows.
On the other side of Hive News, we have TXT Dungeon.
This is a little bit more serious and I kind
of wanted to do like a little discussion about this topic.
Gungjin was diagnosed with here we go, rab doma loosis,
(05:19):
no rab doma eulosis. It's too many syllables, I can't
pronounce it, but it's basically a potentially life threatening condition
where he'll be hospitalized for about a week and his
condition is caused by extreme physical exertion, dehydration, heat stroke, traumas,
or medications or even underlying health issues. But this is
(05:41):
kind of like a headline about like K pop idols
work ethics being overworked to the point of literally contracting
a life threatening condition. And this kind of brings me
back to TXD Young June's first viral video at least
(06:03):
that I saw. It was right after his debut, and
he was he was doing like a sound check for
a a music show and music accidentally played and then
while he was unprepared and kind of strolling around the stage,
his body instinctively reacts to the music and he goes
(06:25):
straight into choreography even though it was like a like
a music error. And then the clip was was was
was going viral across TikTok, Instagram, social media talking about
like oh my god, like how long did they keep
this kid? In the dungeon. For him to like react
like this, Oh my god, they must have struck the
(06:46):
K pop beer in his soul. And I'm like, six
years later, like he's diagnosed with rabbit dumblocious. I'm so
sorry that I can't pronounce this word is rabbit, but
rabidum me loosis. Nah, I can't do it. You guys,
you guys will figure it out. And it's it's it's
(07:09):
it's a it's a testament to his work ethic and
how hard uh he works and how seriously he takes
his craft was also unfortunate because of the standards that
are kind of set around him. And I kind of
wanted to take this opportunity to kind of like also
start a conversation about how hard it is that these
K pop idols work, and I want to share my
(07:31):
own personal experience, and like I remember going to Korea
as like a seventeen year old kid and being given
like these schedules that were like NonStop and what I
mean like NonStop. It was seven days a week. It
would start at ten am and we would have rehearsals
(07:53):
all the way until literally six am. And this would
be seven days a week and we would go NonStop.
We would have like a thirty minute lunch break with
like a small per dm. Of course, these bigger companies
they have like cafeterias, they have like all these other things,
but my company was a little bit smaller. They would
give us like five dollars a day to like go
to like the convenience store to like grab a quick
(08:14):
like rice ball before like going back into practice. Our
dance practice was twelve am to six am, and then
after six am we were like walk home because it's
like it's late, like no, no, like staff is there,
and like, hearing this news is very unfortunate. Hearing about
the dehydration, hearing about the extreme physical exertion and all
(08:37):
these things like leading to like literally something that could
affect your entire life. So our prayers go out to
tx yung Jin. Is really unfortunate that this is happening.
Hopefully that the conversations get a little bit deeper, get
a little bit more serious, and there's some kind of
(08:58):
enforcement that goes on until like making sure that these
idols are taken care of. Of course, like they're athletes
in a way, of course, there is an expectation for
them to work a little bit harder than a regular
person and hopefully, like you know, if they're taking care
of like, for example, even like NBA players like athletes,
like yeah, they work hard. Yeah, they have like these
extreme jobs where they have to like take flights, do
(09:20):
like training camps and all these things. But there's also
like twenty seven doctors on hand at all time, icing
their knees, making sure they get like the right baths,
making sure like makes you really sure. There's like massage
therapists taking care of them after games. I'm I'll tell
you right now. Kapab Idols don't have that. And they're
just there. They're starving themselves. They're they're dancing for like
(09:43):
eight hours a day, especially during a comeback. Oh it
gets so extreme with like the weight loss expectations. That's
probably where the dehydration comes from. And it's like they're
literally just just blindly going for it. Is like is
like the Olympics and and you don't know what kind
(10:03):
of situation. You don't know what kind of harm it
can do to your health because everybody around you just
kind of like goes like yeah, this is this is good.
And you have like seven other team members that are
doing the same thing, and like there's almost like an
expectation for you to like just destroy your health in
a way while you're like performing at a high level
and like doing dance at a high level and touring
at a high level. So yeah, hopefully there's like hopefully
(10:30):
this is taken serious. I hope that he recovers well.
But the conversation that this strikes can bring about more
regulations in the K pop space there already is from
like six years ago. I remember when I first signed
my contractors like stuff where like, oh, we're like entitled
to therapy in case we have depression. We're entitled to
like asking for a day off if we feel like
(10:52):
we're gonna die. And it's like, yeah, that's cool. But
then like you know, I just hope that like it
doesn't like I just hope I just pray for like
don Juice health and uh, yeah, it's very unfortunate. And
I'm kind of on the similar topic of like potential overworking, potential,
like poor health and like all these things. Cats I
(11:17):
manone also announces a temporary hiatus from group activities to
focus on her health. Uh, and they're letting it. They're
like yeah, that's cool. Go take care of yourself, girl,
you know, And as she is taking care of herself,
and that expectation being a little bit lighter. Even in
this case, even though hib is like the Cat's Eye
(11:38):
branch is like run by a more western company, it's
important and I hope that her break is respected by
the fans also by the company, and that Monogon can
recover and feel as though she's in a safe place
to heal. And and yeah, this is kind of like
a serious topic. It's kind of like a very deeply
(12:00):
personal one to myself too, because you know, kind of
like the expectations and the physical burnout kind of like
not being acknowledged led to like a lot of like
mental health stuff for me too. So uh yeah, sorry,
I got a little bit slow. Sorry got a little
bit grim, But uh yeah, I just advocating for advocating
for regulations and for kebatos be taken care of. There
(12:25):
is a lot of expectations there is. It is a job.
At the end of the day, you do have to tour,
you do have to like perform, you have to show up,
but you know, go take a bath, go eat a meal.
You know, also not to like kind of diminish Dungeon's
like condition, like serious conditions to just like, oh, hey,
you should just go get some rest. I'm not I'm
not trying to do that. It's just like hopefully destrikes
(12:46):
the conversation about you know, regulations. But yeah, as we
move more west, uh K pop has hit a lot
of massive milestones. We mentioned Cat's I. Cats I recently
performed at the Grammys with their song Gnarly, and uh,
it was freaking awesome. To me, it was awesome. Everybody,
(13:06):
I know what you're thinking. Oh, of course Bolmhind thinks
it was awesome. But there was like like a controversy
about how like the quality of the song is not
like up to par with like the talent that they're
able to show. And that's very very obvious. You can
see by the by the heart that they performed with
the amount of rehearsal like like time that they put in,
(13:29):
and like their dance break was probably like one of
the best amongst all of like the Grammys, and then
and then and then and then they're talking about Boba
te Gnarly. You know, people love that song. You know,
I'm not gonna lie Gnarley was like my vocal stem.
For about like three months. I'd just be walking around
the house and Gnarley, you know what I mean, and
it's just like, okay, well, is this the appropriate stage
(13:51):
for it? Is Grammy's the place where you should be
doing this? Is this the song that you want to
like represent their talent and their future? Like, yeah, it
was a fun song, but then you know, you do Gnarley,
and then you do Internet Girl, and it's like, okay,
you know what, let's let's let's let's show yourself more,
you know, or maybe maybe this is all discussion and
maybe this is Kats Eye showing themselves because you know,
(14:12):
they are popping on TikTok. This is their rise to fame.
They are this like gen Z group, who's like kind
of like quirky, a little bit weird. You know, maybe
they're a little bit gnarly. Maybe that's dumb. And it
took them to the Grammys all everybody hating from like
their computer. Are you at the Grammys? No? Did you
have a crazy performance dance break at the Grammys? No?
(14:35):
Cats I did, though, you know, so, like at the
end of the day, the controversy is there. The fans
are letting them know what they want to see from Katsi,
and uh, we'll see where Katsi takes it. Maybe it's
another internet girl, you know, maybe it's a a banger album.
Either way, they have the stage and uh, and we'll
(14:57):
see where they go next. I'll on the Grammys. We
have Rose and Bruno Mars with three Grammy nominations. Holy crap.
And the connection between kats I and Rose is like
they had like yuniche from kats I had like a
little like cute interaction with Rose when to talk about
it on her live and it was like a cute
(15:17):
little moment and Rose was there performing as well with
Bruno Mars. They got snubbed of three Grammy nominations, and
there's controversy with and like of course there's gonna be
controversy because you know, fans are disappointed, they're frustrated. This
is the furthest we have gone in this Western music scene.
And we got snubbed. We didn't win a single thing,
Like come on, guys, like like we didn't win, we
didn't win one thing. And uh, they went as far
(15:39):
as being like, Yo, the Grammy's rigged, Yo, Like the
recording Academy. You guys have this bias like da da
no nout. They're pulling up all these evidence, but it's like,
you know what, at the end of the day, like
I get it, you guys are frustrated, and like I'm
frustrated too, Like this is like but but there's also
space for celebration. Yo. We came so far and it's
like like when I was a kid, like like like
we I can't even dream of like coming this far.
(16:01):
And like I know with the stint of like Rose
and Bruno, Mars and Apats like they this is gonna
inspire a new generation who's gonna push even further. And
this is what this is. This is the power of
accomplishment and the next person is gonna take that be
inspired to take that even further. You know. So it's
frustrating that we didn't win anything, but yo, y'all are
(16:23):
at the Grammys. Let's go. You know. That's freaking awesome.
And uh. Next, my my favorite milestone deeply connected to
my heart and soul is Cordus, a group that we've
been raving about on this show. They went and performed
for the NBA All Star Celebrity Game. Oh my God,
(16:46):
my dream is so hard watching someone live your dream.
Uh you know what, No, if you're listening and you
work for the NBA, please please call me and sorry.
This establishes Cortuses kind of like deep connection with the
NBA because they also did the song mentioned me for
(17:10):
the animated film Goats, which is also a basketball film.
So this performance the celebration of that, and it was
kind of establishing a long term connection between K pop
and the NBA and and the and the bridge between
these two cultures. Of course, there's pop music, there's hip
hop music, there's NBA culture, there's all these things, and
and K pop is is is becoming mainstream in these aspects,
(17:33):
and it's literally the mainstream media and with like the Grammys,
the NBA, Western media, we're we're we're slowly finding our
way in and we're showing out and like fans are
coming out to support Cordis showing like this culture that
that like of music and like Korean like heritage and
like all these things. So so congratulations Cordus. The other
(17:55):
story with kind of K pop idols coming over into
like the Western world is at the eighty third Golden
Globes twenty twenty six that was held at the Beverly
Hilton in California, and it was hosted by celebrity hosts
Nikki Glazer and many Koorian celebrities appeared at this event,
including Lisa. However, the one that made the headlines the
most was seventeen's Joshua. First of all, his outfit freaking amazing.
(18:20):
I was looking at his outfit, people were like, oh
my god, who's his tailor? All this stuff like hating
on him, but no, I think he ate that up
and he looks amazing. And he appeared by himself, which
is incredibly brave without his gang up brothers, and like
all these things, and the kind of thing I wanted
to talk about is is now BTS army versus seventeen Joshua?
(18:43):
Because you know, a reporter came out to him and
asked him that question of like, oh, hey, like there's
this undeniable wave of K pop demon hunters and is like, like,
what do you think about K pop demon hunters? And
all he did he went go, it's pretty cool. I
think I think it's opening a lot of new doors
(19:04):
for K pop. I can't I can't even believe it
got this big, Like it's amazing and and and and
people are jumping him, they're they're they're tearing him apart. Hey, Joshua,
go go go go go eat Pope because because you
know who paved the way, BTS paved the way or
not k pop demon House. They're talking and then like
(19:26):
just like kind of like just just slamming him for
the most the most pr appropriate response of all time.
And and and I'm like, oh my god, this is
going crazy. What did what did seventeen? Joshua said? He
just went, you know like, I'm really happy is opening
new doors for K pop and I can't believe we
(19:48):
got this big. And yeah, that's literally it. But he
looks amazing at the Globe and Global Golding. He looks
amazing at the Golden Globe Awards and lots of appearances,
and you know what, even him appearing is brave. It's strong,
and it marks another milestone of kind of capop idol
stepping into Western mainstream media. And yeah, it's kind of
(20:11):
like a funny, little, funny little thing that's been happening.
And yeah, that kind of concludes this week's kind of
segment about K pop news updates, drama Top ten list,
the music and all that, and I kind of wanted
to like slow down because if you're listening to this podcast,
nice to meet you. My name is Boumhan, also known
(20:32):
as Harry and and uh yeah, I'm the host for
this show. I was a former k Poup trainee, and like,
you know, I'm doing my own artists like Western Pursuits
right now. And if you're listening to this from my
pages and kind of like how I've been promoting the
show personally, you also know that like I've been a
little bit inactive and like kind of taking like a
(20:54):
whole like break for the past month, kind of going
like radio silent. The last thing that I did was
a show in New York City with me and my
best friend Anthony, who was also a former guest on
this show. It was on the episode where he was
like talking about his life and how K pop affected
him and like his school and like his experience like
training under Cube and all these things, and like we
(21:16):
formed the group together and the group is called Capture,
and we're touring and we're setting up all these things,
and then we did our first show in New York City.
It went amazing, like literally like my dream come true
of like having all our friends and family there. Like
ever since I came back to New York, I've been
going to like these like underground rock shows and like
(21:37):
bringing all these like underground rock elements of people moshing
and like being super intimate with like the performers and
all these things, like kind of bringing that element to
a KPE hop show. Literally like everything I envisioned came true,
and it's like I know that you guys will love it.
So we're kind of like working on like bringing that
(21:59):
to the front right now and kind of going radio silent,
working hard on capture and like bringing that to your city.
And also like I've had like some kind of personal
issues and a lot of like life changes going on
with like some family members getting sick and like kind
of like kind of like moving into new places and
(22:21):
just kind of like not having the appropriate space to
be public facing and kind of like recognizing that and
like not forcing myself into a space where like I'm
uncomfortable to create and coming from like a space of
like desperation to kind of like okay, you know what,
I'm gonna slow down, take care of myself and whatever
bleeds into this art is is an abundance that kind
(22:42):
of like overflows from a full cup rather for a
desperation that comes from an empty cup. And I know
that like kind of like the health of like my
family is like very important to me, so as I
want to like take some time to like kind of
take care of them and that kind of like I
just wanted to like kind of like update you and
catch you guys up on like what's going on, especially
(23:02):
if you if you're following me deep enough to like
be listening to this podcast. Even so, thank you for
supporting me, Thank you for waiting for me, Thank you
for supporting every little thing that I do and capture.
This Coming to your city is literally a project that
I'm putting my whole heart and soul behind. And if
you love concerts, if you love coming out and like
making memories, and you love hanging out with your friends,
(23:24):
you love k pop, you love sharing community and like
all these things, no matter where you live, I'm gonna
find you and I'm gonna come to you and we're
gonna put on the most amazing, amazing show that you've
ever seen. So yeah, this is Bomhan, the host of
K Factor Everything K Pop. This is This is this
week's episode. Thank you, guys for listening. I hope you
(23:44):
guys have been entertained on your on your little car
ride to work, or or or as you're as you're
walking around cleaning the house listening to this podcast. Thank
you for spending your energy with me. I love you
guys very dearly, and I'll see you guys next week
on iHeart Radio app podcast Wherever you games.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
I get this father, But you really want to leave
with me? Yeah? Yeah, girl. You must be treaming if
you think you get up from me. Oh, I'm just
looking for company.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Save yourself.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
You don't want to get too wrapped up in the
middle of it. I just want to seek your dance.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Don't think about it.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Oh, save myself. I don't want to get to attached
tothing know your body.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
I'm just trying to link.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
I'm just being honest. Oh. I don't want to get
caught up. You don't want to get done. Let's not
take this, father, I don't want to get caught up.
Way too young to No, Please don't make this hord
Host
Beomhan
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Fudd Around And Find Out
UConn basketball star Azzi Fudd brings her championship swag to iHeart Women’s Sports with Fudd Around and Find Out, a weekly podcast that takes fans along for the ride as Azzi spends her final year of college trying to reclaim the National Championship and prepare to be a first round WNBA draft pick. Ever wonder what it’s like to be a world-class athlete in the public spotlight while still managing schoolwork, friendships and family time? It’s time to Fudd Around and Find Out!