K-pop diss tracks are targeting the corporate machine

Tamar Herman

02 Feb 2025 — 8 min read

Last year, K-pop hit one of the messiest eras I have ever witnessed since becoming invested in the industry back in 2008. That's been a lot of mess! But last year was a bit different, as it wasn't as much about contract disputes or even criminal behavior, although there was plenty of that, but it was about business and perceptions of artists. And amid it all it was revealed during legal proceedings that Hybe had essentially its own regular negative, and even damning, reporting analysis of others in the industry. At the time, I suggested in this newsletter that it's going to piss off some people and I couldn't imagine absolutely nobody would respond.

Well, 2025 is here, and someone's responded: Hongjoong of Ateez released a song with Odetari, titled "SMB".

"SMB" is speculated to stand for Shitman Bang, a reference to Bang Si-hyuk, the founder of HYBE, who is known by his producer moniker, Hitman Bang.

I say speculated because Hongjoong hasn't gone on the record stating his intention, but the lyrics do call out Bang directly via a subtle namedrop which reads as less than subtle if you know the context. I reached out to his press team, and didn't hear back, which is part of the general approach to this release, which is "interpret it how you will".

The English translation from the official lyric video reads as follows, bolded emphasis mine:

Act like your age wastrel
shaking your head side to side
Why are you mad?
Do you think you've made it, hitman?
If you have time to observe others
watch your own back instead!
Dududu, bang
jealousy and envy rule your life
blinded, slandering people with insolent remarks!
playing mind games all your life
never working hard but constantly getting angry later
Oh, it’s getting hot, what's this?
i fan the flames, burning even traces of your home!
a low-quality old man
I know it's unfair

There's a lot of speculation about the reason behind the song, including fan theorizing that Hybe is sabotaging Ateez and rumors that Hybe has at least at one point attempted to buy ATEEZ's company KQ. Sometimes I have a better understanding of things in the industry than fans re the business side of things, but regarding this instance I'm out of the loop. However, I wouldn't be surprised if Hybe had attempted to buy KQ, as Hybe has spent the past few years acquiring labels full of popular talent.

ATEEZ is, of course, hugely popular. They're among one of the best-selling K-pop groups of this generation, and their tours and music have them raking in cash. They are among only a few boy bands currently able to tour stadium shows in the US, and their nearly-rained-out show at Citifield last year was one of the most memorable concert experiences I ever had.

Hongjoong hasn't publicly talked about the song, and KQ essentially said "no comment" to Korean media when prompted about if it's a diss track. I think it's a moment when the K-pop paradigm is changing a little bit, because it's someone who is pretty confident in his self-worth, the power of his group, and his company supporting this release.

It's not quite like Kendrick coming for Drake, but I think we should all be talking about it a bit more and thinking about what it means that Hongjoong has done this.

But what is the "this" exactly? Mostly, I think it's not play by the rules of the K-pop world for idols to take things sitting down when the corporate world makes decisions around them. There's an expectation among the industry that an idol is meant to be seen and heard, but not share their thoughts. That's why NewJeans giving Hybe an ultimatum was a big deal, and generally when a K-pop star (especially women) speak their mind too much there's a backlash. When SM artists started revealing they were getting frustrated by hearing about the Kakao vs. Hybe drama about taking over SM from the news, it mattered.

But this is Hongjoong, and Ateez - the song is actually released under the group's name rather than Hongjoong's only - stepping forward and giving a big fuck you and call out to the behaviors Hybe put on display last year as the biggest men on a pretty crowded K-pop campus. There's a very subtle nod to this in the press release for the song: "‘SMB’ represents a fearless exploration of new artistic directions, allowing both artists to showcase their individuality while creating something truly unique."

Usually press releases are something I take with a grain of salt, but I think "fearless" is a subtle bit of heavy lifting here, because you know that this song definitely pissed off people in the industry, an industry that is typically top-down control of artists and musicality and not really used to people smacking back when they've been hit. And I do think there is a feeling by many in K-pop that Hybe has overstepped. As I said last year, it's not that Hybe was wrong in creating competitive documents because many companies do that, but it was morally wrong and unprofessional regarding how the report excerpts appeared to talk about K-pop talent, including some of its own.

K-pop artists have called out the industry norms and other artists before, but usually it's been artist-to-artist or vaguer call outs, or from more traditional hip-hop artists (though I wouldn't say that this is a surprise necessarily from Hongjoong or the very hip-hop ATEEZ).

I think Ateez is in a unique place because of several factors that made Hongjoong release this song, but I don't think he's the only one who is going to attempt to have their say this year about some of what's been going on recently.

Even back in December, Mark of NCT release "Fraktsiya" with Lee Young Ji, name dropping how he's hugely busy and succesful as a member of NCT. He also called out SM Entertainment, telling it to wait and listen. He is managed by SM, and sounds like he, to a lesser degree, is also annoyed enough to call out about it.

It is, of course, a song released under SM, which means that it's a bit less of a diss track and more just kind of a taunt, but I think it still says something that we're seeing back-to-back songs by prominent K-pop idols naming and shaming ("shaming" is questionable re Mark's situation, but interpret it how you will) the upper echelons who have crafted the industry to their own tune.

The response to both songs have been pretty quiet from where I sit, with little media coverage and even my favorite reviewer The Bias List not writing about "SMB" (come on, Nick!!) While I'm sure there were fanwars about it, and clearly the media industry in Korea took note, I think it's a missed opportunity to discuss the reasons people release diss tracks and the power of music as a way to speak your mind.

It's really healthy, honestly, for an industry to engage with criticism, and I wouldn't be surprised if we see more of it in the early half of this year, and beyond possibly, based on the confusing state 2024 left K-pop in.

I keep thinking of an incident from 2015 back when iKON's Bobby took shots at a bunch of people in the industry through his raps, including RM of BTS. Later, in an interview with RM he stated that he felt it essentially was a healthy way to compete and rile each other up to do better as musicians.

“As long we’re not at each other’s throats and actually fighting, we gain from something like this. I don’t regret anything after the feedback I gave. I think I did what I could and handled it well.”

I'm not sure if this is 100% of a healthy situation here as it was then, because companies can potentially punch down in a much scarier way than just releasing a diss track back, but I think K-pop and diss tracks aren't as antithetical as people may expect, and right now I'm simply sitting here wondering if we'll hear any responses, or continuations of the musical discourse around the feelings of idols towards the K-pop business machine.

Anyhowwwww... I'm still behind on everything so getting this out a week later than I hoped. I also was planning on writing something about 2024's music, but who knows if/when I'll do that, though hopefully you'll get two newsletters this week.

In the meantime, I want to leave you with some diss tracks recommended by some readers. If you're not subscribed already, I have a Notes on K-pop update channel on Instagram where I share questions for the audience sometimes, and love hearing your thoughts!

Some people did reference "SMB", but along with that here are the other suggestions from you guys. If you didn't respond in the Instagram channel, please drop your recs for diss tracks, and interpretations of them, in the commonets.

BTS's "Cypher Pt. 4" with its choral call outs towards haters (read more from a tumblr post analyzing it around its release )

G-Dragon at the 2014 MAMA's calling out Mnet and the industry (recommended by Katie Doan, one of Notes on K-pop's 2024 fellows)

Epik High's "Born Hater" with Beenzino, Verbal Jint, B.I, Mino and Bobby is just... so much hating on everyone (read more from Seoulbeats at the time)

G-Dragon "Intro (Middle Fingers Up)", which is, well, read the lyrics and think about how this came out before the Burning Sun investigations revealed Seungri's crimes.