HYBE’s Bang Si Hyuk Faces Backlash For Calling Enhypen’s Members ‘Dark And Sexy’

HYBE chairperson Bang Si Hyuk, the man behind the popular K-pop band BTS, has been facing criticism for quite some time now. He faced some scrutiny following his public spat with the ex-CEO of ADOR, Min Hee Jin. Now, it seems that the public’s opinion about the 52-year-old is not getting better anytime soon.

In a recent interview with The New Yorker, Bang Si Hyuk discussed his career and shared details about his company’s various K-pop groups, including the popular group BTS. However, his comments about the boy group Enhypen, which consists of seven members – Heeseung, Jay, Jake, Sunghoon, Sunoo, Jungwon and Ni-Ki, received negative feedback from internet users.

During the conversation, Bang Si Hyuk spoke about the members when they were trainees, seemingly referring to their time on the reality show I-Land. He said, “There’s something really dark and sexy about them,” and added, “(they were) not part of the general public, but not celebrities yet. Being of two worlds, but not belonging to either, made me think of vampires.”

When the media outlet published the article, some readers shared their views on it through posts on X (Formerly Twitter) and called out Bang Si Hyuk. One social media user wrote, “Y’all come look at what I read in this new article (the one Katseye and bang pd were photographed together for)… bang pd calling the Enhypen members sexy as trainees… they were all minors as trainees, the youngest being 13.” Another said, “calling teenagers as young as 13 sexy was certainly a choice.”

Meanwhile, the 52-year-old HYBE founder also received some backlash for his picture with the newly formed LA-based girl group Katseye. In the picture, which featured in The New Yorker article, Bang Si Hyuk was seen posing with the six members: Sophia, Manon, Daniela, Lara, Megan and Yoonchae. As the picture found its way to X, users started sharing their thoughts.

One of them wrote, “Why did he have to be in it?” Another wrote, “Who invited Bang get him outta there. So proud of the girls, their Netflix documentary is so good.” Meanwhile, a third one said, “He looks sooo out of place in there with those gorg girls.”

Bang Si Hyuk is one of the most influential people in the South Korean entertainment industry. After a brief stint as a composer, he established his own entertainment company BigHit Entertainment in 2005. Soon after, he founded the multinational entertainment company HYBE Corporation which operates as a record label, talent agency, music production company, event management and music publishing house.