TIME

John Somi used to be one of the most adored K-pop girls out there. However, due to a few missteps either with her music or her online persona, Somi went from being widely loved to someone that the internet barely tolerates anymore. We can trace everything back to when Somi released her first mini-album Gameplan on August 7th, 2023 after a two-year break following XOXO. If we're being fair, fans found the title track fast-forward disappointing for many reasons, but overall, the song wasn't the actual issue with the comeback. According to fans, it actually sounded better than the song she had released up to that point. As a Redditor pointed out, the song felt like Somi pulled the best bits and pieces from old pop hits and house tracks and mashed them all into one song. But again, people's opinions on the song didn't really matter in that particular era because Somi and the Black Label found themselves at the center of a plagiarism controversy. When the music video was released, fans noticed that an animated character that appears in one of the scenes bore a striking resemblance to the artwork of Japanese manga artist Rumiko Takahashi, specifically from the first volume cover of the manga series Iruse Yatsuru. Although the character was intended to look like Somi, the similarities were too close to ignore, with the only significant differences being the direction the character was facing and the hairstyle. Once fans compared the two images side by side and even layered them on top of each other, it became clear that the design might have even been traced, which made everything much worse. After all, the Black Label was a company that had all the funds and resources available to them, and they could have easily hired an artist instead of just tracing over existing art. Despite people claiming that the use of the word plagiarism was too harsh, the Black Label acknowledged that there was indeed an issue here, put out an apology to the original artist, and edited the music video to remove the scene in question. Then, a few months later, on December 7, 2023, Somi faced a lot of criticism for a joke on Twitter that spiraled out of control. The whole thing went like this. A K-pop fan made a tweet that criticized several YG artists while praising her and telling her that she's loved, which was a trend at the time. Somi, known for her dry humor, sarcastically responded with, "'Yay, they like me.'" Everyone familiar with Somi saw the tweet as it was, a harmless joke without any evil intent behind it. However, not everyone saw it that way, as some fans interpreted her comment as throwing shade at her fellow label mates, including K-pop icons, despite others insisting it was all in good fun. Even those who recognized it as a joke suggested she should have been more cautious with her words, especially since these were her label mates and even friends. A user wrote, "'What gets me is you're enabling the hate.'" Even if it's meant to be sarcastic, the response the troll did seem to enable them, and it's worse because 2NE1 is involved in there. After much debate online, Somi ended up deleting the tweet, but by then, the controversy had already gone off the rails. Fans of the artist mentioned in the original tweet were obviously upset no matter what the original intent of the tweet was. They were actually so upset that they began digging through Somi's past comments, trying to find more instances of her supposedly being shady towards other YG artists. Particularly, they brought up a past interview where Somi praised Teddy Park, co-founder of the Black label, in Complex's Goat Talk series. When asked about the greatest of all time K-pop legends, she mentioned Teddy and his work with legendary groups like Big Bang, 2NE1, and Blackpink. Though she clearly meant to highlight Teddy's influence, some fans twisted her words, accusing her of diminishing the accomplishments of these groups. However, many believe this whole controversy was blown out of proportion by people looking for something to be upset about. Somi has strong friendships not only with other YG artists, but basically everyone in the industry, and it's really doubtful that she would risk those relationships just for a hit tweet. This incident wasn't something that could derail Somi's career. She didn't bother addressing or apologizing for it, especially since only a few random people were upset, and her silence actually helped the situation fade away more quickly. This didn't mean that Somi's problems would end there, though, as she was about to face her biggest scandal yet. Believe it or not, it all had to do with Starbucks. If you have been on the internet for the past few months, you would know that there has been a worldwide boycott of Starbucks. This started because the company sued Starbucks Workers United, its employee union, for copyright infringement after the union shared a pro-Palestine post and later liked a message urging people not to buy Starbucks gift cards during the holidays. Starbucks publicly disagreed with the union's stance on Palestine, sparking mixed reactions. As Starbucks tried to maintain a neutral position with vague statements, its pro-Palestine customers organized protests and boycotts. The controversy is also tied to Howard Schultz, who's a major private shareholder in Starbucks and who's also known for his strong support of Zionism. Schultz, who has a significant stake in the company, has shown his backing for Israel's economy by investing a whopping $1.7 billion in the Israeli cybersecurity startup Wiz. This connection led to widespread boycotts, with influencers and celebrities being encouraged to avoid Starbucks and instead support other coffee shops that aren't funding Israel. As we mentioned, even if some people didn't know what the whole boycott was about, they were aware that it was happening as it was widely discussed online. Imagine how shocking it was when Somi posted a TikTok video using what appeared to be a Starbucks cup from their 2023 holiday collection. Let's not get things twisted, she wasn't the first nor the last idol that posted or spoke about the brand during that time. However, unlike her peers, Somi had built a reputation for being more woke and in touch with issues than most idols, so when she made this move, it upset people more than it might have with others. So the cup, which seemed empty and out of place in the video, led many to believe that Somi might have been paid to subtly promote the brand in hopes of influencing their fans to buy from it and disregard the boycott. It was especially suspicious since usually K-pop idols usually avoid showing logos or brand names in videos and other content unless it is a paid promotion. This led fans to believe that Somi's use of the cup was financially motivated, which made things worse in everyone's eyes. As expected, there was a lot of criticism and people accusing her of selling out her morals just to promote the brand. A Twitter user wrote, "'Money speaks louder than people's lives. These celebrities supporting a company funding Israel know nothing about sympathy and humanity. No morals." Due to all the backlash, Somi deleted the TikTok video without much noise or a public explanation. She vaguely touched on the controversy when she later spoke with a fan who mentioned they sympathized with everything she had been through. Somi replied by saying she had deleted the video and was done with making careless mistakes, wanting only to spread love from now on. She added that despite what people said about her or her actions, she still had love for everyone and admitted that she was feeling a bit fragile. This wasn't good enough for some netizens, though, since, to them, it was barely an apology. She didn't directly address the issue or even say sorry anyway in her response. Some even went as far as to accuse her of playing the victim, but even though the issue was pretty big and still gets mentioned from time to time, it was largely forgotten. Somi couldn't shake off the money-hungry idol label right away, though. On April 2nd, she launched her makeup brand, Glyph. She said that she had drawn from her experience as a The brand's first release was a highlighter, but it received criticism immediately after release, as people believed that the product was way too expensive for its quality. To give context, the highlighter featured four colors and was priced at $32, which netizens found outrageous. As a netizen wrote, If I'm going to invest in a good highlighter palette, I might as well pay a little more for something like Dior or Chanel. The argument against the price was that, since this is a brand attached to Somi's name, you're paying for the name rather than the product. This is mostly the case with celebrity makeup brands. Even if the product might not be the best one in the market, people will still buy it because it's from a certain celebrity. Some pointed out that the prices weren't unreasonable, noting that similar products in Korea are priced about the same, making Somi's brand fairly accessible to the average consumer. However, it was also argued that Somi's name wasn't big enough just yet to justify pricing the product the same as a high-end brand. A second commenter said, This is her first product, so what brand name? 40,000 won for a highlighter is expensive. A few netizens also said that since you can find products of the same quality in drugstores for a much cheaper price, there wasn't any reason for people to purchase Somi's. The brand's second product is a cherry-themed pimple patch, but so far the product has sold out, gotten good reviews, and was even used by Kiss of Life's Natty, so things don't seem to be going that bad for her in that area. She also reduced the highlighter palette's price to $25.45, which some saw as a poor business move. To one user, lowering the price gave the impression that the product was overpriced initially, which could potentially cheapen the brand's image. Now, her latest comeback titled Ice Cream wasn't actually controversial in the traditional sense of the word, but instead it received criticism for how bad it was. Sure, there were accusations of plagiarism and copying, but nothing that could be considered truly offensive. What was considered offensive, though, was how bland and unoriginal the song turned out. The music video was cute, but nothing new, and the Park Seo-Joon cameo was a nice surprise. But the company and the producers brought nothing interesting to the table. It was all just a cheesy and repetitive instrumental, with an empty chorus that sounds outdated and nonsensical lyrics for the most part. Many commenters have also said that the song doesn't bring out any of Somi's strongest points because the choreography makes her look awkward and the singing parts make her sound strained. Not to mention, due to her being an artist under the Black label, her releases are few and far between and are mostly single albums. So, when she released Ice Cream, people were of the opinion that it sounded like a Meghan Trainor reject or a summer ad jingle that you would hear on TV, which was disappointing knowing that they had waited a year for this. A Reddit user noted that if she had been more active in music, this track might have been seen as a fun summer release. However, with her current inactivity, every song she releases feels like it should be a major event for fans who have been waiting for her, and in the user's opinion, the song doesn't deliver that feeling. Some compared it to her earlier work, particularly Fast Forward, and felt that Ice Cream lacked the charm of her previous songs. They argued it didn't showcase Somi's growth or evolution as an artist, not that the Black label is letting her evolve as an artist in the first place. Putting out a mini or single album each year with short songs that seem like leftovers from Teddi's work with Blackpink hasn't really moved her career forward. This approach has left her in a stagnant spot for a while now, and to this point, fans are even finding it hard to be The good news is that Somi might have a lot more in store for us. In a Forbes interview, Somi revealed she has a fresh concept for her next release that's still under wraps and suggested this idea could come to life soon. She also noted that her trip to New York last year kicked off her international promotions and urged fans to stay tuned for her future travels and new music, which we will definitely do. We can only hope the company realizes Somi's potential and stops wasting it on generic songs that don't help her grow as an artist.