“Love 119” by Riize (라이즈), Monday, January 22, 2024

Last year, RIIZE (라이즈) debuted on SM Entertainment with their single “Memories” from the single Get a Guitar. The group was comprised of seven members until a scandal broke out with Hong Seunghan (홍승한) who was placed on an indefinite hiatus from the group. The boy band has released four singles so far, with January 5’s “Love 119” as their latest. Rather than a rap, the song features a catchy chant, lamenting a girl who has done the speaker of the song wrong. The speaker frantically dials 119, the emergency number in South Korea, to declare that “the girl’s a killer.”

 SAVE MY LIFE, SAVE MY LIFE. Shortly after RIIZE’s debut, the K-pop community started calling Anton, one of the group’s members, a “nepo baby.” Anton is the stage name for Lee Chan Yeong (이찬영). His father, Lee Yoon Sang (이윤상) is musician who started his musical career playing bass for singer Kim Wan-sun’s backing band. In 1900, he began a solo career. After releasing his 2002 album Migration (이사), he began songwriting and composing for SM Entertainment. He continued to release albums in the late ‘00s, exploring the sub-genre of glitch music. In 2002, he married actress Shim Hye-Jin, his Co-star in his music video for “As Always.” In 2004, Chan Yeong was born in Boston, where the couple resided while Yoon Sang pursued a bachelor’s degree in music synthesis from Berklee College of Music. Chan Yeong was educated in the United States where he learned cello and swimming in addition to the core curriculum. His dream was to be a swimmer before he pursued music professionally. 

THIS IS AN EMERGENCY. The term nepo baby is short for nepotism baby, a term popularized in the 2010s, but in 2020, the term was shortened to nepo baby. A definition of nepo baby is a child of a celebrity who gains success in a similar field. In the entertainment industries, this practice has been happening since before Johann Sebastian Bach, but one famous example from closer to our time is Jamie Leigh Curtis, daughter of Psycho actress Janet Leigh and actor Tony Curtis. But Jamie Leigh Curtis is an acclaimed actress, so she usually doesn’t get called a “nepo baby.” The term “nepotism baby” first emerged online to discuss the unfair practices in the Bollywood industry. In 2020, “nepo baby” was used to describe Euphoria actress Maude Apatow, daughter of director Judd Apatow and actress Leslie Mann. The term is often given to entertainers that some consumers feel their fame exceeds their talent. As tastes vary, the term has been used pejoratively in online discourse. The discussions about K-pop nepotism had been brewing prior to Riize’s debut, but with the online call out Anton, the singer decided to address the controversy on Twitter (now X).Rather than denying his status, he simply tweeted “born this way by lady gaga.” Was the tweet an acknowledgment of talent or privilege? Or was it both? Wherever my readers stand on the “nepo baby” debate, I think that rather than attacking entertainers, we need to look at the gatekeepers of the entertainment industries. It’s a winning lottery ticket for most people to get famous. For those with connections, success isn’t always granted; however, the lottery is more like having multiple at a local raffle. Whereas, the infamous need luck and talent, the children of celebrities don’t necessarily need luck. Anton is clearly a talented individual. That talent has been grown thanks to his privileged upbringing. But still, he put in the work to become a star, and many in the arts who come from privileged backgrounds. Why is K-pop any different? No, don’t attack the children of celebrities. Instead, attack specific parts of the system that gate-keep the poor from becoming stars—the unpaid training camps, the unpaid internships, the exploitive recording contracts, the under-reported sexual exploitation, the impossible body standards—not the stars who have worked hard for their place in the industry.

Read the Korean lyrics on Genius.

Read the Romanized lyrics on Genius.

Read the lyrics on Genius.

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