They snubbed BTS and they will continue snubbing BTS because they are trying to basically say, "if you dont sit where we tell you to sit, you wont get any seat at any table"
#ArtHasNoAliens
Hobi was 15 when CB was sentenced. Joonie was only 14. They were Korean CHILDREN who didn't even speak English until YEARS later. Do ppl really expect them to have since deep dived into the personal history of every foreign artist whose music they like? Unjust condemnation much?
When Chris Brown’s court case happened in 2009, J-Hope was 15 and RM was 14 both are middle and high-school kids in South Korea focused on dance and underground rap. They weren’t fluent in English, and Western internet drama wasn’t part of Korean media or news then. To them, Chris Brown was simply a global force in dance and R&B whose music and choreography they studied and respected after Michael Jackson.
So expecting two Korean teenagers to have researched the personal legal history of every foreign artist they admired is an impossible task, hyper-localized Western standard. Condemning them now for a casual backstage photo with Chris Brown and Usher is selective outrage dressed up as accountability.
Western artists have collaborated, toured, and reconciled with Chris Brown for years with far less scrutiny. Yet when it’s BTS, a standard industry photo is treated like a moral betrayal. J-Hope is a dancer’s dancer and RM is a student of hip-hop. Linking up with major performers is normal professional networking and mutual respect among hip-hop industry not an endorsement of anyone’s past.
Both of them are grown men navigating the global music industry. Let them appreciate the music, take the photo, and move on without the internet policing their every interaction.