Papa YG Finally Gets His Shit Together and Confirms 2NE1′s Comeback
Despite having a hugely successful 2012 thanks to PSY, BIGBANG, and Lee Hi, YG Entertainment has been a hot ass mess for the past year. The label keeps trolling us with endless photos and articles about their new girl group (the “YG SNSD,” which so far just looks like 2NE1 but more attractive), endless promises of debuts and comebacks have been broken (SuPearls? Taeyang solo?), and worst of all, the label completely dropped the ball on 2NE1′s comeback.
While YG worked on Lee Hi, two new girl groups, a new boy band, and another BIGBANG comeback, 2NE1 released one lone digital single in 2012, then had their album postponed and were left to spend the rest of the year touring and giving delusional interviews to the American press. YG has now confirmed that the Jeremy Scott models will release their serially-delayed comeback album in March, although, given the label’s penchant for pushbacks, I’ll believe it when I see it. But still, a loose confirmation is better than the big fat nothing we’ve had for the past few months. 2NE1′s disappearance after “I Love You” was so strange that I was beginning to suspect that there might be some internal issues within the group that were preventing them from returning. But I guess their absence was probably more to do with typical YG mismanagement and the label choosing to focus all of its energy on everyone but 2NE1 and Gummy.
On top of the 2NE1 comeback in March, we’re also getting Lee Hi’s solo disc (SuPearls who?), and another fucking G-Dragon solo album, which is the last thing that the world needs right now. I’m a GD fan, but he’s the will.i.am of K-pop. He needs to stay producing for BIGBANG or working behind the scenes with other artists, and stop inflicting generic crap like “Heartbreaker” and “Crayon” onto the public. Especially when his bandmates are getting shafted because of it. I’m here for more BIGBANG, solo Seungri, GD&TOP, and maybe Taeyang — but no more GD on his own.
As for 2NE1′s comeback, I hope that the girls have used their downtime to work on improving the group’s weaknesses. Their music is deteriorating since they peaked with the awesome To Anyone album, and now that Bom’s voice is fucked and her plastic surgery addiction is getting worse, it’s becoming more and more obvious that the talented CL and Minzy are carrying the whole group on their shoulders. Considering that Lee Hi recently admitted that Papa YG has trained her so hard that she’s been in hospital and suffering from sudden bouts of deafness, it’s disappointing to see Dara showing zero improvement and Bom actually declining. And if the group’s recent interviews are anything to go by, CL is starting to believe that the rebellious, trendsetting concept that YG manufactured for 2NE1 is actually reality. You can’t really blame the girl when will.i.am and Jeremy Scott are kissing her ass all day, but her attitude isn’t going to help 2NE1 show some much needed growth when she already thinks that they’re the modern day Beatles and she’s the female Paul McCartney.
Oh well. Just gimme a song as good as “Scream” or “Hate You” and I’ll shut up.
