Rain Faces Backlash After Showing Interest to Sign Rookie Boy Group After CIIPHER & MBLAQ's 'Mismanagement' Controversy

After accusations of mismanaging and abandoning MBLAQ and CIIPHER, Rain who showed another interest in signing rookie boy group members triggered the anger of K-pop fans.

Here's what her said.

Rain Expresses Desire to Sign C-Pop Group Boyhood Members in Survival Show

On November 25, K-pop icon Rain appeared on the Hong Kong-based idol survival program, "Asia Super Young," as one of the judges, alongside former WJSN Cheng Xiao, and Yuehua's NEXT's Zhu Zhengting.

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The show aimed to launch a nine-member boy group among 65 participants, and Rain joined them as its judge, mentor, and executive producer.

In the episode, the members of the Chinese boy group, BOYHOOD, participated in the competition and following their stage, Rain was impressed and gave a favorable review, saying:

"If Yuehua is not planning to sign them, I'll take them. Is that okay?"

Hearing this, NEXT Zhu Zhengting replied with laughter and told him:

"Nope, it's not possible."

IYKYK: Rain Criticized for Wanting to Sign New Boy Group Amid Accusations He Abandoned CIIPHER & MBLAQ

While the remark was supposed to be light-hearted and harmless, K-pop fans aren't particularly happy with it.

Rain is a well-respected entity in the Korean music scene as a soloist and actor, but fans are not fond of him as a producer and CEO.

In the past, Rain created J.Tune Camp and launched MBLAQ. Due to his name and the members' skills, they immediately rose to fame and were even dubbed "Next TVXQ."

But this didn't happen after Rain allegedly "abandoned" the group and the company, which led to the group's hiatus.

In 2021 then, he created RAIN Company and personally handpicked and trained the boy group CIIPHER, which also drew decent success. Were they promoted properly and given more opportunities such as albums and content, fans believed that they could've gone higher.

However, CIIPHER barely had two albums and didn't release anything in 2023. Due to a lengthy hiatus, some members including Keita and Hyunbin joined survival shows.

While CIIPHER garnered more attention due to the members' participation in these audition shows, they brought unfortunate news by announcing that four members (Tan, Tag, Dohwan, and Won) left the group, leaving Hwi, Hyunbin, and Keita as the remaining members.

Because Keita re-debuted in EVVNE, a "Boys Planet" spin-off group, it is hard for the two current members to continue with group activities.

Thus, Rain's remark sparked outrage as fans can't afford to see more idols and trainees abandoned.

K-pop fans left comments such as:

• "I swear to god, this man deserves all the hate. What? Are you looking for more trainee's dreams to destroy? Is destroying 3 groups not enough already? Stay away from those kids."
• "The level of ignorance this man has is truly unbeatable."
• "He did not just say that, the fxck."
• "He's disgusting."
• "This man is sick."
• "Oh, he's so shameless."

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Written by Eunice Dawson.