Rumors
We noticed that, due to inaccurate translations and a lack of reliable sources, a lot of rumors are floating around the English-speaking part of the fandom. We'll address them to the best of our abilities. If you'd like us to try to verify something you've heard about, you can post it on the forum or e-mail either of us.
Wheesung will start his military service in November 2007.
Wheesung is currently scheduled to tour Korea and participate in concerts until late December. Singers in Korea are not legally allowed to perform while they're doing their compulsory military service. Do the math.
Perry is half-Filipino/half-Russian/half-Caucasian/etc.
No. Perry's full name is Perry Thomas Borja, and he is half-Japanese, half-Chamorro. His last name is a very typical Chamorro name (and it's Spanish, so it's pronounced Borha). Note that this hasn't been stated in any official sources (except a couple of Guamanian DJ websites), but it's common sense and we're 99% sure of it. Check out his profile for more information.
Sandara Park is a YG trainee/will debut soon.
Sandara got vocal training from YG Entertainment in 2005, with no intention of getting an actual contract with the label. But in the fall of 2007, articles about her started popping up on Korean entertainment news sites, and after one of PopSeoul's usual shit-stirring, rumor-mongering posts, lots of people started assuming that YG was still training her and planning her debut. None of this has been confirmed, and YG hasn't said a word about her recently.
Taebin's Taboo MV was censored/taken off the air.
What actually happened is that the song wasn't aired on radio because Taebin sings about sleeping with a girl who has a boyfriend. The ministry of culture and tourism (who also handles censorship) considered that a bad example/a bad influence on young people's values, so it wasn't aired. But there was no MV, and as far as we know there never were any plans to film one, either.
YG is an asshole.
This is kind of vague, but we felt we had to say something about it anyway. Many YG Family fans joined the fandom recently because of Se7en and Big Bang, and all they've seen is YG yelling at Big Bang during their documentary and failing to release albums on time. We've seen many newer fans who are pissed at YG all the time, as if he's out to delay releases on purpose and yell at artists for no reason.
So er, the truth is that YG is a cheerful, naive, incredibly silly man with an enormous lisp and an inability to act like a CEO. The "official" messages he writes on the website should NEVER be taken seriously - they will give you a vague, rambling idea of what YG would like to accomplish in the coming months. They are NOT a schedule, and they have never been. What we have here is a CEO who lets the fans know in what direction he'd like to take the label in a friendly, informal tone. Appreciate it for what it is.
Also, he apologizes frequently in those messages when he makes mistakes. For example, he's apologized for being harsh to Taekwon, and he's apologized copiously for not taking the best decisions about Lexy's first two albums. He truly means well, despite being a bit of an airhead. He's not a businessman and he's always had trouble with deadlines, but he gives his artists a lot of freedom and he's directly involved in their work (he writes songs, remixes, choreographies, etc). YG Entertainment is a fairly small label with limited resources, so you shouldn't expect a magical gasoo mill. They're going to screw up and miss deadlines sometimes. Keep in mind that you only know about YG's fuck-ups because YG chose to let you know what his plans were in the first place.
1TYM and military service.
Here's the situation for each member:
Taebin: Was born in the US and doesn't have dual citizenship (as far as we know), so he can stay in Korea as long as he wants with a work visa and doesn't have to do his military service.
Baek Kyoung: His father died when he was young, so as the only male provider in his family, he's exempted from military service.
Jinhwan: Currently doing his military service. This implies a few months of basic training and then a normal government job. Jinhwan is currently working in a courtroom - he's not going to spend three years rolling around in the mud in camo pants and a buzzcut. The government uses compulsory service to get a variety of jobs done, from cleaning toilets to driving people around to working for the riot police.
Teddy: Was born in Korea and has dual citizenship. Unfortunately, a law was recently created to prevent people from giving up their Korean citizenship if they haven't done their military service yet. Teddy hasn't, so he can't stay in the country for more than a few weeks at a time. If he does, he could get drafted, and he clearly doesn't want to be. YG often has problems renewing Teddy's visa, so this is why he isn't around for promotion as much as the others. This was a big problem during the 4th and 5th album promotion, and it's probably why Teddy spends most of his time in the US.
Perry and Lexy dated.
There is no proof out there that Perry and Lexy have ever dated. That doesn't mean they haven't - just that there's no proof and that someone who pretends to know about it is most likely making shit up. We've seen two justifications for this rumor:
a) Perry is Lexy's producer, and all female artists sleep with their producers, duh, and
b) This picture.
I don't think we need to go over the reasons why both these justifications are moronic.
Taebin and Se7en dated.
We just want to clear this up in case any newcomers honestly believe it happened: Again, no proof. What happened was lots of cute banter and lots of fanservice for a year or two. Had there been anything resembling proof of an actual relationship, we can guarantee that the Korean media would've had a field day with it, and you would have heard about it.