Park Hyun Ho, who formerly promoted with ToppDogg under the stage name Seogoong, spoke in a recent video about feeling ostracized within the group. The agency of his fellow former member Sanggyun has now issued a statement denying his allegations.
On December 11, an interview with Park Hyun Ho was uploaded to the YouTube channel Idol Olympic, in which he spoke about his past and current career. The video is no longer viewable on the channel.
Park Hyun Ho debuted in 2013 with the 13-member group ToppDogg (which now goes by the name XENO-T), and he departed from the group in January 2015. After performing as a musical actor, he re-debuted as a soloist under the stage name I’M. He is currently appearing on the KBS show for trot singers “Trot National Championships” (literal title).
When asked in the video if he has fun memories of his time promoting with ToppDogg, Park Hyun Ho said, “There were a lot of fun parts, and it was great because it was a foothold in the beginning of my dream, so I felt like I’d achieved a dream. It would be good if there had just been happy things, but I think I didn’t have a good relationship with the members.”
“I thought that it would be a great thing if one of the members were doing well for the sake of the team, even if it weren’t me, but that wasn’t how it was from a parental perspective,” said Park Hyun Ho. “It’s natural for parents to all think ‘My son is the best.'” He spoke about how such issues had been the start of the problem and he ended up experiencing something similar to being ostracized among the members.
“We naturally grew farther and farther apart,” he said. He later commented in the video that he had thought that him gaining attention after showing what he could do was for the sake of the group.
He also talked about some of his experiences during their promotions. He said, “At the end, I was alone during the recording for the ‘Anniversary’ album title track, and I was also alone on the music video set. I was upset to keep being separated from the others.”
“On the music video set, a van would come with lunch boxes,” he said. “The others would all be eating, but I was in our vehicle, and I’d eat when they were done. I think they separated us like that because they were worried we’d fight if we happened to meet. Then when I went to the music video filming, I had to pretend to be close with them again. I endured it back then but when I look back now, I wonder how I managed it.”
He shared, “The decision on whether I would leave ToppDogg or not was made in such a cruel way through a vote with all the members together, including me. It was said, ‘If you want Seogoong to leave, raise your hand.’ In front of me, one by one they raised their hands. I get a bit choked up even thinking about it now. It was the worst.”
He went on to say, “Nowadays, our relationship has improved to the point that we say things to each other like, ‘How are you doing?’ and ‘Let’s get together and make music.'” He shared that if he was now asked about potentially getting ToppDogg back together, he would want to do that.
JBJ95’s Sanggyun is also a former member of ToppDogg, last promoting with the group before competing on the 2017 Mnet competition show “Produce 101 Season 2.” His agency Star Road Entertainment released the following statement:
Hello. This is Star Road Entertainment.
We are issuing our official statement regarding the content related to the video uploaded on a certain YouTube channel that is being mentioned on online communities and in the media.
We have taken measures such as conducting a detailed check beginning with the time period mentioned in the YouTube video, and we found that [the truth] is entirely different from what is said in the video.
After this, we sent an official request to the YouTube channel to delete the video, and the video has been deleted from the channel.
Our agency plans to take a strong response in future to protect our artist’s rights and interests in relation to the dissemination of false information and the act of spreading this, and we will show no leniency nor come to agreements.
We thank everyone who loves JBJ95 and we will continue to do our best through continued monitoring and active response for the protection of our artist’s rights and interests, as much as the amount that you cherish them.
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