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SHINee's Key puts company stans in place with ruthless view that he is SM Entertainment's ‘contract worker’

Key breaks the illusion that many company stans had of artists considering their K-pop label as 'family'

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA: While K-pop is pretty conservative, more and more artists are speaking out and being honest. With variety shows like ‘Jessi’s Showterview’ and Lee Youngji’s ‘My Alcohol Diary’, it is also giving a global platform for idols to finally break the illusion of the 'perfect' K-pop industry. SHINee’s Key appeared on Youngji’s show to promote his solo album ‘Gasoline’. The hilarious YouTube show has Youngji getting her guests drunk while chatting and interviewing them. And whether Key is sober or drunk, fans know that he is pretty blunt as he gave his ruthless view of SM.

At one point, as is Key known for being an entertainer, Lee Youngji claimed that the SHINee star was coming for her YouTube gig. In response, Key said, “Since I am also a contract worker and you are also a contract worker, we never know what will happen in the future. I always think that way.” Youngji couldn’t stop laughing as she said, “I have never seen [an idol] who introduces himself as a contract worker.” Key was ruthless as he was blunt, “I am a contract worker. It’s a lie to say that the company is a family.” On the release of the episode, SM company stans scrambled to explain his words.

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Key talks about his label SM

Youngji was surprised that Key was being honest but also agreed when he said, “We are just helping each other.” The SHINee star jokingly added, “I love my company, I love you.” When Youngji asked if SM’s CEO Lee Soo-man tells him what to do for his comebacks, Key laughed and said, “He doesn’t do it to me.” But fans couldn’t help but remember the time Key had said that it had taken SHINee seven years before they got any creative freedom. And while SM Entertainment has often been slammed for allegedly mistreating their artists to even blacklisting some, there are a lot of people who are actually fans of the company.

Watch the video below.

In the earlier K-pop generations, the companies and their artists use to portray an image of a family which led to fans sometimes liking an artist only because they were under that particular company. There are still a lot of company stans as evident when many recently defended SM when EXO-Ls called out the company for EXO’s poor treatment at the Suwon concert and NCTzens slammed SM for not managing NCT 127’s world tour properly. Well, Key’s ruthless words had fans finally calling out company stans. While it may just be a coincidence that someone likes artists from the same company but to like a company has the K-pop Twitter community weirded out.

‘Someone keeping it real’

One fan tweeted, “Thanks kibum now the sm stan can shut their mouths with their only argument.” One was surprised that people were twisting Key’s words, “Already seeing everyone using kibum's words to claim that sm family does not exist. He was not talking about the other artists, he was referring to the company itself, to the ones who exploit and disrespect them to make profits, sm is not a family, its a company with the aim of making money.” One found the whole concept funny, “Are company stans even a real thing or another stan twt boogeyman... like have you ever seen a mf go to bat over sm entertainment as a company like ACTUALLY.”

Another fan clarified, “You can love your company but it's inherently a business relationship. Never stan companies, they do not care about you and if they are not serving you, quit! This applies to non-celebrity humans especially! Key hasn't quit. It's a business relationship that is functioning well.” One added, “Finally someone keeping it real LOL everyone (should) knows even in real corpo world that ur company is never your family, it's all transactional in the end of the day.” Another joked, “Hoshi crying on youngji’s show: i love my company so f**king much key on youngji’s show: sm is not even my cousin 52 times removed.”

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