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'The Second World': Mamamoo Moonbyul, ex-AOA Jimin, WJSN EXY and more join rap show

The survival show has popular idols like Yubin of Wonder Girls fame and Oh My Girl's Mimi along with rookies like Billlie's Sua and CLASS:y's Seonyou

While the usual K-pop survival shows like ‘Produce’, ‘Show Me The Money’ and ‘Queendom/Kingdom’ are popular, new types of Korean competition programs are cropping up. ‘Street Woman Fighter’ saw immense success as the backbone of K-pop was acknowledged with dancers going viral. ‘Extreme Debut: Wild Idol’ impressed viewers as the show took ‘survival’ literally and had trainees surviving in the wild. In the meantime, PSY and JYP decided to hold a joint survival show with ‘LOUD’. And now we have ‘The Second World’ with A-list rappers like Mamamoo’s Moonbyul, WJSN’s EXY and Jimin of AOA fame.

Broadcasters are going all out as evident with ‘Girls Planet 999’ which was an ambitious show with 99 participants from South Korea, Japan and China. With partnerships between the opposite gender being considered taboo, ‘Double Trouble’ broke barriers with male and female idols participating as duos. We also have band shows trying to carve a space for bands in an idol group-heavy industry with ‘Great Seoul Invasion’ and ‘The Idol Band’. Well, ‘The Second World’ hopes to break the prejudice that idol rappers are those idols who could not sing but were charming enough to debut.

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‘The Second World’ lineup revealed

There is a lot of prejudice when it comes to idol rappers. Underground rappers look down upon idol rappers as they feel they don’t have the same skill level. On the other hand, K-pop fans feel that idol rappers are those who are not talented enough to sing. ‘The Second World’ hopes to break the second stigma by having popular female rappers compete by singing on the new JTBC survival show. They have roped in huge girl group rappers who have turned heads with their rapping as well as being part of representative K-pop girl groups.

While the lineup was rumored to have popular female idols and mark the return of Shin Jimin to K-pop, the complete lineup was confirmed by Korean media outlet Osen on August 1. It includes Yubin of Wonder Girls fame, Mamamoo’s Moonbyul, Oh My Girl’s Mimi, Momoland's JooE, WJSN’s Exy and former AOA leader Jimin. It also has rookie idols who are turning heads with their recent debut like Billlie’s Moon Sua and CLASS:y’s Seonyou. The preliminary round where the artists released a blind audio snippet was released on Naver Now on August 1.

Fans are guessing the identities of the artists that were hidden during the snippet to vote for their favorites on the Naver Now app. Many speculate that Yubin is Judgment, Jimin is Hermit, Moonbyul is Emperor, Mimi is Strength, Exy is Devil, JooE is Sun, Sua is Magician and Seonyou is Star. The show is as star-studded as it can get as ‘The Second World’ has also roped in ballad singer Paul Kim as the main host. Kim Bumsoo, Jungyeop, Apink’s Eunji, Melomance’s Kim Minseok and BTOB’s Eunkwang are the mentors.

'Show full of aces'

One fan was impressed, “Four former Unpretty Rapstar contestants wow.” A CLASS:y fan tweeted, “No because Seonyou auditioned for being MAIN DANCER, got MAIN RAPPER position after debuting and now showcasing MAIN VOCAL talents being picked to be on the show full of ACES, that's heck of a flex from a 14 YEAR OLD GIRL.” A Billlie fan was shocked, “LISTEN TO HER LISTEN TO HOW SHE ATE I'M SCREAMINGGGJKDSFJKSDHFDFK.” A Momoland fan posted, “The Sun JooE! lets go give us sunburn and vitamin D.”

A Mamamoo fan wrote, “Moonbyul needs to win! She usually hates these type of shows but I'm happy she's putting herself out there. Hope gp will finally pay attention to her. I'm curious to hear the released songs from the other competitors.” With Exy being considered the villain on the survival show ‘Queendom 2’, one joked, “The devil ?? exy continuing her villain era.” A Yubin fan added, “Yubin is clearing have you all heard this masterpiece it’s not a duet it’s all her.” An Oh My Girl fan was surprised, “OMG MIMI JOINING A SURVIVAL SHOW???? WHAT.” Another shared, “AOA Jimin too???? okay I'm extra pumped now she has a great voice.”

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