stardom is the worst

hello i used to be a topp dogg fan in korea and i have a lot of sources for information, i don’t want to out ppl who helped me or stuff i overheard but if u use ur mind i’m sure u can put it all together yourselves.

im just really sick of stardom’s shit. this really is maybe the worst ent company in korea and because td members are stuck there they dont get an opportunity to showcase themselves, they’re constantly stuck with the “nugu” label and i guess watching yano and kidoh be not only swept away but spat on by former stardom trash themselves i have had it up to here with their shit. yes it is worse than you think it is, even if you already think its bad. i tried to highlight the real red flags instead of just the general side eyeish nugu fare like pimping the members out on dates with fans and seogoong and the whole under dogg thing so yea those also happened but the things im gonna talk about are like driving down the wrong side of the highway concerns that truthfully scare me



i was inspired to write this not just by mino on smtm, former stardom trash who now seems to think he’s better than people stuck behind the bullet he dodged so shoutout to mino…u piece of shit… , i was also inspired by the ticket sales for their european tour leg which is in dire straits. i am so sorry if this hurts their fans or hurts the boys although it really shouldn’t, i hope exposing how shitty stardom is panders for sympathy and ends up helping them. no one from stardom is explaining anything to anyone so maybe its time for me to share what i know..

first of all, topp dogg doesn’t make any money for stardom at all. what little they make from appearance contracts (wapop, those small little festivals for random things like “the (food/hobby/nature item) festival” and usually have one common sponsor who deals with getting artists to show up) and fansigns (see below) cannot possibly cover the cost of an entire company who has put all their eggs in this basket and has nothing else to make them money. i honestly don’t know how stardom employees are being paid salaries at this point if they are, topp dogg themselves sure aren’t.

failed lottery fansigns: lets start with this which isnt exactly hurting stardom but sets the mood for what kind of company they are. usually groups from small companies with small followings start off with first come first serve fansigns. through that system you only buy one album and as long as you’re in the first 100 or so to buy that day from the time the buying period starts, you’re in the fansign. when groups get more popular they often switch to lottery if they feel like they can sell more than the 100 or so albums, which encourages people to obviously buy more albums and that earns the company more money. but in the beginning fansigns are usually made easier to get into so as not to discourage a fanbase that isnt fully loyal to a group yet and maybe won’t buy for a group unless there’s a guarantee they get in. stardom is of course the exception and topp dogg has always been lottery from the very first fansign. if you wanted to get into a topp dogg fansign for sure you had to buy more than one album, even though most fansigns even now have less than 100 participants overall. that’s because stardom is all about smoke and mirrors, trying to make people think there’s more demand for topp dogg than really is. ofc you could always buy only one album anyway but if more than 100 people buy then no one is guaranteed and if you need to get in every time, eg fansite, you’re forced into overbuying and therefore giving stardom more money.



failed first concert: keeping in line with stardoms smoke and mirrors tactics, in november they announced topp dogg’s first concert which they are nowhere near popular enough for, and japanese fans could pay to get a separate tour package which came with an exclusive fanmeeting just for them. they tried to put it in a venue where artists like vixx and bangtan have concerts….lol. and then after we all bought tickets they cancelled it and rescheduled it to another venue because obviously you can’t sell 100 tickets to a 3000 seater arena and expect to cover your costs at all. they moved the venue to an art hall the size of a movie theater, selling the tickets for 80 dollars a pop and they struggled to sell more than 150 tickets. i think i literally saw every stardom staff i’ve ever seen in the back seats trying desperately to fill them. we’ve all seen what first kpop concerts look like and this was an embarrassment. the venue was the type of stage that has red curtains on the sides of it, there were technical problems and that exclusive fanmeeting the japanese fans were supposed to get? i figured out what that i was sitting in it when “topp dogg 1st fanmeeting” was displayed on the back led screen in japanese writing only during every ment. not only did japanese fans get ripped off for paying 3 times as much for the same thing we got but it was a joke and your first concert as an idol is like your virginity, you cant get that moment back once its gone and it’s all because of stardom’s earth shattering levels of out of touchness that this happened. why did anyone green light this tremendous embarrassment and waste of money at stardom? because stardom thought that a first concert might trick people into thinking topp dogg is cool, established and popular. smoke and mirrors

edit: ok somewhere i got my wires crossed and it wasn’t jazzygroup who brought evol to malaysia for their mall tour but i must have thought so bc part of the initial press release for td’s showcase in msia was “since evol came, now topp dogg” but yes i’m sorry for my factual error, i don’t feel like it changes anything but there u go



failed world tour: stardom’s plans for topp dogg to go international took off when evol came back from the dead and signed a contract with jazzygroup to visit malaysia to literally sing on those event stages in shopping malls while people walk by for no pay. jazzygroup liked the idea of reaping 100% of the profits and not having to pay the artist so they met with stardom again who convinced jazzygroup to sign a contract for topp dogg to bring them to malaysia, america, and europe for showcases. topp dogg wasn’t and isn’t actually being paid for these showcases btw, something to think abt if u went to their malaysia or america showcases, since if jazzygroup had to pay topp dogg they would actually lose money. stardom began to shop around other countries as well to try to bring topp dogg there. as usual, stardom jumped the gun before plans were gelled and put out a sponsored article in the news that topp dogg had a world tour planned for the first part of 2015 and they would go to japan in january, americas in february, asia in march, and europe in april. stardom has to pay to put articles in the news because nogaf otherwise but the upside is that you get to write your own article about yourself. obviously those weren’t concrete plans and they fell through real fast because initially, stardom agreed for topp dogg to work for free, but suddenly stardom changed their mind about paying out of pocket to send topp dogg all over the world on their own dime, and no promoter in their right mind would agree to lose money trying to bring a nugu group no one knows into a big venue with a high overhead cost.

failed 2015: since stardom already had plans to book up 2015 with this fabled world tour they had no backup plan in place and when the world tour didn’t kick off as scheduled topp dogg proceeded to do absolutely nothing. they served out their haengsa contract with t-broad by doing exactly one appearance per month and stardom didn’t even try to slap together a comeback promotion in the meantime, probably because they’re running on financial vapors at this point due to living beyond their means for the entire past two years. the thing is, none of this had to happen. if stardom had never tried to spend all their money trying to convince people that topp dogg was popular (hint - no one was convinced) and instead just stayed in their lane then at least topp dogg would still have a career at this point, because they DID and DO have fans who care enough to show up.



kidoh: the last time i saw kidoh at a haengsa in dongdaemun he was acting really bizarre and he’s lost a shitload of weight. he’s putting out some weird bad trap music and pretty much self-destructing. kidoh used to be at big hit which is a nice place comparatively but was lured into stardom and topp dogg with the promise of a solo album written into his contract. i think they spent about 100 dollars on his solo album overall and clearly his solo career is probably not something stardom has any plans to ever re-visit. at least they actually did his solo album as they promised which probably actually cost the company money but then again what is making the company money…?

oh yeah, stardom is corrupt from head to toe, not only with their open financial corruption scandals over the years and the shiny new building they bought with the money that block b earned them. even the fan manager is corrupt amongst fans, i have heard she prefers certain fans over others and tells them insider knowledge over private sns and from the way she always treated me like shit i can’t say i don’t believe it. topp dogg staff instagrams are filled with givenchy and balmain clothing obviously more expensive than their humble office salary can afford. during the big break many of the members simultaneously got plastic surgery most likely at the company’s behest and dime. i know that people say “cho pd is rich” but no one is this rich and its not like he’s sold an album in a hot minute. there’s just so much corruption and shady dealings that i’m not sure if i even want to know where all this mystery money is coming from.

i really feel for topp dogg because of their situation. it’s worse than people think. people think that stardom is just inept and the truth is that stardom literally outright sabotaged their career. block b eventually became powerful enough to leave but topp dogg isn’t and probably will never be to the point where they can revolt and get out of stardom. at this point i even wonder if that was the idea all along.

