As my username suggests, I am a fan of Topp Dogg. I haven't written any fics about them, but believe me, they are one of my favorite groups. And that's why I'm posting this blog today. It's actually more of a rant because seeing what Topp Dogg has fallen to today makes me sad, the things that keep happening day by day are just making me even more depressed. They had such potential, but were screwed over from the beginning and it's all because of their company. Hunus Entertainment. Most of the stuff I'm going to mention hear you most likely already know, but a lot of it needs to be said to express my annoyance with this company. And you may disagree with what I have to say and say I'm reaching, and I can understand that. You're free to have your own opinions on the situation. Lastly, It would be wrong if I didn't site my sources from where I got some of this information. They are old (from 2015) but they sum up a lot of what these main issues are, so here are those links: http://abeautifulfish.tumblr.com/post/123476683624/stardom-is-the-worst  http://yusangdo.tumblr.com/post/123498692161/stardom-is-the-worst-part-2.

Hunus (formerly Stardom) Entertainment is a company formed by rapper Cho PD. They are most known for being Block B's original company who screwed them over so bad (not paying them and using the money they made to buy a new building) that they ended up being sued by them. After Block B, they had a girl group called Evo-L who debuted in 2012, had one comeback in 2013, then vanished off the face of the earth. And then in late 2013, they debuted Topp Dogg.

Like I said, Topp Dogg was doomed from the start. Cho Pd intentionally debuted Topp Dogg with the intention to make them a "hip hop Super Junior". He actually media played that up from their debut, which is stupid because comparing your nugu, rookie boy group to one of the biggest groups in Korea from one of the top companies makes you look like you're trying to be someone else. Topp Dogg was basically born with no identity because Cho PD, wanted them to operate on the formation of another group (or two if you count EXO, who they were also forced to be compared to). And it's so ridiculous because Suju/EXO, and Topp Dogg have literally nothing in common other than the fact that they are boy groups with a similar number of members and the subunits concept (we'll get more into that later). And I've seen people say that in super early interviews Topp Dogg themselves would say things like "People have been comparing us to EXO" or "We're often compared to Super Junior" and stuff like that. I find that funny because in all of my searching on old tumblrs, blogs, forum posts, YT comments, Kpop articles, etc from 2013, I've seen ONE and I mean only one comment where someone actually compared Topp Dogg to Suju. I seriously feel that Hunus told Topp Dogg to say these things just so the public would make more of the comparisons themselves. But again, that is stupid. Because relating yourself to a more popular group and name dropping them all the time is not going to make your own group popular.

I can only imagine Cho PD saw how great Super Junior and their at the time quickly rising brother group EXO was doing and thought to himself, "Wow, looks like people are loving these large boy groups. I know, I'll debut one too and they'll become big and famous in an instant!". Again stupid. Contrary to popular belief, neither Super Junior or EXO were "born popular". They had to work damn hard to get where they are today. In 2013 when Topp Dogg debuted, EXO was only just gaining some popularity with Wolf. But Cho PD and Hunus were most likely only thinking about the fact that they were dead broke from 2 previous group failures and just decided to make this last ditch attempt for sucess and hope and pray that Topp Dogg would be prosperious. But here's the problem, Cho PD is an idiot. Lee Soo Man is FAR from an admirable person, but at the very least he knows how to run a buisness. He knew that you don't just debut a large group early in your career. If you do, you need to be damn sure you market it well. But Hunus did not. They did nothing to individualize these 13 members and make them stand apart from each other. Only Hansol and B-Joo tended to be noticed since they normally held promenient roles in the MVs. The other 11 guys really had nothing going for them and even causals tended not to know all of the members 100%. But honestly, how can you blame them when Hunus did nothing to give each boy individual attention? It's not really surprising since it's not like they had money to do things like send the boys on variety or do anything that could help with that. But they could have done something else like working it into their concept like EXO did. The two subunits and the superpowers helped set the then 12 guys apart. Topp Dogg started out looking like they had 2 "gangs" going on with Team Hansol and Team B-Joo in Follow Me, so idk why didn't just keep rolling with that. Oh yeah, becuase they weren't worrying about individualising the boys. All they needed was populartiy, and they needed to get it fast.

They knew they needed to promote Topp Dogg like crazy to get their name out there, so they went crazy with comebacks. They had so many comebacks close together within the span of a year, I wonder if Topp Klass back then could even keep up. It as far too quick to actually try to learn about these boys and become an actual fan of them. They debuted in October with Follow Me/Say it, then released Cigarette (a ballad song totally unlike any of their other songs) in December. That means they promoted for 2 months before jumping right into the next comeback with no break in-between. On January 15, 2014 they released the Open the Door MV and ONE DAY LATER, they released the mini album Arario. Who releases a new new album the day after you release your new album? You're basically telling people to ignore Open the Door, because now they're just looking forward to Arario's MV, which came out a month later. Arario was one of the more popular of the releases, which is obvious as the promoted for longer (rather than just jumping to the next song) and did more interviews during the era. Obviously Hunus thought Topp Dogg were close to reaching "popularity" and decided they'd do something really big for the next album. Instead of waiting and planning to steadily grow their popuarity, they wanted to have their hit, their big break, an "EXO Growl" so to speak.

In June they released TOPDOG. The fact that they blew their budget to make this seriously overdone music video shows that they wanted this to be their hit to skyrocket them into popularity. The CG effects, the fancier, more expensive outfits, the multiple sets, the title of the song being the group's name, EVERYTHING, shows that they wanted this to be their big song. The song however holds a little known secret. Apparently, the fighting between B-Joo and Hansol is supposed to be representative of the classical "rivalry" between Wolfgang Amadeus (Amadeus is the title of the album if you didn't know) Mozart and Antonio Salieri. Basically Salieri was the musician that worked super hard to try to gain popularity but was overshadowed by the younger Motzart who gained popularity much quicker and easier and is better known today. B-Joo (Mozart) basically owns Hansol (Salieri) in the entire battle and is hinted to have won at the end. B-Joo also has the super cocky expression on his face the entire time while Hansol seems like he's struggling to keep control. The lyrics repeat the phrase "I am Top Dog" before each chorus. While a lot the Topp Klass of the time were praising Topp Dogg on being able to do something deep in comparison to the past hiphop concepts, I (and some other Topp Klass) sensed a different motive from Hunus. It was believed that the song was basically meant to shade groups that had debuted after Topp Dogg and were gaining popularity "easily", in Hunus's minds, while Topp Dogg was still reaching and grasping for any sort of recognition. Groups like the fellow 2013 hip-hop group BTS. Or the 2014 kind of hip-hop group, GOT7. It almost seems like they were mad that these groups who debuted around the same time or later were gaining popularity while Topp Dogg was not. Now this may not have hae been their desire for the song, but I just can't get the possibility out of my mind. The fact that a previously plain hip hop group busts out with this super deep, well thought out plot out of nowhere just seems to random. I wouldn't be shocked if Hunus really was that salty that their hip hop group was flopping while others were rising. And surely it must have been upsetting for the boys to remain bascially unrecogized for nearly a year, while other newbies were taking off quickly. But is it BTS's fault that their CEO actually has a brain while Cho PD does not? No. Is it GOT7's fault that they were taken up by a more sucessful comapny? No.

Anyway, like Arario, they promoted TOPDOG for longer than the previous ones and did more interviews during this era. But unfortunately, the song just didn't gain the momentum they wanted it to despite the deep story and high budget. They didn't become much more popular at all and it was clear that Topp Dogg was not appealing to the Korean market. After the equally unsuccessful anniversary song Annie in October, Hunus decided to make a last ditch attempt to get Topp Dogg some popularity.

So Topp Dogg tried to go international. One thing about Hunus you should know if you don't already, they are sneaky and deceptive. They tried to make people think Topp Dogg was more popular than they really were in the hopes that their lies would actually cause Topp Dogg to become popular. As expected, no one in Korea bought it and as such, they tried to lie to the international market. Hunus sent Topp Dogg on a "tour" to a few states in the U.S., Brazil, and I think some areas in Canada and Asia. The tour was a failure because Topp Dogg did not have the fans or the funds to do a real proper tour. Instead they lied like crazy hyping up Topp Dogg as this super popular Korean boy group to (at the time) unsuspecting, naive Americans. I watched a video once where some American interviewer actually called Topp Dogg "one of Korea's top and most influential boy groups". I nearly wanted to scream. They actually straight up lied to all of these people who probably barely knew anything about Kpop at the time and called them a top influential group, unknowing  good and well that they were (and still are) one of the most nugu groups out there who barely anyone in Korea knows.

From there, things only got worse. Members started dropping like flies with the departures of Seogoong, Kidoh, and Gohn all in 2015. Seogoong wasn't even present for that garbage tour. Seogoong was supposed to be one of the main vocalists, but oddly enough, barely ever got any lines. I can only imagine that pissed him off and he decided to leave. Hunus of course, didn't actually announce his departure until weeks later, but it wasn't exactly what people expected. Seogoong was said to have been moved from the main group Topp Dogg to the subunit, Underdogg. (Again, we'll get to that in a bit). Kidoh left because he was fed up with their pathetic excuse of a "solo"; a crappy, cheap MV with zero promotion or effort put into it. Note, this promise of a solo was the only reason why Kidoh went to Hunus in the first place. The last we heard of him he was producing really bad music and slowly disintegrating, losing a large amount of weight and just being miserable. Gohn wanted to leave to serve in the miltary and upon his return, he decided to work as a soloist rather than return to Topp Dogg. As of today neither I nor any of my Topp Klass friends know where the hell this man is. I've literally heard nothing about him since this departure in 2015 and idk if he's even working as a soloist. He may have given all of that up and become just a regular citizen. I though the same happened to Seogoong, but apparently not (we'll get to that later too). Jenissi left in 2016 following a major controversy where he drunkenly cursed at his fans. Hunus, after ignoring the issue for a good month, finally announced the obvious which was that Jenissi would no longer be in the group. The reason...to start the solo career he always wanted. Note, I have NEVER heard of Jenissi wanting to be a soloist. Nothing he said ever pointed to it either. As far as I know, only Gohn and Kidoh wanted to soloists. It's obvious he left due to the swearing thing so I don't even know why Hunus prolonged that announcement.

Now for that "subunit". A little known fact is that Topp Dogg was not originally planned to be a 13 member group. They were supposed to be what SM's NCT is today, a large group made of several smaller units. Topp Dogg's units were supposed to be 4-5 members per group iirc, but for some stupid reason, Hunus thought that if they didn't debut them all at once, some of them would never get the chance to debut. I have no idea why they thought that. If they had the ability to pump out like 6 comebacks in a one year period, surely they could debut 6 units of a large group. That would have been far better promotion because the fans would keep anticipating each new group, like with NCT. So of course, for whatever reason, Cho PD decided to just make a Suju 2.0 and debut Topp Dogg with a 13 member main unit of most of the trainees, and save 2 for a subunit, "Underdogg". If the name Underdogg doesn't ring a bell to you, it's probably because they have no known songs, no MVs, and 1 known performance. They were basically supposed to act as the opening act for Topp Dogg before a concert and also to appeal to the Chinese market with their two Chinese memebers (one of which who left due to issues of racism). The only Chinese song Topp Dogg ever had was a Chinese version of Follow Me, which wasn't even on the original album, but rather the repackage. It included those two members in the only album song they are featured in. Seogoong was moved to Underdogg after he presumably couldn't stand being in Topp Dogg anymore in an attempt to have more lines in songs and show off his singing skills. Only that didn't work out because, again, Underdogg didn't promote like a typical Kpop subunit. They were not their own group. They did not have MVs or promote on music shows. They were NEVER seen with the full group (minus Goongie of course). They were nothing more than a side project for Hunus to allow those trainees who didn't join Topp Dogg, to try to do something. Basically Underdogg was a lesson on how not to do a subunit. They existed solely for the purpose to mimic Suju's Suju-M (adding two Chinese members who never appear anywhere else with the group), and be a "lesser Topp Dogg" to open for them at their own concerts. Usually a subunit will never be of equal status to the main group, but Underdogg was just so beneath Topp Dogg it's not even funny. Seogoong eventually left Underdogg (when, I don't know) to become a soloist now named I'M. He's put out like 2 MVs, but as expected is getting little to no recognition for them. I feel so bad for the man. He's such a great singer and if he would have only joined a better company from the start, he might be somewhere by now.

And now, everything is just getting worse and worse. The group has at most one comeback a year now, with minimal promotions before being sent back to the Hunus dungeon until the next one. It's so obvious that the boys are fed up with this crap, but Hunus are still trying to do anything to get some popularity; such as getting on random YouTube videos and playing around doing video reactions for no reason at all. They had an internet series for a while, but it was a total joke and not at all worth watching. It's so cheap and lazily done, that it’s basically laughable when compared to actual variety shows. Even the worst of the worst variety shows are better that the garbage Hunus put out. And it was an internet series. Obviously no one would even know of the show in the first place unless they were diehard fans of Topp Dogg. Why Hunus wasted what little money they had on that crap is beyond me.

Hansol was revealed to be working in a coffee shop some time last year. Hunus has no money so Hansol has to earn money for the group like this. This is what happens when idols are so deep into nugudom, they're basically not even idols. They can't even sell enough albums to make a living so the members need side jobs. At the very least Hansol is trying to keep positive about the situation he's stuck in and make some money, unlike his company. But things are still looking somber. A month ago Hansol had a shocking and depressing VLive where he basically admitted that he was having suicidal thoughts; including suggesting crashing the car he was driving in. Fans were shocked, but luckily some of Hansol's friends came out and said he was doing better recently. Hunus however hasn't said a damn thing about the situation and is losing what little respect fans had day by day.

A-Tom recently went on the show Produce 101 to try to do some promotion for the group. Though he didn't make it into the official top group, he will be in a group with the last eliminated participants and promote for a bit with them. Hunus has yet to announce his status within Topp Dogg and if he's still in the group or not. He's also been doing smaller solo projects, including an upcoming fanmeet. I don't even know what to think of this and I'm pissed that Hunus isn't doing a damn thing to give fans some sort of information on what's going on.

Recently it was revealed that Topp Dogg would be performing at a concert along with B.I.G, Winner and Ikon. However, the promotional images only showed 5 members; B-Joo, Hojoon, Xero, Yano, and Sangdo. A-Tom and Hansol can be excused due to the aforementioned issues, but where are Nakta and P-Goon? Topp Dogg does literally no activities so I find it hard to consider that they have another schedule or anything. These same 5 members have also been the only ones showing up in Instagram videos recently as well. I really don't want to think about what could possibly be happening. It's almost like the Seogoong and Jenissi situations all over again. Random absences for no reason with no explanation from Hunus. If these two are possibly leaving, I'd hold nothing against them. Hunus is garbage and realistically no one should want to be under it. But I'd really much rather they announce their possible departures sooner rather than later.

Now Hunus has a new girl group, Elris, whose small popularity is being built on the fact that Somi (a popular member from the short lived I.O.I) is in the group. Just business as usual, Hunus crashed and burned with Block B then got Evo-L. Abandoned them and debuted Topp Dogg. Screwed them over and now have Elris. It's like a never ending pattern of failures and it really makes me wonder how Hunus is still a semi-functioning company. I wouldn't be surprised if Topp Dogg falls into the shadows and later disbands if Elris takes off. For pete's sake they're possibly literally down to less than half of their original group right now. It's sad that a group with so much potential was screwed over from the start by the worst company on the planet. Instead of working to actually make a name for these guys they tried to build off of the hype from more sucessful groups and lie and deceive people which left them with nothing. They pretended like Topp Dogg were never rookies and wanted them to gain massive popularity based solely on being a large group becuase their despearation to have a successful project was more important that actually working to make that success happen.