The group Koyote, known as a national group, revealed that they did not receive proper settlements from their former agency.
On the 26th, the MBC entertainment program ‘Knowing Bros’ (hereafter ‘Knowing Bros’) aired Koyote's daily life.
On that day, Koyote was talking while looking at buildings during their commute. Shinji said, “I heard it’s on the market,” and Kim Jong-min expressed his desire, saying, “I want to buy it.” However, Baekga quickly assessed the situation, saying, “No matter how many (leases) are out there, we can’t buy it. Let’s look for places in other neighborhoods instead of Cheongdam-dong.”
Kim Jong-min reflected, “I thought about why we have no money, and it turns out we don’t,” and mentioned the settlement issues with their former agency, saying, “We did events, performances, and broadcasts back then, but we didn’t receive a single penny.”
Shinji recalled the time as “labor exploitation.” He added, “The company made a mistake and terminated the contract. A year later, a tax bomb hit us. I took out a loan for the first time in my life because of taxes,” expressing his frustration.
He continued, “Sometimes I suddenly think about it, and I still have nightmares. It’s because of the scars from that time that still remain,” evoking sympathy.
Baekga also said, “We didn’t receive anything,” and mentioned, “The former company deceived us about event costs, and there were even times we performed without pay.” Shinji noted that it was a time when they couldn’t request proper settlements, saying, “If we demanded proper settlements, they would say, ‘Don’t you want to be a singer?’”
Koyote, which debuted in 1998 and is celebrating its 27th anniversary this year, only began to earn proper income from 2012. Baekga explained, “We decided to establish our own company, saying, ‘If we do it ourselves, even if it’s hard, we won’t get scammed.’”
[Kim So-yeon, Star Today Reporter]
