Re: Hongjoong's message. (ADDITIONAL CONTEXT) This is why I still stand by ATEEZ and trust they'll continue to do well. My best friend made a really good video on this topic. See here. https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTrK9SWwy/ and I will just say it candidly. black artists in the music industry across the world are getting really angry aggravated about the k-pop industry continuously copying their art and music. Re: the Yseult situation. people extremely annoyed with *others* trying hard to sound like Travis Scott, Don Toliver, etc. and doing extremely racially insensitive things. (If I want to hear that sound, I'm just going to listen to the original artist) these things make the western general audience a lot of these companies try to make their fans really offended and uncomfortable by k-pop for these reasons and is the main reason as well why I've distanced myself from this industry except for ATEEZ and a few soloists to be honest. this is semi related, but I know the usage of ai is normalized in Korea, but the western music industry absolutely despises it and people absolutely do call out everyone for using ai. People like Timbaland have completely damaged their legacy because of his praise and usage for ai. People like Kehlani, Billie Ellish, Paul McCartney, Kate Bush and more have written mainly letters and statements expressing their disdain for ai in the creative process because it reads as very inauthentic and not fully coming from the team and people who developed it. not to mention it also drains and uses so much drinking water and poisons the environment so much so that it will absolutely ruin our health and way of living. See these sources. https://www.forbes.com/sites/cindygordon/2024/02/25/ai-is-accelerating-the-loss-of-our-scarcest-natural-resource-water/ https://www.eesi.org/articles/view/data-centers-and-water-consumption https://news.mit.edu/2025/explained-generative-ai-environmental-impact-0117 with that said, i wanted to make everyone. ATEEZ, KQ staff, etc. aware of this because i know all of the public sentiment for the markets you may be targeting don't always get to you. but you deserve and must know this ... especially with a lot of atinys valuing your creative process and a lot of atinys feeling safe with ateez because they know they consider the black fans and community that the k-pop industry often mocks, disrespects but also copies and does not credit. that is all. please feel free to share this and bookmark internally. #KQ #ATEEZ #에이티즈 #HONGJOONG #홍중 #SEONGHWA #성화 #YUNHO #윤호 #YEOSANG #여상 #SAN #산 #MINGI #민기 #WOOYOUNG #우영 #JONGHO #종호