CUBE is the Korean entertainment company that has treated artists the worst in the industry’s history

CUBE has made headlines many times for being sued or criticized by its own idols.

The management company is responsible for the career of their artists. It is common for idols from big entertainment companies to be more successful and famous. Sadly, there are still many idols who are forced to terminate their contracts, even have to file lawsuits against the company that they have been with for many years. The most famous company is CUBE Entertainment, which is always on the list of the worst entertainment companies in Korea.

1. Elkie left CLC in February 2021

5 years after the debut of CLC, Elkie decided to leave the group in February this year. In an exclusive interview for Hong Kong’s Mingpao newspaper, Elkie revealed that an employee of CUBE has bluntly called her “useless,” “stupid” when she just debuted. Moreover, the female idol had to endure a difficult schedule: “The most serious incident was that I couldn’t sleep for many days and couldn’t even remove my makeup.”

Elkie also said that the company once forced her to practice dancing for 16 hours continuously without sleeping from morning until midnight. She was so tired that she felt “the steps are extremely heavy like a zombie.” IZ*ONE’s song ‘La Vie en Rose’ was initially written for CLC. However, CUBE suddenly changed its mind; instead of ‘La Vie en Rose,’ ‘NO’ was the chosen song.

2. Choi Yujin (CLC) announced that the group was dismissed on television

Despite being a member of CLC, Yujin still attended Mnet’s survival show Girls Planet 999. In the latest broadcast, Yujin revealed, “The company said that the group was dismissed. I really gave my all for CLC.” This was a rare time that an idol had to announce the group’s discontinuation even though this was the responsibility of the management company.

Netizens believed that CUBE hasn’t clearly defined CLC’s style. They continuously changed the group’s concept from pure, feminine to high teen, girl crush and then return to the starting point. CLC had members who were both pretty and talented, but they were all neglected by the company.

3. Lai Guan Lin and CUBE

Another idol who decided to leave CUBE Entertainment was Lai Guan Lin. The Taiwanese singer said that CUBE had originally sold the exclusive management contract between the company and him to Tazo Entertainment without Lai Guan Lin’s confirmation. This has helped CUBE gained 10 times the value of the original contract with Lai Guan Lin.

Even worse, CUBE has faked Lai Guan Lin’s father’s signature and seal. After years of litigation, the Seoul Central Court announced, “The exclusive contract between Lai Guan Lin and Cube Entertainment will no longer be valid.” That means that the male singer is officially no longer an artist of CUBE.

4. CUBE kicked HyunA and Dawn out of the company without informing them directly

HyunA and Dawn (formerly known as E’Dawn) declared their love relationship to fans in August 2018. A month later, CUBE abruptly announced that the couple had been fired from the company. “It will prove difficult for us to rebuild the broken loyalty and trust between these two artists, HyunA and E’Dawn”. The saddest reality is that HyunA was unable to receive this information directly from CUBE and instead had to rely on newspapers.

During September, all of HyunA’s schedules were strangely canceled even though the female idol had also devoted herself to CUBE for more than 10 years. HyunA said in the letter, “As you know, my only sin was working my body to the bone for Cube Entertainment until now.”

5. CUBE announced Soojin’s withdrawal from (G)I-DLE after 5 months since her bullying scandal broke out.

At the beginning of 2021, Soojin’s school violence scandal broke out. Soon after, actress Seo Shin Ae stepped up and provided solid evidence. However, as compared to other companies, Cube’s approach to resolving problems was irrational. Cube and Soojin then individually refuted the allegations, however, they issued the statement without first seeing the accuser in person. As a result, the ‘victims’ and their detailed narrative posts began to emerge more frequently on internet forums.

After that, CUBE kept quiet about Soojin’s scandal, although fans repeatedly asked the company to make an official announcement about the incident. The fact that CUBE left the matter unresolved for a long time had severely affected (G)I-DLE’s reputation. The proof is that even though the company had removed virtually all of the scenes starring Soojin when (G)I-DLE released the song “Last Dance” in April, the group was still not well-received by the public. 

After 5 months since the scandal broke out, Soojin officially left the group. Nonetheless, (G)IDLE’s reputation has been badly affected.

The fact that numerous idols left the company one after the other demonstrates CUBE’s poor management. If CUBE doesn’t change, this company will definitely destroy its own idol groups.