Netizens look back on the two boy groups (MBLAQ & Ciipher) produced by Rain and express disappointment.
Singer-actor Rain (real name Jung Ji Hoon) swept domestic and foreign music charts with SSAK3 (Lee Hyo Ri, Yoo Jae Suk, and Rain), the group formed through MBC’s entertainment program “Hangout with Yoo” in July 2020. In December of the same year, he showed off his dance skills by releasing a duet song with Park Jin Young and promoted a new song “WHY DON’T WE” with junior singer Chungha.
Therefore, many people showed keen interest in the seven-member boy group Ciipher that Rain produced and introduced for the first time through his own agency, Rain Company. Even before their debut, Ciipher was already called “Idols produced by Rain” or Jung Ji Hoon and the children”.
Rain also used all his support power by gathering all his personal connections to meet the public’s expectations. Kim Tae Hee appeared in the music video for Ciipher’s debut song “I Like You”. He even invited Lee Hyo Ri to appear on his official Youtube channel and film content with Ciipher. In addition, Rain tried to push Ciipher by showing up on numerous entertainment programs together with the members. Appearing on an ENA program last year, Rain confessed that he “lost a house” to pay for Ciipher’s production cost.
However, two years after their debut, Ciipher announced their disbandment. On August 9th, Rain Company released a notice on Ciipher’s major reorganization through the group’s fancafe, saying. “After careful discussions and under a mutual agreement with our respect for the members’ individual opinions, we would like to inform you that Tan, Tag, Dohwan, and Won will wrap up their last official activities today.”
With the withdrawal of four members, only leader Hyun Bin, Keita and Hwi remain in Ciipher. Regarding the future activities of the remaining three members. In this regard, Rain Company said, “We plan to reorganize the team and continue group activities”, adding “Keita will hold his first fanmeeting in Japan this August and the three members will continue to meet fans through various projects”.
In fact, along with his Japan fanmeeting, Keita will make another debut in the boy group EVNNE, which consists of members eliminated from Mnet’s “Boys Planet”. Therefore, Ciipher has only two members left.
In fact, Ciipher is not the first idol group produced by Rain. He actually started with the five-member group MBLAQ, which debuted in 2009. At that time, MBLAQ shocked the K-pop industry by introducing members with a muscular and sexy image. Some members even showed a good sense of entertainment and helped MBLAQ raise their recognition well. The group also released many hit songs.
However, the center and main dancer Lee Joon and Thunder left the group in December 2014. MBLAQ continued their activities as a trio but failed to gain remarkable achievements compared to the past. Considering the fact that MBLAQ’s last music activity was already in June 2015, it is obvious that the group has already been disbanded.
Seeing the failure of Ciipher following MBLAQ, K-pop fans express regrets, saying “Ciipher goes on the same route as MBLAQ”, “Rain is so irresponsible”, “Don’t be greedy for producing idols in the future”, “I feel so bad for them”, etc.
Source: Daum
