After the consecutive departures of Jessi, HyunA, and Dawn, suspicions are being raised about the ability of PSY as a leader.
“Jessi and Hyuna both left, PSY failed as a leader, P-Nation in a serious crisis”, said the title of an article published on Ten Asia on September 6th. Here, the Korean media pointed out that PSY recently made a successful comeback with “That That”, but is severely falling behind as the leader of P Nation.
According to Ten Asia, with major stars leaving and bland musical releases, “P Nation is suffering from the greatest crisis since its foundation 3 years ago.”
“Pillar artists” are leaving one by one
In 2018, PSY left YG Entertainment to establish his own agency P Nation. Immediately after, the male artist announced that famous soloists, like Jessi, HyunA, and Dawn, are joining this company.
Later on, P Nation received a huge influx of well-received artists, such as Crush, Swing, and Heize. However, they did not manage to achieve worthy successes as expected when they switched to this agency.
Among artists under P Nation, Jessi and HyunA are the only ones who actually do well. For Jessi, her popularity sky-rocketed with various activities in all sorts of fields, and her unique demeanor, visuals, and antics, helped the female rapper standout amid other celebrities. She’s also hailed for her iconic music, her talents, and her hourglass body as well as healthy tanned skin.
Jessi’s first album under P Nation, “Who Dat B”, was released in September 2019 with little success. However, she then turned the situation around and scored constant hits such as “NUNU NANA”, “What Type of X”, and “Zoom”.
PSY was also considered a “savior” of HyunA, as the female soloist was forced to leave Cube Entertainment after revealing her romantic relationship with Dawn (then known as E’Dawn of Pentagon). At the time, HyunA was considered “a company traitor” for going against Cube’s claim for love, and it was P Nation that welcomed the couple with open arms. The moment they joined the company, they got to promote freely as a couple and dropped various musical releases, however, most of their tracks never gained much ground in the public eyes.
Across her entire time with P Nation, HyunA’s only noticeable work was “I’m Not Cool”, which landed high positions on music charts and went viral on SNS platforms. However, her other projects, particularly the new song “Nabillera”, which came out this July, were neither well-promoted nor well-known. Amid intense competition like BLACKPINK, NewJeans, IVE, aespa, ITZY, and more, many netizens haven’t even heard that HyunA just dropped a new song.
Now that their contracts have expired, Jessi, HyunA, and Dawn have all decided to leave P Nation, leading the company losing several core artists. “P Nation still has other faces like Crush and Heize, but with the lack of promotions, no artists has enough reputation to become the face of the company,” said Ten Asia.
Poor production and crisis handling skills
Before that, PSY made his first move in the field of idol production. By making a partnership with SBS and JYP Entertainment, P-Nation conducted a survival program to create two boy groups with the name LOUD. Unfortunately, the show had a modest viewership rating and couldn’t attract the attention of audiences. The show scored a viewership rating of 9% in the first episode but ended with a 2.7% in the final episode.
TNX – the boy group that was finalized from the show – couldn’t create a strong foothold in the K-pop field compared to other boy groups. Meanwhile, the 4th generation of K-pop is now dominated by girl groups like aespa and IVE.
As the representative and producer of P Nation, PSY himself also caused many controversies. Recently, the rapper held concerts in various cities in Korea. However, the events received heavy criticism because it wasted 300 blocks of water amid a severe drought in Korea.
In addition, most of the audience’s masks were wet during the concerts. Korea’s Central Epidemic Control Headquarters said that this could increase the possibility of disease spread. Many audiences also said they contracted Covid-19 after going to PSY’s concert.
The artists left P Nation one by one.
Recently, P Nation was investigated after the sudden death of an employee. The Gangwon Provincial Branch Office of the Korean Ministry of Labor visited P Nation headquarters in Seoul at 9:30 a.m. on August 25. On July 31, a 20-year-old, unofficial employee of P Nation died while dismantling equipment at a PSY’s concert. This employee was working in inclement weather conditions but was not equipped with protective gear and safety measures.
The recent incidents have clearly shown P Nation’s poor crisis management skills. Crisis management is one of the factors that determine the success or failure of an entertainment company. PSY shows that he is unable to deal with both his artists’ and his problems. In 2021, PSY revealed a photo hugging rapper D.Ark, who was repeatedly accused of sexual harassment and underage drinking. His contract with P Nation lasted for about a year.
“Not only the departure of Jessi and HyunA but in fact, for the past 3 years, PSY has not been able to find and develop any new artists. He has nothing in hand but the hit “That That” but half of the credit belongs to BTS Suga”, Ten Asia assessed.
