The conflict between min hee jin and hybe will be remembered as one of the most impactful moments in kpop history, one of the reasons is the massive consequences it had on newjeans, that not so long ago was in trajectory to be one of the biggest kpop groups of all time. The most immediate effect on newjeans was stopping their continuous, relentless and massive grow they had since debut thanks to all the opportunities hybe money and connections gave them.
The next short term repercussion on their careers was totally vanishing newjeans presence on the US charts, not so long ago newjeans was achieving things in the biggest music market in the world no rookie group could dream off, their fans even boasted about how in no time newjeans will surpass bp charting on that market... well, that aged like milk, the 4 newjeans singles of 2024 failed to enter the US main chart, that would be a routine for them with hybe backing them up.
Right when we here were talking about that, I also made the prediction that same effect will happen to them in japan, it wouldn't be as sudden like in the US case but sooner or later it will happen, and time as always have proved me right. The amount of weeks of newjeans hits on japan before the hybe conflict:
Hybe Boy: 32 weeks
Ditto: 79 weeks
OMG: 59 weeks
Super Shy: 23 weeks
And after the sweet hybe payola was no more:
How Sweet: 14 weeks
Bubblegum: 7 weeks
Supernatural: 14 weeks
Supernatural is still hanging in there but is now at #70 free falling each week, it will be lucky to reach 20 weeks. Newjeans went from having some of the biggest hits of kpop on japan not so long ago to barely chart like any other kpop group overnight, just like it happened in the US market. Hybe payola built an empire for these girls in the 2 biggest markets in the world, and their fans keep boasting about it pretending it was all thanks to newjeans themselves and fighting with anybody that unveiled the truth, but reality is just one and no matter how delusional you are, you can't change it.