The curious case of Lee MinYoung

[greywing]

This is a post about Lee MinYoung, a.k.a. JYP's Min, a.k.a. the trainee/artist whose continued existence in JYP seems to be questionable. (Among the "Former" artists listed on JYP's wiki page, there's a "Min": Lee MinYoung?) I think anyone who's seen the Little Winners performance would be as curious to know where Min is today as they would be

Comments

CALLIN' LIKE A COLLECTOR, SORRY I WILL NOT ANSWER~

[craver199103]

First off let me just say that I have been playing the new Gaga & Beyonce collabo non-stop for hours now GODDAMN I love this song

Re: CALLIN' LIKE A COLLECTOR, SORRY I WILL NOT ANSWER~

[greywing]

Min doesn't appear to have the variety or versatility that Hyo has from the clips shown here, but her hip-hop dancing does seem to be on a higher level.

I'm going to play devil's advocate and say that it probably wouldn't be hard for Min to do anything Hyo has been doing in SNSD. The heels might present a temporary surprise but that's about it. On the other hand, Min's freestyling is of the variety that I wish Hyo could obtain.

I'd assume she's still connected to JYP; she debuted, but it was just low key, which means she still has a debt to her agency I believe.siska below thinks that Min has indeed left JYP, though that makes me wonder about debt as well. (Not long ago I was wondering, too, that in the event that Hyo had jumped the SM ship in favor of the JYP ship back in her trainee days, if she'd still owe a debt to SM for the whatever amount of years of training she'd gotten from SM. It'd be a good deterrent to keep from losing trainees

[anonymous]

Though no one knows the truth for sure, I've pretty convinced Min has left JYP or at least she's out of the scene for now. I've been a fan of Gina's since her early days competing on Battle Shinhwa way back in 2005-06 ish so I keep tabs on her and her Cyworld every so often to see what she's been up to. Her and Min usually keep in touch back and forth, but lately I haven't seen anything between the two. Plus when WG mentioned how they were afraid about the American market they mentioned G-Soul and Lim Junghwa, but not Min. It's all very suspicious in my books. JYP has never been all that secretive about his trainees and plans in comparison to SM and YG so it's very odd that we haven't heard about Min and her whereabouts for a long while. Wherever she is, I do wish her the best. People may not like the lifestyle she had while living in NYC, but the fact of the matter is that this girl has some major talent. JYP already let a talent like Maydoni go once and I hope they haven't thrown Min to the side. I honestly think she could rock a

[greywing]

People may not like the lifestyle she had while living in NYC

Could you elaborate about that?

Same goes for Minji. She has a lot of potential, but I'm just so turned off every time I see her pumping her chest and humping the floor especially considering her age.

I'm so D: over how young Minji is. I wish they'd given her a few more years. Having said that, though, she is young and she does have time to develop. I'm not sure if that means if she'll move much away from this dancing technique though.

I don't like to compare Min and Hyo since they have different dance styles imoI find it interesting that you say that, siska, since I think Hyo and Min have the same dancing base more or less. Hyo comes from a more traditional dance background having come to hip-hop through Latin dance--those hips!--but they both have that Winners Dance School curriculum (popping, locking, animation) as the base on which they've gone on to build what each talent company's training involved. I don't think it's wrong to compare them in those genres,

[anonymous]

The whole Min thing was that she (for the lack of a better word lol) became too "Americanized" in some peoples' eyes. Some pictures she posted on her Myspace and stuff were a bit too scandalous for some peoples' tastes and I guess they saw her as a party girl, etc. I personally didn't think too much of it myself. Considering her age and everything I found it normal that she adapted herself more into the Western culture and lifestyle

[greywing]

Re: Min. Ah. Yes, that would make sense. I could see how that could offend the more conservative Korean sensibilities, though I'd be surprised to see overseas observers being very surprised about that. I mean, Min was jumping into the NY hip-hop culture. C'mon now.

but sometimes people just jump in and start comparing for the hell of it with all their bias and no logic.

I can understand how that would make you hesitant. Yeah, I think Min hit her moves smoother and with more finesse than Hyo did back in the day. It's been so long. We need to see them do another piece together today.

I feel like part of the reason why Hyo didn't switch or might have no considered it at all is because it was SM. Even back then SM always was the leader in putting out idol stars.That's right. I do remember once reading that SM groups were considered to be guaranteed successes (not true, but the amount of success they've had overall gives that impression

[juneunhae]

ahh yes what I wouldn't give to see a dance battle between these two again.
I think their dancing is hard to compare for me cos each one stands they both have different strengths. Like in the actual performance video, although Min locks and hits the moves harder, I like Hyo's flow and flexibility.

And yeah, its sad that she's no longer on the radar cos the beginnings looked so promising.It's interesting now that you mention it that JYP only talks about G-soul and J Lim's American debuts not going as successfully as planned and no mention of Min when I would argue that she was definitely the most hyped about from the three with Lil Wayne (was it? I forget!) who was supposed to mentor her.
I also wish they had focused on debuting her in Korea first.. then we'd have another set of BFFs in the K-pop scene.. I love love love celebrity friendships^^ HyukSu/G-bae/SunyeJokwon/Jung IlWoo,Lee Minho :)

Miiiiiiiin. Go dance with your unnie (I wonder if she calls Hyo that). Go drag her out to the clubs. With Gina. And invite Nicole. You can

[greywing]

I think if Hyo and Min had a straight up, down and dirty hip-hop battle right now, Min would take it. I think Min has a broader freestyling sense than Hyo does (and I think Hyo is the best SNSD freestyler).

Lil Wayne (was it? I forget!)

Lil' Jon. I honestly have no idea who he is, though, so if you had told me Lil' Wayne, it wouldn't have made much difference in my mind.

I saw Shindong at another one last month.

. . . This sounds like an interesting story.

One of Minwoo's stories on SGB was about he and the Shinhwa boys coincidentally running into SES members at a club, lol. Considering that KangIn had all those drinking incidents, I'm not surprised to hear that the members get out and party. Yet the lack of SNSD rumors makes me suspect that the girls don't club it up; the thought always makes me sad because I'm sure they'd be a riot, tipsy or sober. It's not like they haven't been to a club--they hit one up for work in "Factory Girl"!

[juneunhae]

Shindong was really chill and cute.. I felt a little bad for him cos he was just watching from above..I bet he wanted to just be able to dance and hang out with his friends freely.Luckily there were no crazy fangirls around (except me and my friends :D but I'm more of an observer. Every time I get to see my favourites up close I kinda freeze and act all non fangirly haha)

Minwoo's story..haha I hadn't heard about that before!! That's cool, considering that SM apparently controlled their girl groups even more strictly in the past..i guess there are ways to work around it ;)

Yet the lack of SNSD rumors makes me suspect that the girls don't club it up; the thought always makes me sad because I'm sure they'd be a riot, tipsy or sober.
hehe yes and quite a few of the members seem to enjoy drinking :D.. Fany, Hyo..Sica(?)

oh and Jun Young left Hyo another msg(i<3u) keke.
It says, "You broke the promise!!!!"
In another sense it could also mean "You broke our appointment!!!!"hehe even if it's nothing, it makes me smile :P

[juneunhae]

p.s just posted some old Hyo pics and a fan account over at SSF in case ur interested :D