It goes without saying that few K-pop girl groups have attained the same stratospheric success as NewJeans. Starting with their 2022 debut, "Attention," NewJeans have carved a singular space out for themselves with slick production, infectious choreography, and a cool, clean, above-all-novel approach to songwriting. Countless K-pop fans can the feeling of freshness when New Jeans dropped in 2022, an EP abounding with an effortless Y2K R&B sensibility of idols beyond their years.

Since then, NewJeans have built up quite a reputation, amassing countless iconic performances and a full discography of memorable comebacks. Fans of the group are well aware, though, that everything hasn't been smooth sailing throughout 2024. What, exactly, is the deal with NewJeans, and what direction can fans expect from the group in 2025?

NewJeans Drama Explained: Where Things Currently Stand For K-Pop's Fifth Gen Legends

NewJeans' Producer Stirred The Pot Back In April 2024

HYBE Corporation has grown to share space with the other three dominant K-pop labels today (SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment, and YG Entertainment), working with a federated structure of sub-labels. One such label, ADOR, launched in 2021. Min Hee-Jin is a name to here: a big-shot in K-pop who once served as creative director at SM, guiding the identity of massive K-pop groups like Girls' Generation, Shinee, and Exo. Min Hee-Jin co-founded ADOR and was appointed CEO upon its launch, and she oversaw the development of NewJeans—ADOR's first girl group—as their executive producer.

NewJeans' cultural impact on K-pop is profound and hard to overstate. Then comes 2024: Belift Lab, another HYBE label, debuts ILLIT, a group assembled through K-pop survival show R U Next? Min Hee-Jin perceives ILLIT's branding as an intentional effort to "steal NewJeans' thunder," so to speak, and voices her concerns. The public is pulled in when HYBE announces an audit of ADOR for an apparent takeover attempt, which ADOR (and, by proxy, Hee-Jin) denied.

The following day, HYBE would request Min Hee-Jin to step down, alleging sufficient evidence had been discovered in the audit. Min Hee-Jin responded with a press conference where she affirmed her innocence and claimed much of HYBE's evidence had been taken out of context. While the discussion so far had centered on ILLIT, Min Hee-Jin brought other groups into the fold and claimed that NewJeans had been purposely ignored and isolated even before ILLIT's debut.

Min Hee-Jin Claimed HYBE Ignored NewJeans, Followed By NewJeans Doing The Same

Notably, Min Hee-Jin would say that NewJeans had been pushed aside to focus on promoting Le Sserafim; several months later, HYBE internal reports would be released which would seem to affirm this, in addition to revealing an overall climate of cutthroat competition between the company's groups. This cutthroat competition extended beyond HYBE to even include SM's aespa; many K-pop fans have perceived the mentions of these groups to be unprofessional and rude.

Furthermore, Hanni would say in a September live-stream that another HYBE group had been instructed to ignore NewJeans . Hanni would affirm this later when she went to testify at a hearing before the National Assembly. She would be the only NewJeans member to do so.

This added fuel to the fire for something NewJeans fans had already noticed: other HYBE groups like ILLIT and Le Sserafim would regularly do things together on social media, but NewJeans were rarely included.

That's not to say that the other of NewJeans are neutral as to the question of Min Hee-Jin's role at ADOR and their overall treatment as a group by HYBE. Making a (very) long story short, a very public legal battle over Min Hee-Jin's position as ADOR's CEO and NewJeans' producer ensued. Before and throughout the process, NewJeans lavished Min Hee-Jin with praise and repeatedly affirmed her necessity to NewJeans' image and identity.

Min Hee-Jin Was Forced Out And NewJeans Followed Suit

The long and, for fans of the group, stressful saga would culminate in Min Hee-Jin's final termination as the CEO of ADOR. NewJeans followed suit by attempting to terminate their seven-year contracts with HYBE. HYBE, of course, has pushed back against this, and in December sued to certify that NewJeans would keep good on their contracts. Nonetheless, NewJeans have decided to follow Min Hee-Jin away, now rebranding in order to avoid potential copyright issues.

NewJeans Are Relaunching As NJZ: What We Can Expect

NewJeans Have A Fresh New Look And Name, But What Does That Mean For Them?

After a bit of purgatory, NewJeans rebranded under the name NJZ. The group has so far released one single on an independent YouTube , but as of right now, NJZ hasn't agreed to deals with any labels (though there's speculation that they may BANA, who have played a crucial part in the groups' songs in the past). Meanwhile, HYBE has pursued legal action against the girls' attempts to break their contracts, arguing that NJZ itself is legally still NewJeans and that NewJeans are still beholden to their obligations under HYBE.

NJZ has provided fans with the expectation of a new single at the CompexCon in Hong Kong come late March. What the future holds for the girl group afterward is anybody's guess, but it's critically important to the industry. The drama around NewJeans/NJZ marks the first time that a group of such earth-shattering popularity has actionably claimed mistreatment and shady business practices, going so far as to terminate their contracts early. The long-term ramifications of the ongoing court trials will be a major determining factor in how, if at all, K-pop groups in the foreseeable future approach grievances.