Min Hee Jin’s Surprise “NJ1 Demo” Reveal Now Thought To Be A Jab At ILLIT’s “IYKYK”

During Hyundai Card’s “2024 DaVinci MOTEL” event held on September 27, 2024 (KST), former ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin surprised the attendees with an unreleased demo of a NewJeans track.

OMG NJ1 new song demo#뉴진스 #NewJeans pic.twitter.com/3jvz2GzxEZ

— NewJeans Loops 🐇 (@newjeans_loop) September 27, 2024

After Min Hee Jin played the track from her phone into the microphone, clips from the attendees took over the internet, and Koreans and international K-Pop fans alike expressed hopes that it would be released officially soon.

Former ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin Shares Unreleased NewJeans Demo Song, Surprising Netizens

Fast forward to October 26, 2024, amid the shocking turn of events in the HYBE vs. Min Hee Jin feud with a leak of internal documents, a new suspicion has risen among netizens: One that points to ILLIT‘s “IYKYK.”

NewJeans (left) and ILLIT (right) | SpoTV

“IYKYK,” released on October 21, 2024 as part of ILLIT’s I’LL LIKE YOU mini-album, is now thought to feature similar beats from the demo track that Min Hee Jin revealed.

Some are basing the suspicion on the fact that Min Hee Jin mentioned the beats, from FRNK, are about 2 years old.

| @aniething/YouTube

• “I’m a composing major and this makes me so mad… Creative work is painful. I can’t believe they stole someone’s work like that.”
• “Min Hee Jin is a warrior… She has HYBE in the palm of her hands. It’s inspiring to see her fight back with all her might.”
• “Remember, Min Hee Jin said she got director Shin Woo Seok to work with her after letting him hear these beats. That means she has had this track even before OMG came out. She gave it to Hanni when Hanni said she’d like to try working with some beats.”
• “NewJeans from TEMU for sure. It’s insane.”
• “Min Hee Jin must have revealed the demo track knowing that it’d be plagiarized.”
• “I kind of guessed when Min Hee Jin said that HYBE took her laptop… This is terrible.”

While unverifiable, given the “evidence” in the leaked documents of how HYBE benchmarked and/or sabotaged other K-Pop idol groups, many are choosing to believe that the beats were taken from NewJeans and given to ILLIT—and that Min Hee Jin revealed the demo to hint at the plagiarism.

| theqoo

• “This must be why Min Hee Jin revealed the demo track back then.”
• “The worst, really.”
• “I’m not even that keen about these things, and even I can tell these two are too similar.”
• “Ugh, disgusting behavior.”
• [Deleted Comment]
• “This is worse than I thought… Can HYBE not produce without plagiarizing? How are they calling themselves an entertainment production and management business when they literally have no skills?”
• “I always wondered why Min Hee Jin randomly revealed the demo during that speech…”

A tweet with an audio clip comparing the instrumental version of ILLIT’s “IYKYK” to the demo track has since garnered 2.1M views and counting.

ILLIT new song sounds so similar to the demo MHJ released for NJ1 I wonder why pic.twitter.com/c64Xn226vK

— Lia ʚɞ (@Liabizz) October 7, 2024