I’m about to go IN.
I’m calling BULLSHIT and there’s a VERY LONG list as to why. As amazing as it would be to see a non Korean, especially one who’s mixed with Black American, seriously working in Kpop, Korea is nowhere near ready to openly accept one such as Alexandra in their mainstream music industry, and it’s that fact that raised red flags for me when she was announced to be an OFFICIAL member of RANIA. Let’s break this down.
1. Alexandra is NOT EVEN IN THE MUSIC VIDEO. There is NO excuse for why she isn’t, because visa issues aside they could have at least had her record solo clips while she was in America to send to the Korean label for insertion into the MV. Funny thing is she has a teaser… like she has a video teaser… so I’m kind of confused. DR Music could have at least recycled the clips of her from the teaser and placed them in the video. Also if you look at the text at the end of the teaser and music video, it clearly says RANIA 5. The member count including Alexandra is 6, so what the fck? Oh, and let us not forget how she’s nowhere to be seen on the group’s official Instagram account.
MV Teaser
MV
2. Alexandra is in NONE OF THE PROMO PICTURES! If the visa issue is legitimate than sure I can understand that she might not be in any of the group photos, but she can’t even have a solo headshot? Really? Like who do you think you’re playing, DR Music? Just like with the video clips for the music video, she could have EASILY taken some photos in the States and sent them over to Korea via Dropbox like gtfo. There’s NO REASON why she has no promotional material.
3. RANIA are crowdfunding their new album (which is hysterical), and on the crowdfunding page you see numerous promo photos of the group as well as member bios. So like, each individual member is spotlighted with an explanation of their role in the group and their talents…
I ask you all…
WHERE IS ALEX THO?! If she’s an “official member” as DR Music states, why doesn’t she at LEAST have a mini bio written about her? Not to mention she’s not in the promo video explaining the crowdfunding process.
4. RANIA performed on M Countdown today and Alex was there, which almost made me happy. What killed it was the fact that she’s barely on stage. People are saying it’s because she didn’t have a chance to learn the choreo due to those visa problems, but at the end of the video you see her performing the second part of her verse and doing the choreography just fine. Even if she didn’t know ANY of the choreography she could have AT LEAST been present on stage. If other idols can break their fcking legs and sit in a chair because they’re in a cast just to be seen as a part of the group, why the hell can’t Alex?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18kCQ2m-uAQ
This entire thing makes me so angry because it’s utterly disrespectful. They completely used this girl to hype up RANIA’s comeback, using her being biracial as a marketing ploy. That’s disgusting. DR Music can talk about how she’s an official member all they want but the proof is in their actions. I’ll be the FIRST ONE to take this entire post back if we see Alexandra actively promoting with the rest of the group, and I mean seriously promoting as any other official member would, but I highly doubt that’ll happen. DR Music’s only way out of this that I can see is them claiming some translation/English problem, stating that they didn’t mean “official member” and instead meant a featured artist or some bullshit like that, and then start profusely apologizing and shit. This entire situation is totally disappointing and I’m writing RANIA and their company completely off. They do not have my support. It’s a shame because Alexandra is beautiful, seems really talented, and Demonstrate is a great song. The rest of the members are great too.