A petition by fans to reinstate K-pop star B.I. to the band iKON has attracted a lot of signatures after the rapper dramatically left the group on Wednesday. The 22-year-old musician, real name Kim Han-bin, announced he was quitting both the band and YG Entertainment, the agency that represents him after drug use allegations were labeled against him.
B.I said in his statement that he never actually took drugs, but he wanted to because of the pain he was dealing with at the time. It’s because he claims that he never took any illegal substances that many fans believe he shouldn’t have to leave iKON. They have started a petition on Change.org entitled “Hanbin shouldn’t have to leave iKON.”
“Hanbin was accused by Dispatch of 2016 drug use on June 11, 2019,” the summary of the petition states. “There has been an official statement released, informing us that YG Entertainment orders drug tests every month or so from the USA and NONE of the IKON members, INCLUDING HANBIN tested positive. Please get this out for Hanbin or YG Entertainment to see!”
"Ikonics and fans don't want Hanbin to leave ikon when he did nothing wrong. He doesn't deserve to,” it continued. “We just want him to be in a positive mental state, and obviously at the time when he was thinking about doing drugs, he wasn't. Hanbin only mentioned he was thinking about drugs due to his pain, but NEVER took drugs due to being too scared. Please sign this!"
The petition pertains to a case in 2016 where a "Ms. A" was arrested for illegal drug activities, and a "Mr. C "was arrested for illegal drug distribution. In the middle of the police investigation, "A" retracted her previous statement where she said she sold drugs to B.I. This caused the police to shut the case without further investigation of B.I. Many suspect YG Entertainment may have been involved with the police and evidence may have been suppressed.
If the Anti-Corruption & Civil Rights Commission finds this petition to be valid, then they will be obligated to re-investigate the closed case and also YG Entertainment’s alleged interference in the original investigation.
The petition has over 450,000 signatures as of this writing, and their supposed goal is 500,000. We’ll have to wait and see whether B.I or YG Entertainment acknowledge the existence of this petition.
Meanwhile, YG Entertainment has revealed that iKON will keep promoting as six members after B.I left the group and the company. iKON is currently scheduled to begin their 2019 Japan Tour on July 27 in Fukuoka, and will visit six cities for a total of 14 concerts between then and September 19. YG Entertainment has also apologized for the series of developments that have happened.
