Singer RAIN received black ocean at 'KCON LA 2023' in response to the recent announcement by his management agency RAIN COMPANY about reorganization of K-pop boy group Ciipher.
From August 18 to 20, an annual convention 'KCON' was held in Los Angeles, the United States.
The event included K-pop performances by K-pop acts such as IVE, NMIXX, TAEMIN, ATEEZ, ZEROBASEONE, (G)I-DLE, ITZY, THE BOYZ, Stray Kids, and more.
And RAIN was part of the lineup as the second day performer.
On the second day of 'KCON LA 2023', when RAIN came up on stage to perform, he met with shocking reactions from the crowd.
Instead of cheering hard for this K-pop legend who has released numerous hit songs since his debut in 1998, many of them maintained silence and turned off their lightsticks.
During RAIN's performance, some yelled to people around to turn their lightsticks off, and even booed at him at the end of his performance.
According to attendees on this day, not everyone joined in giving RAIN black ocean treatment, but his presence was certainly not well-received there compared to other artists.
It turned out fans in the U.S. had proposed black ocean for RAIN in advance, after finding out he was going to perform at 'KCON LA 2023'.
It was because they believed RAIN was responsible for the ill fate that now-inactive group Ciipher faced.
Ever since RAIN COMPANY announced that their first K-pop group Ciipher was going to lose four members―WON, TAN, TAG and DOHWAN, while three members―HYUNBIN, KEITA and HWI―will continue their individual activities and be reorganized into a new team in the future earlier this month, K-pop stans expressed anger toward RAIN.
They argued that RAIN's poor management was why Ciipher ended up this way, and the group's fate showed how inadequate he is as a producer; he is thought to have failed managing boy group MBLAQ in the past as well.
The fact that RAIN chose to perform at 'KCON LA 2023' himself, not giving the opportunity for Ciipher to perform at 'KCON', made fans even angrier, because the boys may have been able to attract more potential fans performing at a major global event like this, which meant that their reorganization could have been avoided.
Even though 'KCON LA 2023' is over, certain fans are still on about RAIN's 'self-centered' participation in the event; they are also pleading for justice on behalf of Ciipher at the moment.
(Credit= KCON LA 2023, 'yejigf' 'mistflm' 'kookaesque' Twitter)