Yang Hyun Suk Talks About Team Preference, Favorite Members and Expectations for Winner

On August 20, the press conference for YG Entertainment‘s newest K-Pop project, “WIN: Who Is Next?” was held to introduce the next potential YG boy group, Winner.

During the press conference, CEO Yang Hyun Suk touched upon a vast array of subjects on this upcoming project such as which team has the better chance of winning, his thoughts on Winner being coined as “the next Big Bang,” his feelings for Kang Seung Yoon and much more.

1. Team B Has An Advantage Over Team A?

First, Yang Hyun Suk gave a surprising remark on how he thinks the lesser known Team B will have more of an advantage than Team A, in which Kang Seung Yoon and “K-Pop Star“s Lee Seung Hoon reside.

“Many people think Team A will debut since some of the members are more widely known. However, as of the moment, Team B has more of an advantage,” he said.

He continued, “Team B has more members with incredible skills,” and “This will definitely make things interesting.”

2. Winner Will Be YG’s Next Big Thing But Is Not a “Copy” of Big Bang

The CEO also displayed his faith in this new group by saying, “The members of Winner are the ones who will take care of YG Entertainment for the next eight years.”

He explained how much of a huge asset Big Bang and other YG artists have been and still are to the company. But he dreams of even bigger things for Winner, as he mentioned that the survival program will air not only in Korea but in many other countries as well.

However, Yang Hyun Suk doesn’t want people to think that Winner will be an extension or copy of Big Bang. “The moment those kinds of words are coined with Winner, it will be a failure. For the last 15 years, I have not debuted a team that overlaps with one another. It’s my personal taste and YG Entertainment’s taste,” and “I will never do anything that is typical. This is what I need to work on,” he firmly said.

Yang Hyun Suk explained that he will make Winner grow and develop on their own to create their own color and style, just as he did with Big Bang. “If I do it for them, they cannot succeed. We are not a company that makes artists with money. No one will know the potential that Winner will bring forth in the future.”

3. Papa YG Cares for Kang Seung Yoon and B.I the Most Out of All Trainees

When asked, Yang Hyun Suk picked Kang Seung Yoon and B.I as the two trainees that he cares the most about. “As I am also human, I am fonder of those who came to our agency first or those who worked really hard. But more than that, I like trainees who have skill,” he started.

He continued, “From Team A, Kang Seung Yoon has so much talent,” and “Song Min Ho of the same team is so good at rapping, I like him too.”

For Team B, Yang Hyun Suk chose B.I. He also chose Bobby, saying, “Bobby is also very good a rapping and he is the first one to join the agency so my heart goes out to him.”

“Honestly, I only meet them about once a month so I don’t really know the members’ personal stories,” and “I will also be learning about the members’ inner thoughts through this program just like every other viewer so I am excited.”

4. Forget the Kang Seung Yoon of the Past

Papa YG continued to express his deep affections for Kang Seung Yoon.

“When he first appeared on ‘Super Star K,’ I saw his potential. Just by taking in his rocker image, people may have thought that he would have done better in a different agency. However, I only saw 25% of Kang Seung Yoon and I wanted to bring out the other 75%.”

He continued, “It took three years to create a Kang Seung Yoon who can rap, dance and sing not only in a rock genre but also an R&B and many other genres. At his age, he can do anything. He has so many good talents that it felt wasteful to just tie him to a rock image, especially with his single,  ‘Instinctively.’ Kang Seung Yoon has appeared before the public with his songs but in my opinion, he hasn’t even started to show you everything yet.”

“WIN: Who Is Next” will start on August 23 and will be slated for 10 episodes, in which during the finale, the winning team will be decided. Check out our previous article on the first look of both Team A and Team B of Winner and other information about the program