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RIIZE is set to perform at the 2024 Rolling Loud Thailand festival in Pattaya from November 22 to 24. While the rookie boy band isn't listed on the official lineup, Rolling Loud confirmed their appearance in a tweet. The lineup includes K-pop stars like GOT7's BamBam, Jay Park, and CL, but is mainly dominated by Western Hip-Hop artists such as A$AP Rocky, Lil Wayne, Wiz Khalifa, Gunna, and Playboi Carti.
The X account of Rolling Loud Thailand, @RollingloudTH, wrote in its tweet:
"Big news! RIIZE is back in Thailand. We’re taking over the world’s biggest hip-hop stage at Rolling Loud Thailand 2024! Get hyped and ready to turn up! Catch us live from November 22-24, 2024, at Legend Siam Pattaya! Let’s make some noise!"
However, fans of the K-pop boy group were surprised to see a pop band like RIIZE set to perform at the Hip-Hop music festival which caters to its niche audience. They stated that the boy group from SM Entertainment isn't a Hip-Hop band and doesn't have Hip-Hop genre-specific tracks in their discography.
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A fan highlighted that they had never seen a K-pop group perform at Rolling Loud Thailand and wrote on X:
"Riize at rolling loud makes absolutely no sense. and honestly this is just ridicule waiting to happen because there has NEVER been a kpop group to perform at a RAP festival. SM you are so evil"
The discussion was divided on the internet with the majority inclined towards being stunned by the K-pop group's performance. They mentioned that they don't understand SM Entertainment's logic behind their decision.
"No way I just read that riize is performing at rolling loud??? The jokes write themselves," an X user wrote.
"Sending riize to rolling loud is such a set up... the crowd is not gonna be their target audience and anyone who goes just for riize probably gonna be annoying as hell about all the other performers... coulda sent them to a different festival i truly dont understand sm," another fan wrote.
"I don’t think u understand how bad it’s gonna be to sent RIIZE to rolling loud them mfs only listen to hip hop not get a guitar do u know how bad twitter gonna be that day???" one other fan said.
Although some fans equally agreed with the mismatch, a few stated that the collective online reaction to the Get A Guitar K-pop group seemed a bit "racist."
"I don’t have anything to say about Riize going to Rolling Loud other than, sending them to an American festival after giving into the whims of fans who’s sentiments aren’t shared in this region is crazy." one fan commented.
"Lot of yalls reaction to riize being sent to rolling loud is borderline racist but honestly who's shocked!" another fan stated.
"Okay y’all are starting get a little racist w this riize at rolling loud commentary," another fan added.
Fans criticize SM Entertainment for alleged hypocrisy in sending RIIZE to the 2024 Rolling Loud Thailand
On October 13, 2024, SM Entertainment announced that Seunghan had been removed from RIIZE. The K-pop rookie artist went on a hiatus in November 2023 after a few pictures of his alleged smoking went viral online. Additionally, a picture of him kissing his alleged girlfriend was also circulated on the internet, which caused a backlash from Korean netizens.
After an 11-month hiatus, SM Entertainment mentioned the return of Seunghan in RIIZE on October 11, 2024. However, Korean netizens sent funeral wreaths outside the SM building in protest of their decision. The following day, the company removed Seunghan from the rookie band. This resulted in a global boycott of the company and RIIZE's upcoming releases by international fans and K-pop retailers.
International fans demanded Seunghan's return to the group as they questioned Korean netizens' toxic mentality of penalizing artists who date or smoke cigarettes. Over 121 global K-pop stores and retailers including SubKShop, Oppang K-pop Store, and KPOPNARA, joined the boycott and released notice on their official social media accounts.
Meanwhile, after the announcement of RIIZE performing at the 2024 Rolling Loud Thailand, fans criticized SM Entertainment again. They stated that the label removed Seunghan over a smoking controversy while Rolling Loud Thailand is a Hip-Hop music festival where smoking and other stuff are considered normal.
Rolling Loud Thailand will take place in Pattaya from November 22 to 24, 2024. Musical festival tickets are available on Ticketmelon.
