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US Artist Nate Walka worked closely with one of the popular South Korean bands, BTS, for some time. However, the songwriter recently opened up about the time when SM Entertainment tried to sabotage the band and shared the past comments that the agency once made against BTS. After debuting as a group, their show Bangtan Boys American Hustle Life was a hit.
At the time of that show, Walka was one of their mentors, along with Tony Jones and others. During a recent podcast appearance, the songwriter walked down memory lane and talked about his experience working with the boy band. He even admitted that after listening to BTS, he had decided to join the show. But, he left the fans shocked when he revealed how SM Entertainment tried to wreck the band before it could make it big globally.
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EXO’s agency, SM Entertainment, had tried to persuade Nate Walka not to do the show and instead work with the band EXO. They wanted to sabotage BTS, as per Walka. In an interview with Frankie Biggz on his podcast, The Frankie Biggz Show, the US artist revealed, “At this time, there was this writing camp for EXO going on. I believe EXO had a number one record at the time, and their camp was trying to get me to not do the show and come and work with EXO.”
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Walka further stated that SM didn’t acknowledge BTS’s talent and didn’t believe that the boy band could make it huge in the industry. Sharing what SM had told him, the songwriter continued, “They were saying, ‘BTS, they’re not…’ Believe it or not, there was a lot of doubters of them, saying they felt like it was an experiment and that it wasn’t going to, they were calling them a filler kind of group.” This whole conversation sparked raging comments from netizens. Some even bashed SM Entertainment for trying to ruin BTS from the moment they debuted.
Fans took X (previously known as Twitter) by storm and penned their opinions. One such fan wrote, “SM really tried to downplay bts during their rookie years because this is crazy.” Another X user commented, “SM tried to sabotage this little boys who only have the Passion in their eyes & Dreams…” A third fan stated, “Why were they so pressed about a new group from a poor company? And SM was supposedly the biggest at that time. Didn’t they have enough faith in their own group which they trained? They were so scared of Bangtan’s future. They knew BTS was going to topple everyone.”
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sm really tried to downplay bts during their rookie years because this is crazy
sm tried to get american hustle life to not have bts on the show because they doubted them and thought they were a filler group and called them an experiment….. pic.twitter.com/FJ6f5zEAiP
— hopeeeworld💟🫶🏽 (@dimplelover875) April 20, 2025
SM trying to sabotage Bangtan so early on means they knew & saw something in bts that made them feel threatened enough to try to sabotage them. After all SM is in the same industry & I'm certain they felt & knew these 7 young boys who had immense talent & passion were going to do…
— 솔선재 ⁷ (@kdramasverse) April 21, 2025
Exactly! Why were they so pressed about a new group from a poor company? And SM was supposedly the biggest at that time. Didn't they have enough faith in their own group which they trained? They were so scared of Bangtan's future. They knew BTS was going to topple everyone.
— Kay⁷ (@kay0913) April 22, 2025
Watch the whole interview here:
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