BTS Aren't Real Songwriters? Producer Mike Dean Under Fire For Angry Tweets

American hip hop producer Mike Dean is receiving backlash for questioning BTS‘s songwriting contributions, and more.

Over the course of his 40+ year career in the music industry, Mike Dean has worked with many major artists, including Kanye West, Kid Cudi, 2Pac, Drake, and Madonna. He has won seven GRAMMYs and been nominated eighteen times.

At the 2022 GRAMMYs, Kanye West’s album Donda, co-produced by Mike Dean, was nominated for “Album of the Year.” The award went to Jon Batiste for We Are. BTS’s single “Butter” was nominated for “Best Duo/Group Performance,” which ultimately went to Doja Cat and Sza‘s “Kiss Me More.”

BTS has received praise for accepting their loss gracefully. Mike Dean? Not so much. When the GRAMMYs “dared” Twitter to name a smoother group than BTS, Mike Dean replied, “Anyone.”

Unfortunately, that was only the beginning. In another tweet, Mike Dean said he likes to “push army’s buttons,” for “fun.”

“U will all grow up and discover music one day,” he wrote in another tweet, implying that BTS’s music is not “real” music and that ARMYs are all young fans.

The producer also claimed that BTS plays a minimal role in writing their own songs.

As expected, fans flooded Mike Dean’s comments, defending BTS, the group’s achievements, and their artistry.

bts have done hour long livestreams talking about the writing process for their songs etc. look at most of their songs and you’ll see at least one members name written there for writing credits. don’t ever fix your lips to discredit bts and their writing again

— mon⁷ (@knjgIoss) April 4, 2022

Today, Mike Dean apologized to BTS, saying he was just “trolling.”

In a follow-up tweet, Mike Dean stated that he posted something he should not have out of anger.

Many ARMYs, however, have not accepted the apology. As some have pointed out, Mike Dean’s frustration with “Album of the Year” does not seem to have anything to do with BTS, who were nominated for an entirely different award.

and what’s the correlation with bts? they weren’t even nominated for album of the year. so now you just adding sentences together in hopes that they make sense.

— mon⁷ (@knjgIoss) April 5, 2022

Others have criticized the producer’s lack of professionalism by comparing his reaction to losing a GRAMMY win to BTS’s.

this is what bts said when they lost the award they were up for. they didn't go online and start bashing other artists. maybe you should learn from them. pic.twitter.com/L9hHJer0uE

— devan⁷🐾 (@seokjinnie_joon) April 5, 2022

Furthermore, ARMYs claim that Mike Dean has shown support for people criticizing BTS by “liking” their tweets.