"I Thought That Was The End Of Us"—Block B Remembers The Time They Seriously Believed They Failed

Block B‘s Zico and P.O recently appeared on MBC‘s The Manager.

While most K-Pop groups debut on music shows such as SBS‘ Inkigayo, MBC’s Show! Music Core, KBS‘s Music Bank, and other smaller cable channels. Block B was not popular or well-connected enough to go on any of these.

They had to settle for making their debut in Lotte World of all places, a family-oriented theme park.

People probably don’t know that our debut performance was at Lotte World.

— P.O

LotteWorldTicketinSeoul — *| Lotte World*

The background of the stage was a whimsical fairytale design that contrasted greatly their hip hop concept. Their audience was also primarily made up of kids and parents, not the typical K-Pop crowd that they wanted to target.

This was not the group’s ideal setting. In fact, they felt especially ashamed and upset because of the fact that they were performing at Lotte World and not Inkigayo.

And that day was when SBS’ Inkigayo aired, Sunday. So we faced a really harsh reality-checking time.

— P.O

The reality of their situation was emphasized with the Lotte World host’s introduction. Though he called them an up-and-coming group, the fact that they did not debut on a music show showed that this was not true.

They even said this for us, ‘In 2011, this group burst onto the scene like a comet: ‘Block B!’ It was an odd line for me at the time. And we went out there, warming ourselves up.

— P.O

It dawned on them that their goal as trainees to just make their debut was no longer enough. They believed that their sad debut situation did not bode well for their future in the industry.

Zico: Once we made our debut, we all thought, “Is this all right?”

P.O: Once we finished performing, no one said anything and only silence remained. [I thought] “Hey, I think it’s over.”