BTS Versus Block B—What Zico Regrets About Their Iconic "MAMA Awards" Collaboration Stage

Block B‘s Zico was the latest guest on MBC‘s Reveal My Star’s Life: The Manager. At one point, he met up with the maknae and rapper of the group, P.O, for dinner.

They reminisced on their past as idols in the same group, with Zico eventually bringing up their history with the now-world famous group BTS. The two groups had an 11-minute collaboration stage at the 2015 MAMA Awards. It was the award show’s intention to show the “next generation of K-Pop” through shared rap and dance stages.

Almost a decade later, Zico regrets that the organizers pitted them against each other so obviously. MAMA Awards did not tell them that they would frame the stage more as a battle than as a collaboration.

Zico noticed this only when both groups were already on stage. The organizers flashed a “versus” sign on the screen above their heads.

I remember at [MAMA] with BTS…as soon as we went on the stage, we saw the ‘VS’ all of a sudden.

— Zico

Though they were both performing “Let’s Get It Started,” it was marketed as a contest and not as the friendly joint stage they envisioned. This bothered Zico as he and everyone else did not see each other as competitors.