K-Pop History Season 2 Part 2: BABYMONSTER — How YG Made the World Wait Seven Years for BLACKPINK's Successor
▲ BABYMONSTER — ‘BATTER UP’ M/V. The song that ended YG’s longest silence. (Official YG video)
Season 2 of K-Pop History is all about roots — the origin stories of the rookies rewriting the game right now. Part 1 was CORTIS. Now we turn to a group that carried more weight before their first note than almost any rookie in memory.
Because when YG Entertainment finally moved, the whole industry held its breath. Here is how BABYMONSTER happened — and why the pressure on seven young women was frankly enormous. This is a story about expectation, patience, and a company betting that it could bottle lightning twice — and the seven rookies who had to make that bet pay off.
The Seven-Year Silence
Do the math. BLACKPINK debuted in 2016 and became one of the biggest girl groups on the planet. Then… nothing. For seven years, YG — a company that built its name on BIGBANG, 2NE1, and BLACKPINK — did not debut a single new girl group.
In an industry that churns out rookies every few months, seven years is an eternity. Every YG audition clip, every trainee rumor, got dissected. So by the time the label teased something new, expectations were not high — they were impossible. Whoever debuted next would be measured, unfairly, against the shadow of BLACKPINK from day one.
The Name That Was Almost BLACKPINK’s
Here is the roots detail almost nobody outside K-pop Twitter knows. YG trademarked the name “BABYMONSTER” back in December 2019 — years before the group existed. And according to fan lore backed by member interviews, “BabyMonster” was reportedly one of the candidate names once floated for BLACKPINK before their 2016 debut.
Sit with that. The name that became YG’s next girl group may have been a discarded option for their last one. If true, it is the perfect symbol of what this group was built to be: the successor, carrying a name that was always in the family.
Last Evaluation: A Debut You Had to Earn on Camera
YG did not drop BABYMONSTER as a finished, mysterious product. It did the opposite. Starting in early 2023, the members were introduced through a reality/survival program called Last Evaluation and a steady stream of performance, vocal, and rap clips on YouTube.
The strategy was skill-proof, not mystery. Viewers were invited to watch the girls sing, rap, dance, and compete for a spot — with help along the way from members of WINNER and BLACKPINK, sibling duo AKMU, choreographer Leejung Lee, and label founder Yang Hyun-suk himself. It worked spectacularly: their YouTube channel passed one million subscribers in just 52 days, reportedly setting a new K-pop record. Before a single official single existed, BABYMONSTER already had an audience.
Five or Seven? The Debate That Changed the Debut
Then came the twist. Yang Hyun-suk publicly floated that he pictured BABYMONSTER as a five-member group, and Last Evaluation initially proposed a five-person final lineup. Fans revolted. The talent across all seven trainees was obvious, and public demand pushed hard for everyone to make it.
In the end, all seven made the cut — Ruka, Pharita, Asa, Ahyeon, Rami, Rora, and Chiquita. A rare case where the audience, watching in real time, arguably reshaped the group before it even debuted. Try finding a cleaner example of the fandom-first era of K-pop.
The Delays, and Ahyeon
Nothing about the debut was smooth. First teased for a September 2023 debut, it slipped to November. Then, days before release, YG announced that member Ahyeon — one of the most-hyped trainees of the whole rollout — would sit out due to health reasons.
So on November 27, 2023, BABYMONSTER debuted as six members with the digital single “Batter Up.” It was bittersweet: a long-awaited arrival with an empty chair. Fans rallied around Ahyeon, and YG left the door open for her return.
Batter Up → Sheesh: The Real Debut
“Batter Up” hit hard. The music video reportedly pulled over 21 million views in its first 24 hours — among the biggest debut-MV openings for a K-pop girl group at the time. A second single, “Stuck In The Middle,” followed in February 2024.
Then the moment fans wanted: Ahyeon recovered and returned. On April 1, 2024, BABYMONSTER finally debuted as a complete seven-member group with the mini album BABYMONS7ER and its title track “Sheesh.” The 7 in the stylized name is not decoration — it is the whole point. Seven members, finally together.
Who Are the Seven?
BABYMONSTER is proudly multinational — a lineup spanning Korean, Japanese, and Thai members, which gave the group a built-in global reach from the start. The seven are Ruka, Pharita, Asa, Ahyeon, Rami, Rora, and Chiquita, and their fandom is called MONSTIEZ (a blend of “MONS” and “ties”), repping official colors of red and black.
The mix is deliberate. In a genre going increasingly global, a group that already contains multiple languages and home countries is not a gimmick — it is a distribution strategy wearing matching outfits.
After the Debut: From DRIP to CHOOM
The pace has not let up. “Forever” arrived in mid-2024, and in November 2024 the group dropped their first full studio album, DRIP. In January 2025 they launched their first worldwide tour, HELLO MONSTERS, taking those skill-proof performances to real stages across the globe.
Into 2025 and 2026, releases like “Hot Sauce,” the CHOOM era, and the viral “Sugar Honey Ice Tea” — which raced to 100 million views in just 17 days — have kept BABYMONSTER firmly in the global conversation, with a second world tour underway. The rookie that carried impossible pressure has, quietly, become a headliner.
Korean reactions started skeptical — “BLACKPINK 2.0?”, questions about whether the sound leaned too hard on the familiar YG formula, and debate over the five-vs-seven saga. But the vocal and rap talent was never in doubt; on Korean forums, the members’ live skills earned respect fast, even from doubters.
Overseas fans loved the transparency of the rollout — watching trainees prove themselves on camera felt like a talent show you were invited to judge. The multinational lineup gave fans across Asia, and beyond, someone to root for. By debut, MONSTIEZ was already a global community, not a local one.
Korea judged BABYMONSTER against BLACKPINK; the world judged them against… nobody, because many international fans met them fresh. That gap — legacy pressure at home, blank-slate excitement abroad — is exactly the double life every big YG rookie now lives.
The YG Formula They Inherited — and Had to Escape
To understand BABYMONSTER, you have to understand the house style they were born into. YG built its girl-group reputation on a specific sound: hard-hitting, hip-hop-leaning, more swagger than sweetness — the “girl crush” blueprint that 2NE1 pioneered and BLACKPINK perfected. When “Batter Up” arrived with its trap beat and rap-forward structure, the DNA was unmistakable.
That inheritance cut both ways. It gave BABYMONSTER instant identity and a built-in fanbase primed for the vibe. It also handed critics an easy line: haven’t we heard this before? The group’s real challenge was never talent — it was proving they were a new chapter, not a cover version. Every release since has quietly pushed at the edges of that formula, testing how far a YG girl group can wander from the template and still feel like YG.
Why the YouTube-First Rollout Was a Gamble
We take pre-debut content for granted now, but BABYMONSTER’s rollout was a genuine bet. Traditionally, agencies guard their rookies — a mysterious teaser here, a concept photo there — so the debut lands like a reveal. YG did the opposite, spending most of a year posting raw performance and practice videos before there was even a debut single to sell.
The upside: by launch, fans felt ownership. They had favorites, arguments, and inside knowledge. The risk: overexposure. Show too much, too early, and the debut can feel like an anticlimax instead of an event. That BABYMONSTER converted all that pre-debut attention into record-setting numbers is exactly why the strategy is now being studied — and copied — across the industry. The rollout itself became part of the roots.
Where BABYMONSTER Fits in the Fourth Generation
Timing matters. BABYMONSTER arrived into a fourth-generation girl-group landscape already crowded with heavy hitters — NewJeans, IVE, LE SSERAFIM, aespa — each with a distinct lane. NewJeans went soft and nostalgic; LE SSERAFIM leaned confident and fashion-forward; aespa built a whole sci-fi universe. Into that field, BABYMONSTER planted a flag on something almost old-school: raw, undeniable performance skill, sold hard.
That positioning is itself a roots story. While rivals differentiated on concept, BABYMONSTER differentiated on ability — the entire pre-debut rollout was essentially a months-long argument that these seven could out-sing and out-rap the room. In a generation where concept often leads, choosing skill as the headline was a deliberate throwback to how YG groups earned respect in the first place.
It also set up the group’s long game. Concepts age; skill compounds. If BABYMONSTER keeps leveling up as performers, the “next BLACKPINK” label stops being a burden and starts being a floor. And the fanbase they built by showing the work, rather than hiding it, is the kind that tends to stick around for the long haul.
You can see the payoff in the numbers that followed. Two world tours before most fourth-gen rivals finished their first. A fandom, MONSTIEZ, that mobilizes for streaming and ticket drops like a group twice their age. And a steady climb from “the pressure group” to simply “a group people book stadiums for.” The roots — the survival show, the seven-year wait, the earn-it-on-camera rollout — are exactly what made that climb possible. BABYMONSTER did not inherit BLACKPINK’s crown. They were handed a much harder job: prove the factory still works. So far, the receipts say it does.
Why It Matters
BABYMONSTER is a case study in modern K-pop debuting: trademark the name years early, build the audience before the music through YouTube, let fans feel like co-authors of the lineup, and design the group multinational from birth. Whether or not they ever match BLACKPINK’s peak, they proved YG could reload — and that the roots of a “rookie” group now stretch back years before you ever hear the first single.
FAQ
Who are the members of BABYMONSTER?
Ruka, Pharita, Asa, Ahyeon, Rami, Rora, and Chiquita — a seven-member, multinational group under YG Entertainment.
Why did BABYMONSTER debut with six members first?
Member Ahyeon sat out the November 2023 “Batter Up” debut for health reasons, then recovered and joined the full seven-member debut with “Sheesh” in April 2024.
Is BABYMONSTER YG’s first girl group since BLACKPINK?
Yes — they are YG’s first new girl group since BLACKPINK’s 2016 debut, roughly a seven-year gap.
Label: YG Entertainment
Members (7): Ruka, Pharita, Asa, Ahyeon, Rami, Rora, Chiquita
Pre-debut: Reality show Last Evaluation; 1M YouTube subs in 52 days
Debut single: “Batter Up” (Nov 27, 2023, as 6)
Full debut: BABYMONS7ER / “Sheesh” (Apr 1, 2024, as 7)
Fandom: MONSTIEZ · Colors: red & black
I will be honest — I went in braced to be underwhelmed, because “the next BLACKPINK” is a curse disguised as a compliment. What got me was the receipts. YG made these seven audition for us, on camera, for months. By the time “Batter Up” dropped I did not want them to succeed for YG’s sake — I wanted them to win, because I had watched them earn it. That is the whole trick of Season 2: the roots are the story.
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