‘Donda’ Producer Mike Dean Apologizes for ‘Trolling’ BTS but Continues to Argue With ARMY
BTS gave a showstopping performance of their hit song “Butter” at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards. While their peers gave them a standing ovation in the MGM Grand Garden Theater, a famous producer was at home sending mean tweets out about the seven-member K-pop Group. His behavior angered fans and disappointed a BTS producer.
After BTS performed ‘Butter’ at the Grammy Awards, Mike Dean said ‘anyone’ is smoother than BTS
On the night of the Grammy Awards, the official Grammy Twitter account posted the question, “Name a group smoother than BTS, we dare you.” Fans were shocked when acclaimed hip-hop producer Mike Dean responded in a since-deleted tweet, “Anyone.”
The 57-year-old producer then fought with ARMY (BTS fandom) for the remainder of the evening and the next day, discrediting BTS as songwriters.
ARMY argued that BTS writes most of their music, with which Dean took issue. “It’s funny to read so many armys saying BTS members write ‘90% of their music. There is no way BTS members have written 90% of their music.”
While ARMY tried to prove their point, Dean responded, “Just check the writing credits of every single BTS album. In all of them are like 9-10 credited songwriters per song… why would a company like BigHit spend so much money on so many songwriters who only do the ‘10% of the job’?
Dean says he lashed out because he was upset about not winning Album of the Year
ARMY are fierce defenders of BTS. After two days of getting dragged on social media, Dean apologized by tweeting, “OK. SORRY TO BTS. JUST F***ING TROLLING”
He later added, “Ok folks. I was mad about the album of the year and made a post I shouldn’t have made. My gf just made me feel bad for it.”
Dean said he lashed out at BTS because he was upset about losing Album of the Year for Donda. But why bully BTS? They didn’t win Album of the Year. That honor went to Jon Batiste for We Are. BTS wasn’t even nominated for Album of the Year.
In fact, BTS also lost at the Grammys, and they were only nominated for one award, Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. Doja Cat and SZA took the Grammy home for “Kiss Me More.” Conducting themselves with class and maturity, BTS smiled and clapped when they lost the award.
BTS producer expresses hurt over the comments
BTS producer Docskim expressed his disappointment at the comments tweeting, “As a keyboardist/producer and fan of hip hop, I’m inspired by @therealmikedean. He’s one of the legends.” He continued, “BTS are my little brothers and amazingly talented guys. Just disappointed that someone I look up to said those things.”
The tweet ended with, “Hard to explain..But definitely not okay.”
Dean directly responded, “Apologies. Meant no harm. Just a troll. Was trolled by some fans b4. ) all love.”
Dean made the “anyone” comment under the Grammys post before ARMY knew who he was, so it’s unclear who trolled him. Once again, his apology used qualifiers to justify his behavior.
Perhaps the most surprising aspect of Dean’s behavior is that he thought the Grammy for Album of the Year would go to Ye’s Donda. Recording Academy members vote on Grammy Awards. They’re famously political and have little to do with commercial success.
Considering how the Ye has behaved in recent months leading up to a rescinded Grammy performance invitation, Donda winning would have been the night’s shock.
Within hours of apologizing, Dean returned to trolling BTS and ARMY
On Apr. 7, it appeared that Dean was ready to take responsibility for his actions when he wrote to Docskim, “I am really sorry for attacking u guys un provoked. I should have went directly at what I was upset about. BTS was collateral damage and that was wrong.”
Peace was short-lived as it appears that Dean spends a lot of time on Twitter. A few hours later, he was back to fighting with ARMY.
Responding to a thread about four stadium shows that BTS will play over the next two weekends in Las Vegas, Dean wrote, “We sold a stadium so fast. We prepped a perfect show with 30 mins rehearsal. No time code. No playback tech. Just me and kanye. That’s how I ROCK a stadium”
Permission to Dance On Stage – Las Vegas sold out during one fan presale. BTS will perform on Apr. 8-9 and Apr. 15-16 to a 65,000 capacity crowd. The City of Las Vegas is currently purple in honor of the K-pop superstars.
BTS and their label Big Hit have not commented on Dean’s Twitter comments. On Apr. 8, they were nominated for seven Billboard Music Awards.
