2NE1's Sandara Park Opens Up About YG's Tight Control: 'We Were Hip-Hop in Name Only'

2NE1's Sandara Park said her group lived under strict control during their active years at YG Entertainment. The singer opened up about the label's tight rules on a recent YouTube episode alongside two Super Junior members.

Sandara Park appeared as a guest on the YouTube channel "Donghae-mul and Baekdu Eunhyuk" on the 3rd, joining Super Junior's Donghae and Eunhyuk to share stories from their days as second-generation idols.

Donghae recalled that Sandara Park was not allowed to leave the dorm back then. Sandara Park agreed, joking that "we were hip-hop in name only," a nod to YG Entertainment's tough public image. Eunhyuk said he had assumed YG was more relaxed about that kind of thing.

Sandara Park pushed back on that idea. She said the male groups at YG had more freedom, while the women stayed in the dorm. Even a run to the convenience store required asking a manager to come along.

She also admitted she envied the looser atmosphere at SM Entertainment. "The Girls' Generation members got out and about much more than we did," she said.

The conversation moved on to how the two agencies ran their release schedules. Eunhyuk said SM Entertainment builds a full yearly plan and sticks to carefully set dates for everything. He described that as very different from YG's looser system.

Sandara Park said YG put quality first. If a song did not fully satisfy the team, they would scrap it and start over. She said the trade-off was hard on the artists. "There were only a few days a year when we got to stand on stage. That part was a little disappointing," she said.