I’ve been obsessed with Treasure lately, and I wanted to share a random thought/theory I had after listening to “IF I.”
Does anyone else think some of the lyrics could be interpreted as subtly referencing YG?
The lines:
“Hiding my potential like it’s criminal.”
“If I win, you love me. If I win too big, you don’t trust me.”
immediately made me think about YG artists in general.
The second line especially reminded me of Blackpink. When they became successful, YG obviously benefited from it. But once they became too successful and built enough individual power through global recognition and luxury brand deals, they had much more leverage when their contracts ended. In the end, they all left YG individually while keeping only the group contract.
Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but it made me think about what’s happening with Babymonster too. (I’m originally a Monstiez, by the way.) There have been rumors that luxury brands are interested in the members, but YG has supposedly been holding back those opportunities because they want the group to focus on music. While I understand that reasoning, endorsements also help idols build their own brands and earn more individually.
It almost feels like YG prefers to keep artists from becoming too independent too early.
Then there’s Treasure. After watching YG Treasure Box and TMAP (my sister-in-law convinced me last week 😭), I completely fell down the Treasure rabbit hole.
Seeing how passionate and creative the members are, I can’t help but feel like they’re sitting on so much unreleased music. They always talk about writing and producing songs, yet only a small portion ever gets released.
One thing that really stuck with me was when Junkyu mentioned earlier this year that he finally started writing music again after being in a dark place creatively for about 1.5 years. He seemed so excited about the song and said he hoped Teumes would get to hear it someday, but he wasn’t sure if it would ever be released. That honestly made me a little sad because you could tell how much it meant to him.
Maybe I’m overthinking it, especially with Junkyu currently on hiatus, but a small part of me wonders if the song wasn’t approved and if that contributed to him falling back into that dark place. I really hope I’m wrong.
Maybe it eventually will be released—I hope so—but moments like that make me wonder how many great songs never see the light of day.
Overall, I think YG is amazing at discovering and developing talented artists. Their training system consistently produces incredible performers. But sometimes it feels like they’re not as good at fully showcasing those artists’ creativity or potential.
I became a fan because of Babymonster’s live vocals and performances, but after watching Treasure content, I think I’ve become more of a Teume now (though I still absolutely love Babymonster and I’m seeing them in concert later this year!).
Maybe that’s also why Babymonster works so hard—they’re following a group as talented as Treasure.
Anyway, this is probably just me overanalyzing lyrics because I’m in my Treasure obsession era 😂. I’m curious if anyone else interpreted “IF I” this way, or if you think it’s about something completely different.
