What happened to the first Black K-Pop idol? Alex Reid of RaNia 라니아

hi everyone it's daddy ola welcome to my channel alex reed was the first black k-pop idol ever this is her story alexandra harris reed varley was born on march 5th 1989 in kansas to her mother loretta reed and her father alan varley alex's family relocated to dallas texas where her career began starting at an early age alex was modeling singing and starring in reality tv shows the stuns are just gross they're just nasty and on endurance it's like you have to have mind intellect and you have to have strength after being discovered on myspace alex signed a record deal with def jam ultimately moving to los angeles where she was managed by scooter braun who some of you may know as the man who discovered and still manages justin bieber and ariana grande's current manager alex's debut single body to body was released in 2011 and followed by a few more releases through 2014. alex continued working as a singer-songwriter making songs for artists such as britney spears in 2015 while in the studio one day alex passed by a room that she heard a really good beat coming out of and since the door was open she popped in and started freestyle rapping over it alex said bye and left but was chased down turns out that had been a music session for k-pop group rania their labels talent scout had liked alex's rapping and asked her if she would like to be in a k-pop group alex said yes and the process went on from there after having a skype call with the ceo of the company and her impressive resume sealing the deal alex was off to korea within a week within that week alex wrote her rap for two of rania's upcoming songs demonstrate and make me ah a week to 10 days after arriving in korea after an intense schedule of last-minute training alex debuted with rania as the first black k-pop idol ever on november 5th 2015 at the m countdown performance of demonstrate alex was not in the music video for demonstrate although she was included in the teaser the company chalked up her absence to visa issues re-releasing a new version of the movie with clips of alex included on november 11th this upload is no longer available alex was also not included in the on stage choreography for demonstrate because she had arrived very short notice and the group had already practiced the performance without her this seemed to be reasonable as it was too late to change the choreography to fit her or so people thought we'll come back to this later to understand the rest of the video it's important to know that rania is a k-pop group that has existed under dr entertainment since april 2011. the group has gone through multiple lineup changes essentially re-debuting a new group every few years before this read debut with alex rania had been on hiatus for two years and eight months original members of the rania lineup were still present may of 2016 three of rania's original members left the group their contracts had expired and dr entertainment wasn't able to convince them to renew this caused a delay for the group's comeback and to make things worse alex and another member of rania were supposed to debut as a hip hop sub unit under the name hex but this was terminated as a result of company communication issues then on august 14th it was announced that alex was the new leader of rania despite all of this turmoil and sudden shifts within the group rania was able to come back with their new song start a fire on december 30th 2016 rebranding with a new name black pearl rania also known as bp rania things were such a mess and communication was so bad that alex didn't even know about the group's name change what was disturbing about the start of fire music video which was recently made private and the performances that followed it was that once again alex was left out of the choreography and appeared in separate scenes for the majority of the video now that there was no excuse that there not being enough time to add alex into the choreography it was becoming clear that there was some sort of issue going on during performances alex would do her opening wrap and would literally walk to stand in the corner while the others performed it was later revealed that alex had wanted to be in the choreography but hadn't been included by the choreographer alex said that she had actually cried over being put in the corner drink performances and understandably so it was clear to fans that alex had been ostracized on the group this was not a result of alex's abilities either despite having to learn the choreography purely by watching the instructor and her band members having to mine the movements to her due to the language barrier alex was still able to learn the choreography very well ronya's choreographer made multiple comments to fans when they demanded answers on why alex was being excluded putting the blame on alex for not being in the choreography alex followed up by tweeting that those were lies not only was alex being left out from the choreography of the group but also from the clothing she was always in a different outfit from the other members making her stick out even more and not appear as part of the group alex spoke about how she would show up for the day and everyone would have an outfit except for her she would ask where her outfit was and then say they didn't have one when she'd asked what she was supposed to wear they'd ask if she brought any clothes for herself furthermore rania stylist failed alex terribly they constantly blamed alex for eating too much when she was just as slim as her fellow bandmates the stylist also blamed her chest size and continued to fail alex miserably despite her being a thin woman they berated her as if it was her fault when in reality there are plenty of people in korea that are much larger than alex and the stylist was just lousy mind you rania stage outfits were custom made this wardrobe issue was very stressful for alex and it's very understandable why one time on the vlive live stream alex's shirt actually busted open this was a very traumatic experience for her she explained how the stylist came and shed a piece of paper down her shirt to try covering the gap this was happening live in front of thousands of viewers alex spent the rest of the night afterwards bawling her eyes out so bad that the next day she needed ice to bring down the swelling around her sockets and my eyes are puffy just from crying yesterday it was a really hard day yesterday it was really embarrassing that my shirt came open on camera rania stylist didn't even have the sense to apologize to alex instead going to the manager to apologize it was only when alex made a fuss to the manager that he told the stylist to apology directly to alex she told you sorry i'm here i'm here right now [Music] thank you very much thank you it's okay thank you regardless the apology was useless but alex accepted it respectfully alex faced a lot more mistreatment when it came to staff for hair and makeup alex noticed no one ever wanted to work on her and sometimes they never would staff avoided attending to her altogether one time it was almost time for rania to perform and alex's makeup hadn't been done when she asked when it would be her turn they would say soon when she insisted that there wouldn't be enough time they'd ask if she could just go without it alec would then have to do her makeup by herself to make things worse they did not have makeup shades that fit alex's skin tone furthermore when it came to hair alex who understood some korean at the time heard the staff saying they didn't want to touch her and even called her racial slurs when one staff did finally attempt to work on alex's loose curls they quite literally tore her hair to make things worse alex also had trouble finding products that worked for her hair in korea although this was better than the staff who insinuated none existed at all as an excuse for them not doing their job alex did find products that existed for curly hair in korea they just weren't good enough alex was eventually able to compromise with the staff that if she straightened her hair they would style it for her alex did this for most of the started fire promo other times she would have to wake up early sometimes at 3am to do her hair by herself before leaving for the day walk in while everyone else was getting their hair and makeup done and go into a corner to do her makeup by herself alex had to use her own makeup products while sometimes using things like eyeshadow from the rania makeup artists to top everything off communication between the company and alex was extremely bad alex didn't speak korean before coming to korea and she didn't have time to learn like other idols because her training period was virtually non-existent to make things worse dr entertainment did not provide her with a translator at any time nor did they supply her with a tutor alex was left to struggle having to teach herself korean during their extremely busy schedule she would be studying vocabulary in the car on the wage performances with her members trying to help this was very stressful especially with everything else that was going on and extremely isolating for alex the schedule's so crazy so i'm doing 70 words a day she would be lost during interviews not knowing what was being said having to try and wait for cues from her band mates to know when to speak she would try listening for words she recognized but this was hard to do important announcements weren't related to alex by the staff either with her bandmates trying to use translation sites to help her understand but it never really worked out alex was completely left out of the loop alex explained that the bp rania era was when she faced the hardest times in the group there was one upside though during bp rania's promotions for their single make me ah in february of 2017 alex was included in the entire choreography and got to perform fully with the group for the first time since debut and her outfit matched that of the rest of the group as well this brought alex much joy but unfortunately it was short-lived it solely got to the point where alex was getting completely left out of performances with the company citing alex's conflicting overseas schedule in america alex seemed to tell a very different story though detailing how she was constantly asking the company when she was supposed to come back to korea and they would never give her a straight answer when alex suddenly was instructed to come back to korea she had so much anxiety that she was bawling in the ride to the airport she was so stressed about going back she couldn't even get out of the car once they arrived to the airport her ride had to make a few rounds around the building before she was finally able to calm down stop crying and get out of the car like the last time that i went to korea like i was getting to the airport and i couldn't stop running like when i was leaving i was just crying and i my ride just kept going around in circles around the airport i didn't want to get out the car i just knew it was bad i was like i don't want to do it you know and i just had that horrible horrible gut feeling that it was just gonna be so bad and it was that bad when alex was back on stage with the group she was once again left to stand in the corner for the same choreography she was previously included in on august 19 2017 dr entertainment announced that alex was officially departing from rania her in the group came to a mutual agreement and alex was able to leave the company so i know most of you already have heard but i wanted to make sure that you guys hear it directly from me as well so i decided to make this video just letting everyone know that i'm no longer a member of rania um it's been the craziest hardest most surreal two years of my life you know i got to live my ultimate dream and i got to be someone who people look up to i got to perform on comeback stages next to some of my favorite groups and favorite idols and i got to meet fans all over the world who told me how much i've inspired them and given them hope that they can achieve their dreams so i just want to make sure that this doesn't take away from that you know just because i'm not in a k-pop group right now it doesn't mean that we didn't take that step you know we did and the world saw it so if we did it once we can do it again there's definitely a place for you in k-pop a place for us and anywhere else everywhere else that we want to go so thank you all thank you for supporting me and cheering me on and having my back even fighting my battles i don't take a single one of you or your messages letters gifts drawings edits petitions tweets any of it for granted so it's hard closing uh this chapter of my life that i gave everything i had to but i'm so so sure that it's for the best so i hope that you guys will be with me for everything i do from now on and of course know that i'm always here for you as well i love you once alex had left the group she was asked what had caused her departure many thought it would be the korean fans that would drive her out but alex actually claimed that they were very supportive and brought her spirits up after having demotivating interaction with the staff i was actually super embraced by uh the korean audience like in korea um they went crazy when i would come on stage like they would lose their mind internationally you know it was kind of polarizing where people were like why does she get to be in kpop right yeah right but you're always going to have those people don't know and it's like i would feel unwelcome and then somebody would make me feel good again and the korean fans really did make me feel welcome yeah there was a rumor going around that a saucing caused for her to leave which alex has also busted as false alex has never really said what led to her departure she said it was a series of events that led to her leaving including not feeling safe and having to constantly prove herself alex did say that there was a particular moment that marked the end but she has yet to tell us what that was exactly well i ended up leaving because it was like a whole chain of events that led to it but things were really like not that good at that time okay and i basically was staying because i didn't want them like i was trying to just prove that i wasn't going anywhere oh so i stuck it out yeah so it was the accumulation built up and it was a real sharp you know build up it was like whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa this is warm so then like something did happen um there was a breaking point i can't really talk about it right now it i didn't feel safe to be honest i didn't feel like it was a safe situation and i just in that moment told myself nothing's worth that like nothing's worth my parents getting like a phone call that i'm not like good interesting i'm alone you know i'm in korea by myself like you were being forced out kind of yeah i i really was i'm writing a book about it and it's very like it's very in detail it's juicy but um reliving it to write the book is like hard oh it's like you're getting like you take taking you back to that place yeah since leaving the group alex has released a few singles but a lot of her music has been put on hold due to kova 19. alex currently lives in los angeles california and is still working on her singing and songwriting career in the end of everything it became very clear that alex's blackness was used as publicity while she was mistreated and alienated behind the scenes despite everything that happened alex still opened a door for diversity in the k-pop industry that had never been there before leaving a lasting impression and inspiring many i'm extremely proud of her for persevering through the adversity so as long as she did and i hope she continues to flourish as for rania they have re-debuted this year as black swan with another k-pop idol by the name of fatwoo i have a video on that as well if you'd like to find out more information it will be linked in the description box make sure to like comment subscribe and turn on post notifications for more videos like this thanks for watching and i will see you guys later did you know anyone in korea before you win or you just went no i didn't know anyone you're the only person who reached out to me thanks doesn't alex have a beautiful hair her hair is beautiful can you give us something to feel better you look oh oh luscious luscious locks

Channel: Adeola Ash

Views: 387,536

Keywords: Alex Reid, Alexandra Reid, Fatou Blackswan, Fatou Samba, Blackswan, DR Entertainment, BP Rania, Goodbye Rania, Black Pearl Rania, Rania, Rania Alex, black swan, make me ah, start a fire, demonstrate, endurance, whitney bae, Why Did Alex REALLY Leave Rania? The First Non-Asian KPOP Idol, grazy grace, Kiya Boyd, Asian Boss, Tim Chantarangsu, Black Kpop Idol, allysseTV, Black Kpop Trainee, Blackswan Official, bts, blackpink, kpop, kpop idol, Adeola Ash, No Chaser Ep 21, dynamite

Id: RNURB9EVJ6w

Length: 17min 58sec (1078 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 30 2020