Content warning for mentions of sexual assault.
0. Before
What did Lucas do? I think that’s a good place to start, because it seems as if no one is really quite sure. You may see people who are against Lucas accuse him of committing sexual assault, and you may see some people who support Lucas say that every accusation against him was proven false. But… what exactly are these allegations in the first place? It seems like a lot of people are unsure on what exactly happened.
Let’s take it back to the beginning. Like, all the way back.
Lucas – birth name Wong Yukhei – was born on January 25, 1999 in Hong Kong to a Chinese father and a Thai mother. His parents own a Thai restaurant in Hong Kong. He was accepted into SM Entertainment in 2015 after passing the Global Audition in Hong Kong. According to his 2018 appearance on Ask Us Anything, he said that he auditioned for the “life experience” and claimed that he didn’t prepare anything for his audition. He just struck three poses, and he got in. He didn’t sing. He didn’t dance.
Lucas was introduced as a SM Rookie, SM’s pre-debut training team, in 2017. He made a special appearance in Ten’s “Dream in a Dream” music video. He then made his debut in NCT in 2018 with NCT 2018 Empathy, NCT’s first full assemble album. He was on the singles “Boss,” “Yestoday,” and “Black on Black.”
Notably, Lucas is one of the few members in “Black on Black” to get a solo verse (as there were eighteen total members at the time of the release of “Black on Black,” and only Taeyong, Mark, and Lucas got verses, while the other members simply shouted in unison during the chorus). I would also say that Lucas got standout verses on “Boss” and “Yestoday,” too. Though his verses were simple and his rapping wasn’t anything extraordinary – compared to NCT’s most celebrated rappers Taeyong and Mark, per se – his passionate delivery and deep vocal tone stuck out, and his verses were catchy and memorable. (Perhaps because they were mostly in English, too.)
Lucas had a good launch in his burgeoning career throughout 2018. He got a feature on Girls’ Generation’s Taeyeon’s mini-album, Something New. He got a solo SM Station song, “Coffee Break,” featuring Dirty Loop’s Jonah Nilsson. He made his runway debut at Seoul Fashion Week. And at the end of the year, he was (expectedly) announced to be a part of NCT’s Chinese-based group, WayV.
Throughout 2019, Lucas promoted with WayV, and his career continued to grow. He was featured as a fixed cast member of the Chinese variety show, Keep Running. He was chosen as a member of SM’s male supergroup, SuperM. During SuperM’s tour, he performed an exclusively live solo song, “Bass Go Boom.”
I would say that Lucas was probably the most promoted member of WayV during their debut era, hence him getting to appear by himself on a TV show. Which makes sense, as Lucas was a well-established member of NCT beforehand, so it would make sense for SM to promote a well-known and well-liked member to help push forward a newly debuted group.
All seemed well for Lucas in 2020, too. NCT and WayV notably did not interact and didn’t even mention one another during 2019 – with many fans citing it was because of Seoul agreeing to host a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system (THAAD) in 2016, which is an American missile defense technology that Beijing was opposed to, as they believed it threatened Chinese national security, which thus ignited a geopolitical feud between Seoul and Beijing that caused an alleged ban on Korean entertainment in China in the late 2010s. Bottom line, NCT’s Korean-based groups and Chinese-based group allegedly couldn’t interact with each other because of political bullsh*t.
But in 2020, NCT’s second full assemble album, NCT 2020 Resonance, featured the then twenty-three total members – including WayV. The groups finally all interacted with one another and two new members were introduced to NCT, too. Lucas was featured on the album’s first title track, “Make a Wish (Birthday Song),” which again was a standout moment for him, being the most popular title track out of the four singles of Resonance. He was also on the b-side “Volcano,” which was a musical reunion for the members who promoted “Boss,” the WayV b-side “Nectar,” and fan favorite b-side, “Faded in My Last Song.”
Enter 2021. Lucas continued to appear on Keep Running. WayV’s third mini-album, Kick Back, was released, and WayV started to release subunit songs. First with Kun and Xiaojun with the ballad “Back to You,” then with Ten and Yangyang’s bubblegum rap “Low Low,” and then Lucas and Hendery’s “Jalapeño,” which was scheduled to release on August 25, 2021.
I. The Accusations
But on August 24, 2021, Lucas’s first and second wave of accusations caused a storm on Twitter and Weibo. A third accusation came out on August 28.
So… what was Lucas accused of – exactly?
i. First Accusation
You can read an English translation of the first accusation here.
His first accusation is the longest, most detailed one, complete with several screenshots. His first accuser said that “everyone will see through his affectionate, understanding personality; actually, he only treats fans as concubines, for two timing, private messaging, and squandering their love.” The first accuser alleged that she received private messages from him in December 2019 after giving Lucas her social media information during a fansign in Beijing in the same month. They allegedly messaged and called each other, and met at hotels and WayV’s events together.
On December 21, 2019, the first accuser claims that they had unprotected sex together. Lucas allegedly declined to use a condom and stated that since he hadn’t had sex in a year, it would be fine not to use protection.
The first accuser states that there was another Chinese fan who was talking to Lucas around this time, but Lucas showed her the messages between him and this fan and claimed that he did not have any sort of relationship with her. He did allegedly state that he was afraid this fan would “expose him” and word would reach SM Entertainment/Label V. He allegedly made various confessions to the first accuser, such as making comments about former EXO member and currently imprisoned sex offender Kris Wu, that he pretended to be injured to get out of doing a reality show, and that he didn’t like the way he was edited on Keep Running to look like a “big fool.”
In February 2020, the first accuser claims that Lucas asked to end their relationship. The first accuser then says that they corroborated her relationship with Lucas with his other “girlfriends” and found out that their stories and timelines overlap with one another. Such as him meeting with another girl and the first accuser on December 2, 2019, and meeting with the first accuser in the morning of December 21 and in the evening with another girl.
ii. Second Accusation
You can read an English translation of the second accusation here.
The second accuser’s accusation is a detailed account, also accompanied with screenshots and even with alleged pictures of Lucas taken by her – such as one of him sleeping and one of him in the clothes she allegedly bought for him. The second accuser claims that she got in contact with Lucas because she found his iPhone through AirDrop while following his schedules and jokingly sent him a message, and then kept in touch with him ever since.
She alleges that Lucas would visit her home. She says that he told her he did not have a girlfriend. He also allegedly told her that a friend he had during his pre-debut days was “useless,” that his group members “didn’t listen to instructions, didn’t try hard, didn’t practice, and weren’t motivated,” one of his members “stole his fashion opportunity,” that some people “don’t have skill but still debut because of their face,” he didn’t like filming Keep Running, and he didn’t like having pictures of him taken by fans while at the airport. He then allegedly said “his family economic status isn’t that good” and that “his father’s investments failed.” The second accuser states that in hindsight, this was him setting her up “in a pick-up artist fashion.”
The second accuser alleges that Lucas asked her to buy him clothes, including designer clothes with the fashion brands that he was working with at the time, which she did. The accuser then says that she realizes in hindsight, whenever he turned her down, it was because he was seeing other people. By December 2019, the second accuser says that she could no longer accept his behavior and excuses and confronted him, ending their relationship.
iii. Third Accusation
You can read an English translation of the third accusation here.
The third accusation is the shortest. The third accuser alleges that Lucas uses an alt account “reaching out to a surfing instructor [he] just met, sending videos to flirt, right after [he] contacted [his] girlfriend.”
The third accuser also posted an audio message that was allegedly Lucas’s voice, speaking in Cantonese, saying: “Whether it’s real or not, it’s out of my control… if only you were here.” There was a screenshot posted with an alleged message from Lucas saying: “It’s like what I said that day… I’m also very happy that you’ve appeared in my life, and you’ve helped me grow. Thank you. We need to cheer up together and add some fresh experiences for when our future selves meet again. That’s how to live life.”
III. After
i. Lucas’s hiatus, departure from NCT and WayV, and solo debut
On August 25, 2021, Lucas posted a handwritten apology on social media – and Label V, SM’s sublabel that manages WayV, announced that they were not releasing “Jalapeño.” Lucas was then on hiatus starting in August 2021. Lucas was not included in NCT’s third full assemble album NCT 2021 Universe, WayV’s 2022 Seasons Greetings, WayV’s 2023 Seasons Greetings, and WayV’s Phantom mini-album released in December 2022. On May 10, 2023, SM Entertainment officially announced that Lucas had left NCT and WayV.
For WayV, it was as if they lost a year of their career. It was hinted at that WayV would release an album toward the end of 2021, but that didn’t happen. And it took them more than a year after the release of Kick Back in March 2021, following Lucas’s scandal in August 2021, to return with Phantom in December 2022. I personally theorize that Lucas was a part of NCT 2021 Universe and WayV’s 2022 Seasons Greetings but got removed/edited out, but I can’t confirm that. Just my own thoughts.
Lucas broke his silence with an Instagram post on February 9, 2022, with a black and white picture of the ocean. He posted on Instagram again on August 28, 2022, with a screenshot from the dogfight beach football scene in the 2022 film Top Gun Maverick. He appeared in a picture with the then co-CEO of SM Entertainment, Chris Lee, on February 1, 2023, on Lee’s Instagram, followed with Lucas posting his own videos of himself practicing dancing in a studio. Lucas was also spotted attending SHINee’s Taemin and Key’s concerts in December 2023 and January 2024, respectively.
A two-part documentary, titled Freeze and Unfreeze, was released on Lucas’s new YouTube channel in February 2024. And then, in March 2024, it was announced that Lucas would be making a solo debut. With his debut single album, “Renegade,” released on April 1, 2024.
ii. My thoughts on Lucas, then and now
That’s it. That’s everything that happened from the beginning to the present day in Lucas’s career. There are a lot, a lot of opinions that you can find on him. There are people who think that the accusations are false, and even claim to have evidence that show the allegations are fabricated. There are people who think every accusation is true, and find it absolutely abhorrent that SM Entertainment gave him a solo career instead of kicking him out. And then you have people who are in the middle of the spectrum, and I would say I am one of those people.
I became a fan of NCT around October 2018. So, I’ve been around when Lucas was about a year into his debut with NCT, and I’ve been around since the start of WayV’s career since it was officially announced in December 2018, with their debut coming out in January 2019.
Whenever a public figure is “canceled” or enwrapped in controversy, I like to reflect on what I thought about that person before the scandal happened. I do this because, of course, when a person has a controversy, it’s easy to automatically think of them in an overtly negative sense – from the past and the present. But I like to think about what I thought about that person at the time, and see if there were any potential moments when I thought that there could’ve been something amiss with them.
So, what did I think of Lucas at the time before his scandal? I was a fan of his. My favorite subunit of NCT was WayV, so I especially followed them closely – with Ten, Lucas, and Xiaojun being my personal favorite members. I thought that while Lucas wasn’t the most technically skilled rapper or dancer, he had good stage presence and exuded passion in his performances. I thought his focal points in NCT were his looks and personality, which were shown in his fashion brand deals and his variety show appearances.
Did I ever have any negative thoughts about Lucas before his scandal? I can recall two moments. The first moment was during the “NCT 2020 Enquete 20” video on November 14, 2020, in which all then twenty-three members of NCT did a questionnaire in which they were to fill out questions with answers about different members. Like, “Who would you like to go on vacation with the most?” When Lucas did his questionnaire, he only answered with his own name for every question. I remember thinking, why didn’t he even try to answer the questions? The second moment, I remember thinking that something seemed off about him while he performed “Make a Wish (Birthday Song)” with NCT U during the Asia Artist Awards on November 29, 2020. He uncharacteristically looked low energy and like he didn’t want to be there.
What did I think when the accusations first happened? Before I looked into the accusations, I will admit that I initially thought they were likely unbased and false. That was until I really looked into the accusations, and then Lucas went on a prolonged hiatus, and then SM never released a statement denying the accusations. The silence and lack of denial on both SM and Lucas’s parts made the accusations seem more and more true as the days went by.
What do I think now? I think that there is some truth within the accusations. I think that there is enough truth for Lucas to release an apology, to go on hiatus for almost two years, and to leave NCT and WayV. I don’t think those are the actions of an innocent person.
Sure, there are instances within K-pop groups when a member may leave a group following false or amplified allegations. AOA is an example of this, when leader Jimin left the group and briefly the entertainment industry following former member Mina accusing her of bullying – just for it to come to light that these bullying accusations were false and exaggerated accounts due to Mina’s mental illness. And there are plenty of times when K-pop idols release apologies for false allegations or for situations that seem like a non-issue, mostly for the sake of their image and their group’s image. Take the countless instances of idols apologizing for dating. The most notable and recent case can be found with aespa’s Karina in February 2024. (Which Korean fans labeled a moment of “national embarrassment” due to her apology getting picked up by global outlets.)
But I don’t think that this is the case with Lucas. I don’t think that he apologized and left NCT and WayV in order to protect their image or whatever. Because SM never said that the allegations were false. I feel like usually whenever there is a false allegation against an idol, the idol or SM will release a statement threatening counteraction against the false claims. This never happened with Lucas. He only released an apology and disappeared. Label V said they would cancel “Jalapeño,” and that’s it. Lucas gave another apology again in his documentary, too. There was never any denial of the accusations.
iii. My thoughts on SM Entertainment
SM Entertainment has made my favorite music within K-pop, and I follow their releases across all groups and soloists. (I have a SM discography ranking as proof!) But I’m not one of those people who are “company stans” or whatever, that blindly adore their favorite music labels. Absolutely not. Never “stan” a business. SM has made many strange and shady decisions over the years, and they are not strangers to things such as mismanagement to mistreatment to outright disrupting careers.
For instance, it is alleged that TVXQ’s former members – Jaejoong, Yoochun, and Junsu – and Girls’ Generation’s former member Jessica have been blackballed from the Korean entertainment industry ever since their controversial departures from their groups in 2010 and 2014, respectively. I also personally believe that SM has exercised some Sinophobia too, with the continued mismanagement and mistreatment of their Chinese idols over the decades (as seen, for instance, with Super Junior-M, EXO-M, and now with WayV).
But I think that we have now possibly entered SM’s worst era: SM 3.0. It was announced by former co-CEO Chris Lee that SM has three different eras. SM 1.0 was from 1995 to 2010. SM 2.0 was from 2010 to 2022. And SM 3.0 has started in 2023.
Sigh. So, from late 2022 to early 2023, SM Entertainment went through some K-drama/Succession-esque public drama between its founder, Lee Sooman, and its then co-CEO Chris Lee. Oh, and Chris Lee is Lee Sooman’s nephew, by the way. Suffice to say, they were not f*cking with each other. Accusations came out left and right against each other – such as Chris Lee accusing Lee Sooman of tax fraud and halting various groups’ production schedules. They offered SM’s shares to different parties too, with Chris Lee’s side giving a percentage to Kakao and Lee Sooman’s side giving a percentage to HYBE. Chris Lee and his team seemingly overthrew Lee Sooman from SM by the end of it all. In April 2023, Chris Lee stepped down as co-CEO and returned to his former role as the chief A&R officer.
So, we’ve basically been under new management since then. And I think it shows. SM has been implementing Team Chris Lee’s vision. This vision so far has included stopping NCT’s limitless concept. After the debut of the Japanese-based NCT Wish, there will be no more NCT subgroups. This vision has also included debuting a new boy group, Riize, and removing two members from NCT – Sungchan and Shotaro – and placing them in Riize. There has also been talks of a new girl group, a virtual artist (which is aespa’s naevis character) and a… British boy group. (I doubt the British boy group is gonna happen, but we’ll see.)
There did indeed seem to be a halt in SM’s releases during the dispute. For instance, NCT 127’s album 2 Baddies came out in September 2022, and the repackage, Ay-Yo, came out in January 2023. The members also made statements that they were confused over the Ay-Yo photoshoot. I believe they said it was a photoshoot that they did while in California and they did not know it would be for the album and it did not match the album’s concept. Thus, leading fans to believe that it was a hastily done and rushed job. (The pictures are indeed lower quality and have strange cropping.) Another instance would be Key’s Gasoline album being released in August 2022 and not getting its repackage, Killer, until February 2023.
Also, there has been a shift in how SM structures their albums. I didn’t realize this until it was pointed out by electricity one day. SM’s albums across all groups and artists used to be filled with their trademark eclecticism, but now the albums are more unadventurously cohesive, filled mostly with mild R&B and maybe only one or two b-sides differing in genre.
And since then, we’ve been seeing more artists than ever leave SM. Super Junior’s Donghae, Eunhyuk, and Kyuhyun left in 2023. EXO’s D.O., Xiumin, Baekhyun, and Chen left through 2023 and 2024. Girls’ Generation’s Sunny left in 2023. SHINee’s Onew and Taemin left in 2024. And even SM’s longtime producer and songwriter, Yoo Youngjin, left in 2023.
It feels like the end of an era.
iv. My thoughts on SM Entertainment and Lucas
But for some reason, SM clung on to Lucas and let their legendary artists go. And SM gave Lucas a solo debut, and not one to some of their long-standing artists who have gone decades without one. Why is that?
Well, I don’t have the answers for that. I can only offer a personal tin foil hat theory that maybe this is a way to get back at Team Lee Sooman. Chris Lee went out of his way to take and post a picture with Lucas for whatever reason. I don’t even know. I just know that this is one of SM’s strangest decisions, for sure.
Maybe I would’ve been able to play devil’s advocate if Lucas was some sort of super talented individual and/or if he brought in a lot of money. But neither of those things are the case. As I mentioned before, he isn’t the most technically skilled rapper or dancer. And evident from the sales of “Renegade,” he isn’t much of a moneymaker, either. (As lunai told me, Lucas’s first week sales were low enough to qualify for a shoutout on Nugu Promoter. And this is an individual coming from one of K-pop’s big four companies…)
It seems like the easier decision would be to just cut Lucas off. Either end his contract or just let him rot on the label until his contract expires. But no, SM really went out of their way to give this man a whole solo debut and tour. They even named the tour “Fiat Lux” – “let there be light.” Whatever that means.
IV. Renegade
Okay, now it’s time to shut up and talk about the music!
i. “Renegade”
In the music video of “Renegade,” Lucas is at a press conference, fighting back against naysayers. There is even one point when he bizarrely turns into a dancing mouse. The beat of the song is very reminiscent of early 2010s hip hop, the wannabe boom bap kind when a rapper wants to show how hard they are, you know. Lucas goes into more of a sing-song tone during the chorus as he chants the song’s title. I actually like the melody during the post-chorus. There’s a NCT-esque dance break in the song, too.
Let’s look into the lyrics, though. Which are in English. (Every song on the single album is in English.) Lucas begins by telling the listener not to sleep on him because he’s a beast, baby. He says, “These rookies will swear, I don’t know or care. What it feels like to be at the bottom, they must’ve forgotten.” He says he’s read through the columns and they’re “tainting the picture. But don’t ask who shot ‘em. I swerve all the gossip.” Clearly, clearly, clearly, this song is about the aforementioned scandal and allegations that Lucas went through.
In the pre-chorus of the song, Lucas says that “they try to stop me but it’s hopeless.” In the chorus, he says that he’s going to “run the game.” And the post-chorus, he says, “Let them sing like the birds in the morning. Light a flame in the darkness.” This seems to be the theme of this project, huh? There’s continuous talk of shedding light on a situation. Which is funny, because there was never any light shed on the situation! This man and the company never confirmed or denied the allegations, and now they wanna make a song talking about how they’re the sh*t. Oh please.
In the second verse, Lucas calls himself a “fan favorite.” And says he’s ready for war if anyone offers it to him. In the second pre-chorus, he says that he’s “wanted like the posters.” At the end of the bridge, he says, “They about to tell a lie.” Alright. We’re finally getting an indirect denial of the accusations, in song form. (Notably, the annotation for this lyric on Genius says: “Referring to how the sasaengs (stalkers) lied about him.” No evidence of these lies is attached to the annotation, though.)
Overall, the song is fine. It reminds me of NCT quite a bit, like a b-side they would release. But if any NCT subgroup did this song, their combinations of more skilled vocalists and rappers would elevate it a lot more.
ii. “Dip It Low”
The first b-side, “Dip It Low,” is a more danceable hip hop song. In which Lucas entices a girl to “dip it low.” Shake that ass music, for sure. Reminiscent of NCT, too. Very fun, high energy. I like what I can only call twerk synths (lol) during the chorus, very reminiscent of party-based southern hip hop music. Under different circ*mstances, I would say that this is a “should’ve been the title track” moment. The lyrics are typical posturing and boasting. This is my favorite song on here, for sure.
iii. “Crushing on You”
The second b-side, “Crushing on You,” features more singing. (Well, sing-talking in Lucas’s case.) It’s a trappy R&B track with plenty of bouncy energy and sensual lyrics about a summertime crush. This is my least favorite song on here. I don’t think Lucas has the skillset to take on vocal-focused track, so the vocals come across as a bit messy at times.
V. Final Thoughts
So, I thought “Renegade” was okay, “Dip It Low” was a banger, and “Crushing on You” was meh. That’s a one out of three! That’s failing! Overall, I would say this is a pretty tame, kinda forgettable release. Not surprisingly great neither expectedly terrible.
Damn. Let’s just say all of the allegations are true, and the accusers have to listen to these songs with Lucas talking about how the allegations are false and that there’s no hope in stopping him, followed by songs of him being a playboy. Yikes.
i. What do I want?
I want SM to consistently release interesting music again. (Which isn’t a big favor to ask.) I want SM to treat their artists right. (Which is a big favor to ask.) I want to be excited about K-pop again, but I gave up on that years ago.
