The TaJinYo incident has received renewed attention after Epik High's latest YouTube video.
Recently, Epik High has reached a new milestone, receiving the Gold Play Button for surpassing one million subscribers on their official YouTube channel. In the new video, the trio visited YouTube's headquarters in California, spending the day exploring the facility, meeting staff and fans, and finally accepting the award.
Following their YouTube HQ visit, Epik High wrapped up the video by visiting Stanford, a suggestion made by member Tukutz. In the video, Tukutz made Tablo reenact a moment from the MBC documentary covering the TaJinYo incident. Although it started as a light-hearted joke between the members, Tukutz and Mithra Jin gave a hug to Tablo and comforted him, saying, "Now everything is healed." And as a commemorative act, Tukutz replaced Tablo's caller ID photo of him crying with one smiling.
In light of the latest video from Epik High, one fan summarized the TaJinYo incident and explained all the damage Tablo suffered. Here is the translated post that summarizes the incident:
Tajinyo Incident
At the time, Epik High’s Tablo faced mass online harassment and accusations of academic forgery, resulting not only in damage to him and those around him, but even leading to a death.
Before the Tajinyo controversy grew, Tablo filed a lawsuit against 'Whatbecomes,' the originator of Tablo's academic forgery rumors.
'Whatbecomes' was a U.S. citizen, so the case was suspended due to his overseas status. Given the seriousness of the case, the prosecution, not the police, took charge of the investigation (similar to how high-profile political scandals are handled).
Unusually, then-President Lee Myung Bak even personally offered words of comfort to Tablo and instructed authorities to investigate thoroughly.
The malicious commenters organized themselves through an online café called Tajinyo, growing in numbers and even influencing the offline world.
In the process, Tablo’s older brother, Lee Sun Min - also a prestigious university graduate and an English instructor on EBS - was forced to quit his job.
Tajinyo members bombarded the TV network with phone calls and malicious comments, preventing him from working as a private academy instructor. He now runs his own small business.
Tablo’s parents were also severely affected.
His mother, who ran a hair salon, was visited by Tajinyo members who verbally abused her in person and over the phone, forcing her to close the salon.
The greatest victim was Tablo’s father, Lee Kwang Bu.
He deeply cherished his youngest son, but the stress from the Tajinyo harassment caused his previously cured liver cancer to relapse.
Lee Kwang Bu, a Seoul National University graduate, was also targeted by Tajinyo, who questioned his academic background.
Seoul National University publicly confirmed he was indeed an alumnus, with classmates defending him, but Tajinyo then began attacking his fellow alumni as well.
Eventually, Lee Kwang Bu told Tablo he wished he would write brighter songs, and promised to have a video call the next day, but he passed away before it could happen.
The court later acknowledged that Tajinyo’s actions contributed to his death.
Even after his passing, Tajinyo flooded Seoul National University’s website with posts claiming he was still alive and had fled abroad.
The harassment tore apart what was once a happy family.
Tablo’s wife, actress Kang Hye Jung, who had married him not long before, also struggled financially.
Due to the scandal, Tablo had no income for about three years and fell into the belief that everyone hated and was attacking him, making him unable to work.
Kang Hye Jung took even small roles to support the family and would always bring home a gift for Tablo whenever she earned money, a difficult decision for a leading actress.
His fellow Epik High members were in the same situation; unable to act rashly, they could only wait for Tablo. Tukutz later said he felt very frustrated during that time.
Eventually, Tajinyo members were punished:
- 'Whatbecomes,' the ringleader, disappeared and avoided punishment by staying in the U.S., where he remains active as a malicious commenter.
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Nine Tajinyo members received the following sentences after appeals:
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1 person: 10 months in prison, suspended for 2 years (after appeal)
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4 people: 8 months in prison, suspended for 2 years (appeal dismissed)
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2 people: 10 months in prison, suspended for 2 years (appeal dismissed)
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2 people: 10 months in prison, actual jail time (appeal dismissed)
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(Note: The sentences were reduced because Tablo showed leniency. Despite that, the defendants still appealed, claiming the punishments were too harsh.)
The reason Tajinyo doubted Tablo was absurdly simple:
From interviews with Tablo’s Stanford classmates, it became clear that they simply found it “unbelievable” that someone smart enough to graduate from an elite university would choose to pursue hip-hop. That was essentially the only reason.
Some Tajinyo members remain active to this day because Whatbecomes is still around.
Tablo later wrote the song "Pieces of You" for his father:
“Your weary figure,
your shrinking back,
your eyes, your hands —
I want to hold your hand forever,
staring into your eyes.
I already wish I could turn back time.
Dad, I love you.”
Following the incident, Tablo abandoned his Christian faith and became an atheist. His 2012 track "Here Come the Regrets" included the lyric:
“God I know you’re Up there, but I needed You down here.”
Korean netizens are revisiting this incident and commenting:
"I was watching Epik High’s YouTube recently, and they went to the U.S. and took pictures at Stanford. I almost cried…Tukutz hugged Tablo and said, 'It’s over now!' or something like that... Anyway, I was sobbing inside..."
"They’re seriously insane. People like that need to be punished harshly. Financial penalties aren’t enough. They should be shamed so badly that everyone around them knows."
"Hope they get all their karma back."
"That 'common sense' of theirs. A certain professor at a university in Seoul said something similar. He claimed there was no such academic system as the one Tablo completed at Stanford because his own U.S. school didn’t have it. But that’s just how Stanford’s system works. That professor had never even been near Stanford, yet thought his own 'common sense' was everything, so he confidently said Tablo was lying. I wrote a critical post about that professor on my blog, and then a student from his university came to fight with me in the comments. lol."
"'But I needed You down here…' - Reading the lyrics after knowing the story hits so much harder."
"The lyrics in Tablo’s solo albums are so suffocating… but imagine how suffocating it must have been for him."
"How can people torment someone who did absolutely nothing wrong, and their loved ones, this badly? Just because of baseless suspicions and their own 'common sense'? If it were me, I’d have abandoned my religion too."
"I can’t imagine how hard it must have been."
"Ugh, such bizarre madness… they should have just minded their own lives."
"I sincerely hope the haters get their karma, not just in this life, but passed down for generations, even into their next lives."
"I was young back then, but even from my perspective, it didn’t make sense. It felt like mass hysteria. I’m just grateful Tablo is still alive."
"Honestly, if celebrities lie about their education, they get caught quickly. Why would he even do that? I looked it up since I was young and didn’t know much, and their claims were ridiculous. Being a celebrity isn’t even a job where academics matter much, so why would anyone live such a complicated fake life?"
"Isn’t that seriously a mental illness? Why tear him down so much? It feels like more than inferiority. Maybe just because they couldn’t get into Stanford? But the way they acted was just straight-up deranged."
"I remember so clearly because I was really active in online communities back then. At first, when the ringleader’s post was shared, everyone thought it was a joke and laughed. Then suddenly people started saying, 'What if it’s true?' and the mood turned weird. It was scary - like everyone was possessed."
"Why did he even give them leniency? They should’ve gone to jail."
"I felt so bad for Tablo back then… He survived, and now he’s still active and healthy. He’s such a cool artist, and I hope he’s as happy as he was strong during those hard times."
"How will anyone ever compensate Tablo for what he went through..."
"Even on YouTube, there are still idiots who believe Tajinyo’s claims. Some even link it to crazy Christian conspiracy theories, saying Tablo’s part of the Illuminati. I guess there’s a whole worldview where these idiots connect with each other. Far-right conspiracy theorists too… I don’t get why innocent people have to suffer for other people’s low intelligence. In the old days, people said 'if you’re stupid, your own body suffers,' but now that suffering gets passed onto others."
"This is why people with deranged minds deserve divine punishment and death."
"It's like those people who believe the earth is flat, no need or way to reason with them."
"At the time, I thought everyone had gone crazy. Now I just think they were unbelievably cruel."
"I couldn’t understand it back then, and I still can’t now."
"Damn… seeing the lyrics at the end made me tear up. Usually, people turn to God when they’re struggling, but for Tablo, even praying didn’t take away the pain, so he ended up denying God’s existence. Sigh."
"There are still people on Theqoo who doubt him. It’s honestly creepy."
SEE ALSO: Epik High’s Tablo returns to Stanford after 15 years, finding closure with laughter and tears
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