Kim Gamjeon (Kim Sang-min) [YouTube capture]
Kim Gamjeon (Kim Sang-min) [YouTube capture]

Rapper Yang Hong-won, 27, has expressed anger and frustration toward fellow rapper Kim Gamjeon — whose full stage name translates roughly as "he dares to call himself a legend," with the legal name Kim Sang-min — after the 22-year-old was detained on suspicion of using marijuana while on a suspended sentence.

Yang took to social media Monday, posting a photo of the view outside Seoul Eastern Detention Center. "Sang-min, my little brother, you need to get hit by your hyung once, you know? Your hyung really cares about you," he wrote, setting Kim Gamjeon's music as the background audio for the post.

Both Yang and Kim Gamjeon are signed to Indigo Music, a hip-hop label founded by rapper Swings.

[Yang Hong-won's social media]
[Yang Hong-won's social media]

Kim Gamjeon was arrested by police on Sept. 14 on suspicion of using liquid marijuana and was formally detained Wednesday on charges of violating the Narcotics Control Act.

This marks at least the third confirmed instance of marijuana-related charges against Kim. Investigators believe the repeated offenses — compounded by the fact that the latest alleged crime occurred during a suspended sentence — contributed to the decision to detain him.

He was indicted in May 2024 on charges of smoking marijuana with an acquaintance in a Seoul parking lot. In December of that year, a court of first instance sentenced him to eight months in prison and ordered his immediate detention. It was his second offense of the same kind; he had previously received a deferred indictment for a similar charge before reoffending and receiving a custodial sentence.

An appeals court gave him another reprieve in April last year, reducing the sentence to eight months suspended for two years and releasing him. About a year and five months later, he now faces incarceration again on suspicion of using marijuana while still under that suspended sentence.


paq@heraldcorp.com