One label, two boy groups: how ATEEZ paved the road for xikers

When the senior group lays the path, the juniors get to walk it differently. Inside the KQ Entertainment family.

ATEEZ and xikers — two boy groups, one KQ Entertainment lineage

01Two groups under one roof

KQ Entertainment has been quietly building itself into a serious global K-pop label since ATEEZ debuted in 2018. Before ATEEZ became ATEEZ, they went by 'KQ Fellaz'. Before xikers became xikers, they went by 'KQ Fellaz 2'. The name was passed down on purpose. KQ wasn't recycling a label out of laziness; they were drawing a line between the two groups and asking fans to see it.

The gap between the two debuts is roughly four and a half years. ATEEZ dropped Treasure EP.1: All to Zero in October 2018. xikers debuted in March 2023 with House of Tricky: Doorbell Ringing. In between, ATEEZ became one of the biggest 4th-gen boy groups in the world: a Billboard 200 number one, the first K-pop boy group to play Coachella, headliners at the Mawazine festival in Morocco. While that was happening, KQ Fellaz 2 were quietly putting out weekly content and dance covers, building a fandom of their own before they even had a name.

ATEEZ at Coachella 2024 — the first K-pop boy group to take the festival stage

source: kpopconcerts.com

02The KQ Fellaz lineage

It's not common in K-pop for a label to recycle a pre-debut name and pass it down to a younger group. KQ Fellaz disappeared the moment ATEEZ debuted, and then the name resurfaced four years later as KQ Fellaz 2. That choice tells you how KQ thinks about its own boy group lineage. Not as one big group with a follow-up, but as a continuing line.

The infrastructure helped, too. KQ struck a strategic equity partnership with Sony Music Korea back in 2017, and that global pipeline is part of what carried ATEEZ to the Billboard 200. By the time xikers debuted in 2023, the label was no longer 'a smaller company that produced ATEEZ'. It was a globally recognised K-pop house. xikers got to start their first world tour and grow their international fanbase faster than ATEEZ could when they were the only boy group on the roster.

xikers in their House of Tricky era — the concept that defined their first three years

03Why the Grammy Museum took both groups, not just one

From April to June 2024, the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles ran a joint exhibit called 'KQ ENT. (ATEEZ & xikers): A Grammy Museum Pop-Up'. K-pop labels rarely get this kind of legacy partnership, and when it happens, the safe move is usually to put the most famous group front and centre. KQ went the other way and brought xikers into the same room.

The Grammy Museum's KQ ENT. pop-up exhibit, April–June 2024 — both groups in the same room

source: grammy.com

That decision says something. Most labels would treat their senior group's profile as a finite resource to protect. KQ used it as a transfer mechanism, pulling some of ATEEZ's global attention towards xikers in a setting that legitimised both. The result was the kind of senior-junior picture you don't see often in K-pop. The older group reaching back, instead of reaching only forward.

ATEEZ — eight members who made room for the next group instead of standing alone

source: flaunt.com

04Same house, different vibes

Sharing a label doesn't mean sharing a sound. ATEEZ have built their identity on cinematic, lore-heavy concepts: pirates, time travellers, hero arcs that span entire album cycles. xikers came in with House of Tricky, which is more like a stylised playground than a battlefield. If ATEEZ are the older brother who takes everything seriously, xikers are the younger one who grew up in the same house but kept things lighter.

xikers' House of Tricky — a stylised playground rather than a battlefield

source: kpopping.com

That's about to shift, though. The seventh xikers mini album, Route Zero: The ORA, drops on 19 May 2026, and it's the album that closes the House of Tricky series for good. Three years of one concept, wrapped. Whatever Route Zero opens up next is the start of a chapter where xikers stop being 'the cute juniors' and start writing their own lore. Walking the road ATEEZ paved, but with their own footwork.

xikers Route Zero: The ORA, out 19 May 2026 — a new chapter begins

05Where the two groups are right now

Both groups are circling a moment of transition at the same time. ATEEZ have just dropped Golden Hour: Part.4, their thirteenth mini album, less than a year after becoming the third K-pop boy group to ever land on the Billboard Hot 100. xikers are about to close the era they debuted with and open a brand-new one. Two different kinds of milestones, in the same season, under the same label.

ATEEZ Golden Hour: Part.4 and xikers Route Zero: The ORA — two new chapters, one label

Watching both groups open new chapters at roughly the same time makes it clear KQ never bet the whole label on ATEEZ. The follow-up was always being built. ATINY chatting with ROADY in the comments, ROADY showing up for ATEEZ stages: it's one of the healthier senior-junior pictures in K-pop right now, and it didn't happen by accident.