TOP, of Big Bang
Happy birthday to T.O.P., a rapper of the Korean hip-hop group Big Bang, who turns 21 today!
Big Bang’s debut occurred at the YG Family concert on August 19, 2006. Though originally composed of six members, the group now has five members, who each either rap or song. The current members are: G-Dragon, the leader and main rapper; Tae Yang, a vocalist; T.O.P., a rapper; Dae Sung, a vocalist; and Seung Ri, a vocalist. The sixth member, SO-1, was dropped from the group because he was too shy on stage.
Their first single, “The First Single Album,” was released on Auguist 29, receiving great success due to the popularity of the song “This Love.” One month later they released their second single, and in November they released their third, both to great success. Their first album was released in January 2007 and was titled “Since 2007”, following their first live concert, The Real. In February a concert album of The Real was released.
Also in Febraury, the group released a perfume that outsold that of Korean superstar Se7en. From May to July they went on their first multi-city tour, and in each of the five cities all tickets were sold out.
During this year they have participated in numerous solo appearances in music videos. In addition, T.O.P. was cast in the Korean drama I Am Sam.
August sported the release of their mini-album Always. The track Lie on the album earned them considerable success, hitting the number one spot on the charts and staying there for seven weeks straight. It was written and composed by G-Dragon, the group’s leader, and won the band several awards at the end of the year, including “Best Male Group” and “Song of the Year.” In early 2008, they also earned a Daesang, the highest award honor at the Seoul Music Awards 2007.
They then released Hot Issue shortly after Always, in November, and began promoting the lead single, “Last Farewell” very early, even before the mini-album’s release. The song achieved success equal to that of “Lies”, topping various charts for weeks, including the Juke-On chart, whose number one spot was held by “Last Farewell” for eight consecutive weeks. The song also earned the “Song of the Month Digital Music Award” from Cyworld. The high demand for this single caused the record company to reprint and repackage it.
They held a concert at the end of December, called “BIGBANG is GREAT”, and tickets for each of the three shows sold out in 10 minutes. The band took a week long break in the beginning of January due to exhaustion from overwork.
Returning from their break, the group kicked off 2008, with their first Japanese album, For the World. The album contained songs from their previous singles rerecorded in English, as well as one original song (in English), “How Gee.” The album did remarkably well, considering it was promoted very little: it made its debut at #14 on the Oricon World Chart and peaked at the #10 spot.
In February, they released a concert album for their December performances. The group returned to Korea for the “Global Warming” Tour hosted by YG Entertainment, which extended until the end of June. However, they did releas their second Japanese mini-album, With U, on May 28.The mini-album contained a title single plus some of their older Korean singles re-recorded in English.
Following this release, the group returned to Korea to work on temporary solo activities. Tae Yang, one of the vocalists of the group, released his solo album in September 2008, entitled Hot. The lead single for the album, “Look at Me Only”, topped various public and online charts. Youngest member Seungri made his acting debut in the musical Sonagi, adopted from a popular novel, and in the 2008 movie, Why did you come home?, which will be released in November. G-Dragon later released a digital single just after entitled “Look at Me Only 2” but didn’t promote it very heavily. His focus for the time was composing other works for other artists, including Uhm Jung Hwa’s D.I.S.C.O, in which T.O.P. also sang, along with a few others. Daesung released a digital single called Gwisoon, Look at Me, which was rather successful, especially for a trot single.
The group reunited to release their new mini-album, Stand Up, which featured collaborations with artists like Daishi Dance and the Korean rock band No-Brain. The mini-album was quite successful and succeeded over 100,000 sales. It topped several charts and stayed at the #1 spot for over 6 weeks.
On October 22, 2008, Big Bang released their first full Japanese album, Number 1, which reached #3 on the Oricon charts on the day of its debut, although it failed to chart on the weekly. The group is expected to release their second Korean album in November.
Debut Date: August 19, 2006
Label: YG Entertainment
Members:
Leader/Main Rapper: G-Dragon (Kwon Ji Yong)
Vocalists: Tae Yang (Dong Young Bae), Dae Sung (Kang Dae Sung), Seung Ri (Lee Sung Hyun)
Rapper: T.O.P. (Choi Seung Hyun)
Discography:
Singles:
08/28/2006 - First Single Album
09/28/2006 - Big Bang is V.I.P
11/21/2006 - B I G B A N G 0 3
Mini-Albums:
08/16/2007 - Always
11/22/2007 - Hot Issue
08/08/2008 - Stand Up
Albums:
12/21/2006 - Since 2007
02/08/2007 - Live 1st Concert - The Real
02/29/2008 - Live 2nd Concert - The Great
11/05/2008 - Remember
Discography - Japanese:
Mini-Albums:
01/04/2008 - For the World
05/28/2008 - With U
Mini-albums:
10/22/2008 - Number 1
Solos:
Singles:
05/282008 - Tae Yang - Hot
Digital Singles:
06/18/2008 - Dae Sung - Gwisoon, Look At Me
06/30/2008 - G-Dragon - Loot At Me Only 2
Chronological Discography:
1st Korean single: 08/28/2006 - First Single Album
2nd Korean single: 09/28/2006 - Big Bang is V.I.P
3rd Korean single: 11/21/2006 - B I G B A N G 0 3
1st Korean album: 12/21/2006 - Since 2007
1st Korean live album: 02/08/2007 - Live 1st Concert - The Real
1st Korean mini-album: 08/16/2007 - Always
2nd Korean mini-album: 11/22/2007 - Hot Issue
1st Japanese mini-album: 01/04/2008 - For the World
2nd Korean live album: 02/29/2008 - Live 2nd Concert - The Great
2nd Japanese mini-album: 05/28/2008 - With U
3rd Korean mini-album: 08/08/2008 - Stand Up
1st Japanese album: 10/22/2008 - Number 1
2nd Korean album: 11/05/2008 - Remember
Credits: Wikipedia, Wiki.theppn
Ohhhhhh these guys~ They’re sooo cool! 8Db They make me happy. I love their hip-hop/R&B style and they’re all so talented~ And Tae Yang and his sexy dancing omg. @_@. Yeah so. Well recently their style has changed from straight-up hip-hop to something more of a techno-hip-hop. It’s unique, but I really love it. If you don’t know these guys, then I urge you to try em out!
Number 1
Wow, there are so many things I haven’t uploaded before, but this one will have to do, cuz it’s newest and Remember isn’t quite out yet. =3 I’m lovin the square glasses. They’re pretty hot~ But do you know what I mean when I say techno hip-hop? Lol. Listen that to that contagious dance beat plus the rapping and dancing. OMG TAE YANG DANCING. *dies* And then they all dance and that’s pretty hot. Okay I’m done. Promise. This song actually is kind of lower on the scale compared to their other songs but I have a feeling this is really gonna gow on me and I think I’m going to love it. x_x;
Lyrics | PV | Download
Uhm Jung Hwa feat. T.O.P. - D.I.S.C.O
Honestly, I have to say I don’t like this song all that much. It’s another generic pop dance song. While it’s not bad, it just doesn’t have any punch that draws me in, and Uhm Jung Hwa’s vocals just seem okay for now. Idk. And her dancing seems like a rip off of Wonder Girls. TOP appears about 3/4s of the way in with his awesomesauce rapping. It’s probably the best part of the song. But he needs to lose the eyeliner. It’s kinda freakin’ me out.
Lyrics | Translation | PV | Download
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