Biography
South Korean singer and rapper B.I first rose to prominence in the latter half of the 2010s as leader of the K-pop boy band iKON, before carving out a thriving solo path in the decade that followed. Beyond his own performances, he has remained a steady creative force as songwriter and executive producer across both the group’s albums and his individual projects, among them the 2021 release Waterfall and the 2022 EP Love or Loved, Pt. 1.
Born Kim Han-bin in Cheonan, South Chungcheong, he trained with YG Entertainment as a teenager and entered the 2014 rap competition Show Me the Money 3. That appearance directly prompted the formation of iKON, with B.I taking on leadership duties while also producing and writing material. The group broke through immediately, topping Korea’s Gaon pop chart with its 2015 debut album Welcome Back. Although the band’s subsequent schedule of tours and releases in South Korea and Japan proved relentless, B.I still found room for outside work, appearing on albums by Psy and Seungri. He exited iKON in June 2019 following the compilation New Kids, yet continued to receive songwriting and production credits on the 2020 EP I Decide.
After contributing a guest verse to Epik High’s “Acceptance Speech,” B.I launched his solo career in earnest with the single album Midnight Blue (Love Streaming) in early 2021. His first full-length project, Waterfall, arrived that June and reached number six on the Gaon chart, driven by the single “Illa Illa.” Serving as songwriter and executive producer on every release, he sustained that momentum later in the year by issuing the opening half of his follow-up album, Cosmos. Throughout 2022 he issued the singles “BTBT,” featuring Soulja Boy and DeVita, and “Keep Me Up,” both of which appeared on the November EP Love or Loved, Pt. 1.
Born Kim Han-bin in Cheonan, South Chungcheong, he trained with YG Entertainment as a teenager and entered the 2014 rap competition Show Me the Money 3. That appearance directly prompted the formation of iKON, with B.I taking on leadership duties while also producing and writing material. The group broke through immediately, topping Korea’s Gaon pop chart with its 2015 debut album Welcome Back. Although the band’s subsequent schedule of tours and releases in South Korea and Japan proved relentless, B.I still found room for outside work, appearing on albums by Psy and Seungri. He exited iKON in June 2019 following the compilation New Kids, yet continued to receive songwriting and production credits on the 2020 EP I Decide.
After contributing a guest verse to Epik High’s “Acceptance Speech,” B.I launched his solo career in earnest with the single album Midnight Blue (Love Streaming) in early 2021. His first full-length project, Waterfall, arrived that June and reached number six on the Gaon chart, driven by the single “Illa Illa.” Serving as songwriter and executive producer on every release, he sustained that momentum later in the year by issuing the opening half of his follow-up album, Cosmos. Throughout 2022 he issued the singles “BTBT,” featuring Soulja Boy and DeVita, and “Keep Me Up,” both of which appeared on the November EP Love or Loved, Pt. 1.
Albums
Singles
