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Bang Yong-guk, born March 31, 1990 in Seoul, South Korea, known simply as Yongguk, is a South Korean rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He began his music career in 2008 with the underground hip hop group Soul Connection, performing under the alias Jepp Blackman, leading him to be recruited by TS Entertainment in 2010. Bang's breakout moment came in March 2011 when he featured on Song Ji-eun's single "Going Crazy" which was both a commercial and critical hit, topping both the Gaon Music Chart and Gaon Digital and Streaming Chart. On August 11, TS Entertainment released his solo single "I Remember," featuring Yoseob of Beast, which peaked at number 22 and saw moderate success, breaking into the Top 10 on real-time Korean music charts. In 2012, Bang debuted as the leader and main rapper of B.A.P and their first single, "Warrior," was released in January of that year. After a successful few years, the group went on hiatus in 2014, and Bang released a solo track, "AM 4:44," in April 2015. The group returned in November 2015 with the mini-album Matrix, which Bang both produced and wrote. After parting ways with TS Entertainment in 2018, he released the music video for his single "Hikikomori" and his self-titled solo album in March 2019 featuring the lead track "Ya." Following his mandatory military service, which ended in May 2021, he founded his own agency, Consent, and released the single "Race" in November of that year. On March 2, 2022, he introduced his first EP titled 2 with the lead single "Up," following this with a mini-album titled The Colors of Love, on May 2, 2023, which reached number 18. Returning in March 2024, he released the EP 3 which charted at number 39 on the Korean charts and number 32 on the Billboard Top 100 K-pop albums chart.
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