G-Dragons Biography
G-Dragon initially started out as a child hip hop artist likely in hopes of emulation the popularity and success of Lil Romeo and Lil Bow Wow in the states. He was also a model. However, he could not release an album and was limited to featuring on other YG artists’ albums.
On January 2001, GD debuted on the compilation album Daehanmingook Hip-Hop Flex as a rapper. After his debut, he was recruited along with Tae Yang to act in JinuSean’s mv as mini JinuSean, which was released in February of the same year. Then GD started training out his planned debut as one half of hip hop duo GDYB.
During that time, he was featured on songs by Perry, Se7en, Wheesung, YG Family and Masta Wu. He also had cameos in many YG artists’s music videos and performed live with Swi.T, Lexy, JinuSean and YG Family. He also performed in concert with Wheesung, Gummy and Se7en and in YG Family’s annual One concerts.
Out of everyone, GD was closest to YG and Perry, who thought him a lot, and his relationship with Hyun Suk was even described as “father and son”. GDYB released 2 songs on YG Family’s second album, but never debut or released an album. In 2004, GD and Tae Yang were both listed as YG new faces and scheduled to debut that year.
However, Hyun Suk announced that their debut was canceled in favor of forming a four-to-six member group. It took until 2006 for BIG BANG to be officially announced via The BIG BANG Documentary Reality Show. Meanwhile, GDYB were featured in Se7en’s album and performed with him at the World Cup.
After graduating from high school, he decided to wait a year before applying to college, and took his college entrance exams in Fall 2007. G-Dragon is BIG BANG’s leader. He is also a rapper and vocalist and has been producing with BIG BANG’s releases with the help of Hyun Suk since the beginning. He also wrote many of the lyrics and recently started songwriting and arranging.
TOP's Biography
Even though BIG BANG is listed as his debut, TOP has been rapping since middle school under the name Tempo. He started doing gigs in underground clubs, sometimes with an older friend of his, NBK Gray. They never sign a label or released an album.
“Buckwild”, one of their songs was storming the internet in mp3 format. Unlike the rest of Big Bang, TOP hasn’t trained to be a singer. His only singing part so far is at the beginning of "She Can’t Get Enough"
He often gets sent on TV shows alone, either as a guest or MC. In August 2007, he started acting in the drama "I Am Sam". In summer 2007, he was also featured as an actor in Red Roc’s "Hello" MV.
Taeyang's Biography
Taeyang was a child actor starting in 5th grade. He was recruited to play the part of mini Sean in JinuSean’s "A-Yo" MV. After that, he auditioned to join YG Family, having been impressed by JinuSean. His chosen stage name was YB Taekwon, which is either a reference to JinuSean’s Taekwon V album or to the giant robot Taekwon V.
His rapping debut was in YG Family’s second album in 2002. In 2003, he participated in Wheesung’s second album, rapping on the track Player. He performed with JinuSean, Swi.T, Lexy, Masta Wu, Se7en and YG Family, and took part in Wheesung, Gummy, Se7en and YG Family’s One concerts.He was scheduled to debut with G-Dragon as GDYB (for G-Dragon & YB Taekwon) in 2004, but never debuted or released an album.
Hyun Suk announced that their debut was canceled in favor of forming a four-to-six-member group. Even though he’d previously trained to be a rapper and wanted to become one, he debuted in Big Bang as a singer. He’s been studying Japanese for three years, since 2004, in preparation for Big Bang’s Japanese debut.
After graduating high school, he and G-Dragon decided to take a year off before applying for college. He has been accepted at Daejin University in theater and film for 2008, and has mentioned wanting to become an actor.
His first kiss was during the filming of the Ma Girl music video, when the actress got carried away and kissed him for real. Hyun Suk mentioned in his messages that Taeyang was going to have a solo single, as a reward for hard work and to make up for being too harsh with Taeyang. It was tentatively scheduled for September 2007, but it hasn’t been released yet.
Daesung's Biography
Dae Sung was recruited in an audition, and even though he was jokingly known as “unpretty boy” among the staff, he turned out to be the most popular members.
During training, he got to do vocal training with Wheesung, who’s one of his favorite artists. Wheesung had also help other members from BIG BANG. While training, he was diagnosed with vocal cord nodules (a mass of tissue that grows on the vocal cords causing human speech to be difficult), which are common among singers and caused by strains on the vocal cords.
They got worse in fall of 2006 and DS had to undergo treatment soon before the release of BIG BANG’s second single. Thankfully, Gummy, who had experienced the same problem, helped Dae Sung recover and manage his condition. They’ve been friends ever since. Gummy was the one who said “hello” in Korean in the "Lie" MV.
In April 2007, Dae Sung decided to quit high school to be able to focus full-time on Big Bang, but expressed a desire to pass his college entrance exams sometime in the future. In October 2007, Dae Sung was featured in singer Nemo’s “Ije, Oori…” (이제,우리..) [Now We] digital single. This was the first M-Boat/YG collaboration since the split of their partnership some months earlier.
Seungri's Biography
Seung Ri is from Kwangjoo, the sixth major city in Korea. As we can see in the Big BangDocumentary, it’s quite a long commute between the two.
Before Big Bang, he was a member of Ilhwan, a Kwangjoo dance team. In summer 2005, Seung Ri appeared on an episode of Battle Shinhwa, a TV show to find the second Shinhwa (a famous boyband) through auditions.
The band Battle is the result of that TV show. In the thirteenth episode, he was cut because his singing wasn’t impressive enough, even though his dancing was.
Before Big Bang, he was a member of Ilhwan, a Kwangjoo dance team. In summer 2005, Seung Ri appeared on an episode of Battle Shinhwa, a TV show to find the second Shinhwa (a famous boyband) through auditions.
The band Battle is the result of that TV show. In the thirteenth episode, he was cut because his singing wasn’t impressive enough, even though his dancing was.