Seo Jung-kwon,
Hangul
The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The let ...
: 서정권,
Hanja
Hanja (Hangul: ; Hanja: , ), alternatively known as Hancha, are Chinese characters () used in the writing of Korean. Hanja was used as early as the Gojoseon period, the first ever Korean kingdom.
(, ) refers to Sino-Korean vocabulary, wh ...
: 徐廷權, also known as Tiger JK (born July 29, 1974) is a
Korean-American
Korean Americans are Americans of Korean ancestry (mostly from South Korea). In 2015, the Korean-American community constituted about 0.56% of the United States population, or about 1.82 million people, and was the fifth-largest Asian Americans ...
rapper, record producer and entrepreneur best known as a founding member of
Korean hip hop
Korean hip hop, also known as K-hip hop or K-rap, is a subgenre of Korean popular music.
It is widely considered to have originated in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and has since become increasingly popular, both in Korea and abroad.
While ...
group
Drunken Tiger
Drunken Tiger () was a Korean hip hop group that debuted in 1999 and has since released several albums and won numerous awards. They are known as pioneers of Korean hip-hop who helped bring the genre into the mainstream.
The group's original lin ...
. He has also founded two record labels,
Jungle Entertainment
Jungle Entertainment (formerly known as Jungleboys), is a production company owned by Executive Producer Jason Burrows, Writer/Director Trent O'Donnell, Writer/Performer Phil Lloyd and Head of Production Chloe Rickard. The Sydney-based compan ...
and
Feel Ghood Music
Feel Ghood Music () is a South Korean record label and entertainment agency founded by Tiger JK in 2013.
History
Originally created in July 2013 by MFBTY to house the new group and their members (Tiger JK, Yoon Mi-rae, and Bizzy) the company Fe ...
.
He is currently a member of hip hop trio
MFBTY
MFBTY, an acronym that stands for "My Fans reBetter Than Yours," is a Korean hip-hop group under Feel Ghood Music consisting of Tiger JK, Yoon Mi-rae, and Bizzy. They debuted in 2013 with the single, "Sweet Dream." MFBTY was meant to be only a ...
.
He is considered a highly influential figure in the development of Korean hip-hop and is credited with helping bring the genre into the Korean mainstream.
''The Los Angeles Times'' referred to him in 2011 as "perhaps the most popular Korean rapper in America, Asia and the world."
Early life
Tiger JK (Seo Jung-kwon) was born in
Seoul
Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...
, South Korea on July 29, 1974. His father, Suh Byung Hoo (d. 2014), was a
DJ and one of the first Korean pop columnists, and the first
''Billboard'' correspondent in Korea in the 1970s.
[SPIN magazine, November 2000, ''Silence makes the beats grow stronger'', Brett Forrest, pp. 154-160] His family moved to the United States when he was 12, and he was sent to briefly live with an uncle in
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
,
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
, where he practiced
Taekwondo
''Taekwondo'', ''Tae Kwon Do'' or ''Taekwon-Do'' (; ko, 태권도/跆拳道 ) is a Korean form of martial arts involving punching and kicking techniques, with emphasis on head-height kicks, spinning jump kicks, and fast kicking techniques. T ...
, becoming a 3rd "dan" black belt.
He spent his teenage years in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
,
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
, where he attended Glendale Hoover High School in Glendale, CA. As a teen in Los Angeles, Tiger JK witnessed the violence between Korean-Americans and African-Americans during the
1992 Los Angeles Riots
The 1992 Los Angeles riots, sometimes called the 1992 Los Angeles uprising and the Los Angeles Race Riots, were a series of riots and civil disturbances that occurred in Los Angeles County, California, in April and May 1992. Unrest began in S ...
. He later said he wanted to use hip hop to create a dialogue between the two communities.
Tiger JK attended Santa Monica College and then transferred to
UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
and graduated with a
B.A.
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...
degree in English from the Creative Writing program.
Musical career
1995 – 2005: Early career and successes with Drunken Tiger
In 1995, Tiger JK's first solo album, ''Enter The Tiger,'' was released in Korea by Oasis Records, a connection Tiger JK had made because his father was friends with the company's CEO. The album got little airplay due to its perceived explicit content.
Tiger JK returned to the United States and teamed up with
DJ Shine
DJ Shine (born June 11, 1974) is a Korean
Rapper, Producer, DJ formerly associated with popular Korean Hip hop group, Drunken Tiger.
Before he met Tiger JK he performed as a DJ,
in small clubs in New York City and Los Angeles. Shine met JK i ...
to form the group
Drunken Tiger
Drunken Tiger () was a Korean hip hop group that debuted in 1999 and has since released several albums and won numerous awards. They are known as pioneers of Korean hip-hop who helped bring the genre into the mainstream.
The group's original lin ...
in 1998. The group debuted in Korea and, despite the explicit content of their lyrics and the group's rejection of mainstream music trends, they achieved popularity with their first album, ''Year of the Tiger'', which included the hit songs, "I Want You" and "Do You Know Hip-hop."
Over the next several years, Drunken Tiger brought on new members and released multiple albums, winning numerous awards.
Founding member DJ Shine left the group in 2005.
2006-2013: Creation of Jungle Entertainment and collaborations
In 2006, Tiger JK left Oasis Records and established his own hip-hop label,
Jungle Entertainment
Jungle Entertainment (formerly known as Jungleboys), is a production company owned by Executive Producer Jason Burrows, Writer/Director Trent O'Donnell, Writer/Performer Phil Lloyd and Head of Production Chloe Rickard. The Sydney-based compan ...
. The label represented Drunken Tiger, and prominent Korean rappers
Yoon Mi-rae
Natasha Shanta Reid (born May 31, 1981), better known by her Korean name Yoon Mi-rae (), often stylized as ''Yoonmirae'', is an American-born South Korean-based solo rapper, singer, songwriter, and producer, who is also a member of Korean hip ho ...
and
Leessang were among the artists to join the label over the next few years.
Tiger JK continued to release music with Drunken Tiger over the next few years, while also collaborating with other artists. In 2012, he featured on "Let This Die," a single by
Brian Joo
Brian Joo (Korean name: Joo Min-gyu (); born January 10, 1981), better known professionally as Brian (), is a Korean American singer and one-half of the R&B duo Fly to the Sky. His first solo album, '' The Brian'' was released in December 200 ...
of the R&B duo
Fly to the Sky. That same year, he featured on "Wicked," a song by new
k-pop
K-pop (), short for Korean popular music, is a form of popular music originating in South Korea as part of South Korean culture. It includes styles and genres from around the world, such as pop, hip hop, R&B, experimental, rock, jazz, gos ...
girl group
Fiestar
Fiestar ( ko, 피에스타) was a South Korean girl group formed by Kakao M. Before the group's debut, they released a duet with label mate IU titled “Sea of Moonlight” for LOEN Entertainment's collective label album. The track ended up be ...
.
2013-present: Founding MFBTY and Feel Ghood Music
In 2013, Tiger JK teamed up with Yoon Mi-rae and
Bizzy
Park Jun-young (Hangul: 박준영), better known as Bizzy (Hangul: 비지), is a South Korea-based rapper and member of the hip-hop trio MFBTY. He is an affiliate of YDG's, Yucka Squad, and also the hip-hop crew, The Movement. He became more know ...
to form the group
MFBTY
MFBTY, an acronym that stands for "My Fans reBetter Than Yours," is a Korean hip-hop group under Feel Ghood Music consisting of Tiger JK, Yoon Mi-rae, and Bizzy. They debuted in 2013 with the single, "Sweet Dream." MFBTY was meant to be only a ...
, an acronym for "My Fans are Better Than Yours." Soon after, he left Jungle Entertainment and founded a new label,
Feel Ghood Music
Feel Ghood Music () is a South Korean record label and entertainment agency founded by Tiger JK in 2013.
History
Originally created in July 2013 by MFBTY to house the new group and their members (Tiger JK, Yoon Mi-rae, and Bizzy) the company Fe ...
, which now releases MFBTY's music. He has had multiple collaborations with popular boy group leader
RM of
BTS
BTS (), also known as the Bangtan Boys, is a South Korean boy band formed in 2010 and debuting in 2013 under Big Hit Entertainment. The septet—consisting of members Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V, and Jungkook—co-writes and co-produ ...
with the latter featuring on his final album Drunken Tiger X: Rebirth of Tiger JK on the song Timeless.
Personal life
Drug conviction
Tiger JK was arrested for using
methamphetamine
Methamphetamine (contracted from ) is a potent central nervous system (CNS) stimulant that is mainly used as a recreational drug and less commonly as a second-line treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and obesity. Methamph ...
in Korea in 2000, at the same time that members of the Korean hip hop group
Uptown were also arrested on drug charges. Tiger JK said that, though he had used drugs in the past, he had not used them in Korea, and he said that he was ultimately found guilty due to false testimony from the members of Uptown. He spent a month and a half in jail and was given two years probation.
Illness
Tiger JK was diagnosed with acute
transverse myelitis
Transverse myelitis (TM) is a rare neurological condition wherein the spinal cord is inflamed. The adjective ''transverse'' implies that the spinal inflammation (myelitis) extends horizontally throughout the cross section of the spinal cord; the ...
, a spinal cord condition that affects motor functions, in 2006. He was hospitalized and took a two-year hiatus from performing. As of 2014, he continued to take medication to treat the condition.
Marriage and family
In June 2007, Tiger JK married rapper and singer
Yoon Mi-rae
Natasha Shanta Reid (born May 31, 1981), better known by her Korean name Yoon Mi-rae (), often stylized as ''Yoonmirae'', is an American-born South Korean-based solo rapper, singer, songwriter, and producer, who is also a member of Korean hip ho ...
in a private ceremony in a Buddhist Temple. The wedding occurred a month before the death of his grandmother who had wanted to see them wed before her passing. Yoon gave birth to their son, Jordan, in March 2008.
Other projects
In 2006, Tiger JK launched a clothing line called ''Lungta''.
In 2011, under American rapper
Dr. Dre
Andre Romelle Young (born February 18, 1965), known professionally as Dr. Dre, is an American rapper and record producer. He is the founder and CEO of Aftermath Entertainment and Beats Electronics, and previously co-founded, co-owned, and ...
's "Beats By Dr. Dre" headphones line, Tiger JK released his own limited edition headphones. They retailed for 690,000
won, and all profits went to a child safety organization.
Discography
Solo albums
* ''Enter the Tiger'' (1995)
* ''Drunken Tiger X: Rebirth of Tiger JK'' (2018)
Solo mini albums
* ''이런건가요'' ''(I Know)'' (2015)
Solo singles
* "반가워요 (Forever)" (2015)
Soundtrack songs
* "First Love" (feat. Punch) (2014) - From the soundtrack to the TV drama, ''
Pinocchio
Pinocchio ( , ) is a fictional character and the protagonist of the children's novel ''The Adventures of Pinocchio'' (1883) by Italian writer Carlo Collodi of Florence, Tuscany. Pinocchio was carved by a woodcarver named Geppetto in a Tuscan vil ...
''.
* "Reset" (feat. 진실 of Mad Soul Child) (2015) - From the soundtrack to the TV drama, ''
Who Are You: School 2015.''
Filmography
Film
Television
Endorsements
*
Hite Hite or HITE may refer to:
*HiteJinro, a South Korean brewery
**Hite Brewery
*Hite (surname)
*Hite, California, former name of Hite Cove, California
*Hite, Utah, a ghost town
* HITE, an industrial estate in Pakistan
See also
*''Hite v. Fairfax
...
w/Drunken Tiger
*
Kia
Kia Corporation, commonly known as Kia (, ; formerly known as Kyungsung Precision Industry and Kia Motors Corporation), is a South Korean multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. It is South Korea's second lar ...
w/Tiger JK
*
Reebok
Reebok International Limited () is an American fitness footwear and clothing manufacturer that is a part of Authentic Brands Group. It was established in England in 1958 as a companion company to J.W. Foster and Sons, a sporting goods company ...
w/Tiger JK
*
Yahoo
Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo! Inc. (2017–present), Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds ma ...
w/Tiger JK
*CJ One Card w/ Tiger JK and Yoon MiRae
*
Samsung
The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...
w/Tiger JK, Yoon Mirae and Jordan
*Giordano w/Tiger JK
*
Pringles
Pringles is an American brand of stackable potato-based crisps. Originally sold by Procter & Gamble (P&G) in 1968 and marketed as "Pringle's Newfangled Potato Chips", the brand was sold in 2012 to the current owner, Kellogg's.
As of 2011, Pri ...
w/Drunken Tiger
*Moneual w/Tiger JK and Yoon Mirae
*
Hangame
Hangame ( ko, 한게임) (also known as Hange ( ja, ハンゲ) and formerly known as NHN Hangame ( ja, NHNハンゲーム) in Japan) is a popular South Korean online game portal operated by NHN Corporation. Launched in December 1999, Hangame offer ...
w/Tiger JK
*
The Body Shop
The Body Shop International Limited, trading as The Body Shop, is a British cosmetics, skin care and perfume company.
Founded in 1976 by Anita Roddick, the company currently has a range of 1,000 products sold in about 3,000 stores, divided b ...
w/Tiger JK and Yoon Mirae
*
Guinness
Guinness () is an Irish dry stout that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness at St. James's Gate, Dublin, Ireland, in 1759. It is one of the most successful alcohol brands worldwide, brewed in almost 50 countries, and available in ove ...
w/Tiger JK
*
SK Telecom
SK Telecom Co., Ltd. ( or ) is a South Korean wireless telecommunications operator and former film distributor and is part of the SK Group, one of the country's largest chaebols. It leads the local market with 50.5 percent share as of 2008. S ...
w/Tiger JK and Bizzy
*
SONY
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
w/Tiger JK and Yoon Mirae
Awards and nominations
References
External links
Drunken Tiger site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tiger Jk
1974 births
Living people
American businesspeople convicted of crimes
American retail chief executives
American fashion businesspeople
American hip hop singers
American male rappers
American music industry executives
American musicians of Korean descent
American people convicted of drug offenses
American rappers of Asian descent
Businesspeople from Los Angeles
Jungle Entertainment artists
Rappers from Los Angeles
Rappers from Miami
Rappers from Seoul
South Korean emigrants to the United States
South Korean male film actors
South Korean male rappers
South Korean music industry executives
University of California, Los Angeles alumni
West Coast hip hop musicians
MAMA Award winners
21st-century American rappers
21st-century American male musicians