Cho Joong-hoon (; born January 27, 1976), better known by his stage name Cho PD, is a South Korean

record producer A record producer or music producer is a music creating project's overall supervisor whose responsibilities can involve a range of creative and technical leadership roles. Typically the job involves hands-on oversight of recording sessions; ensu ...

, rapper, and the founder of record label Stardom Entertainment. Producing his own music for himself and his crew Stardom (his company's

eponym An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the word ''eponym'' include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovati ...

), he rose to prominence through the internet then debuted in 1998. Later, he also would support other artists like

Psy Park Jae-sang (; born December 31, 1977), better known by his stage name Psy ( ; ), is a South Korean rapper and singer-songwriter, known domestically for his humorous music videos and stage performances and internationally for his hit singl ...

Verbal Jint Kim Jin-tae (; born December 19, 1980), better known by his stage name Verbal Jint (), is a South Korean musician, rapper and record producer who is known for his innovations in Korean hip hop rhyme schemes. He established himself as one of Sout ...

and a young

Dok2 Lee Joon-kyung (; born March 28, 1990) better known by his stage name Dok2 (, pronounced as Dokki), is a South Korean rapper, record producer and co-founder of now-defunct Illionaire Records. Biography Early life Dok2's mother is Korean, and ...

earlier in their careers. After twelve years, he briefly "retired" from music in 2010. However, he came out of retirement in 2011 with his two studio albums, ''State of the Art'' and ''Art of Business''. On November 23, 2018, Cho was found guilty of

fraud In law, fraud is intent (law), intentional deception to deprive a victim of a legal right or to gain from a victim unlawfully or unfairly. Fraud can violate Civil law (common law), civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrato ...

by the Seoul Central District Court. The sentence concerned Cho withholding undisclosed assets worth ₩270,000,000 (approx. $238,116 USD) in July 2015 when he signed a contract to transfer the assets of Stardom Entertainment to a new unnamed company. These undisclosed funds were derived from Topp Dogg's 2015 concert tour of Japan. Cho was given a two-year prison sentence, suspended for 3 years. Since his sentencing, he made an attempt to reinvent his branding. In May 2019, he launched ChoCo Entertainment, which specializes in powering virtual AI-based K-pop idols. In 2023, he announced the launch of a new K-Pop group called ChoCo that will have various sub-units including: ChoCo1, ChoCo2, and ChoCo1&2.

Discography

Studio albums

Extended plays

Awards

Mnet Asian Music Awards The MAMA Awards (, formerly Mnet Asian Music Awards) is a major Music award, music awards ceremony presented annually by entertainment company CJ ENM. First held in South Korea, the majority of prizes have been won by K-pop artists, although ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cho, Pd 1976 births Living people Berklee College of Music alumni English-language singers from South Korea Korean Music Award winners MAMA Award winners People convicted of fraud South Korean composers South Korean electronic musicians South Korean fraudsters South Korean hip-hop record producers South Korean male rappers South Korean hip-hop musicians South Korean prisoners and detainees South Korean record producers 21st-century South Korean rappers South Korean hip-hop singers hit_month=1, title=January 2001 K-Pop Album Sales Volume, publisher=Recording Industry Association of Korea, language=ko, access-date=2018-05-11, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180429222400/http://riak.or.kr/chart/riakpdf.asp?hit_year=2001