As this project looks back on the 30th anniversary, there are many recommendations for full albums rather than individual songs. Among them, Jinusean’s 3rd full album ‘The Reign’, Wheesung’s 2nd full album ‘It’s Real’, and Epik High’s 8th full album ‘Shoebox’ received the most votes with 3 each. The responses are organized in alphabetical order.
Kang Il-kwon
Song
2NE1 ‘In The Club’ (2009): I believe this is one of the most underrated YG tracks and a gem of Korean R&B.
Kim Yun-ha
Album
Jinusean 3rd Full Album ‘The Reign’ (2001): This album has the clearest hip-hop identity of their career. With its perfection as a genre piece and a star-studded lineup of contributors, it is a work that must be mentioned when discussing the history of ‘K-Hip Hop’.
2NE1 1st Full Album ‘To Anyone’ (2010): As soon as you press play, the ‘three-punch’ of ‘Can’t Nobody’, ‘Go Away’, and ‘Clap’ explodes in your ears. Will we ever encounter another K-pop full album with this much power?
Taeyang 1st Full Album ‘Solar’ (2010), GD&TOP ‘GD&TOP’ (2010): It is worth noting that BIGBANG was a rare group in K-pop history that created mega-hits when together, but poured out immense musical charm when pursuing solo or unit projects.
BLACKPINK 2nd Full Album ‘THE ALBUM’ (2020): An album where the label’s accumulated know-how and the members’ matured potential created unprecedented synergy. The charisma of ‘How You Like That’ and the YG-style youthful energy of ‘Lovesick Girls’ were overwhelming.
Randy Seo
Album
1TYM 3rd Full Album ‘Third Time Fo Yo Mind’ (2011), Swi.T 1st Full Album ‘Swi.T’ (2022), Seven 2nd Full Album ‘Must Listen’ (2004), Wheesung 2nd Full Album ‘It’s Real’ (2003), Lexy 1st Full Album ‘LEXURY’ (2003), Taebin 1st Full Album ‘Taebin of 1TYM’ (2004), Taeyang 1st Mini Album ‘Hot’ (2008), Taeyang 2nd Full Album ‘RISE’ (2014), Lee Hi 2nd Mini Album ’24℃’ (2019), AKMU 3rd Full Album ‘Sailing’ (2019), Lee Chanhyuk 1st Full Album ‘ERROR’ (2022), Epik High 8th Full Album ‘Shoebox’ (2014), Epik High 9th Full Album ‘We’ve Done Something Wonderful’ (2017), iKON 1st Full Album ‘Welcome Back’ (2015)
Song
Jinusean ‘What U Wanna Do’ (1998), ‘Like This Like That’ (1998), ‘Taekwon V’ (1999), ‘Hip-Hop Seoul-者’ (2001), ‘Follow Me’ (2001), 1TYM ‘1TYM’ (1998), ‘You and I, We Forever as One!’ (2000), ‘One Love’ (2000), Perry ‘Bounce’ (2001), Big Mama ‘Refusal’ (2003), ‘Break Away’ (2003), Seven ‘Once in My Life’ (2003), Masta Wu ‘Problem Child’ (2003), ‘Miss Hyori’ (2007), Gummy ‘Amnesia’ (2004), ‘Adult Child’ (2005), ‘I’m Gonna Miss U’ (2008), 45RPM ‘Lee Gi-dong’ (ft. Red-roc, Sugar flow, 2005), ‘Pleasant Life’ (2005), Soulstar ‘Only One For Me’ (2005), Stoney Skenk ‘Ragga Muffin’ (2005), ‘Buffalo 2006’ (2006), Mugadang ‘Let’s Play’ (2006), BIGBANG ‘La La La’ (2006), ‘Good bye Baby’ (2006), BIGBANG & 2NE1 ‘Lollipop’ (2009), BIGBANG ‘TONIGHT’ (2011), ‘FANTASTIC BABY’ (2012), ‘BLUE’ (2012), ‘MONSTER’ (2012), ‘BANG BANG BANG’ (2015), Taeyang ‘Just a Feeling’ (2010), G-Dragon ‘Boy’ (2009), ‘She’s Gone’ (2009), ‘Who You?’ (2013), ‘That XX’ (2012), GD&Taeyang ‘GOOD BOY’ (2014), YMGA ‘Tell It To My Heart’ (2008), 2NE1 ‘FIRE’ (2009), ‘Clap’ (2010), ‘Lonely’ (2011), ‘Ugly’ (2011), ‘Hate You’ (2011), ‘DO YOU LOVE ME’ (2013), Lee Hi ‘Rose’ (2013), ‘Dream’ (2013), ‘Breathe’ (2016), AKMU ‘Little Star’ (2014), ‘Dinosaur’ (2017), WINNER ‘Don’t Be Shy’ (2014), ‘Coloring’ (2014), ‘Senti’ (2016), ‘Really Really’ (2017), ‘SOSO’ (2019), Mino ‘Fear’ (2015), Jinu ‘Again’ (2019), iKON ‘Love Scenario’ (2018), Bobby ‘Ur SOUL Ur BodY’ (2021), BLACKPINK ‘Whistle’ (2016), ‘Playing with Fire’ (2016), ‘Lovesick Girls’ (2020), ‘Yeah Yeah Yeah’ (2022), Jennie ‘You & Me’ (2023), Rosé ‘On The Ground’ (2021), Sechskies ‘Three Words’ (2017), Treasure ‘LAST NIGHT’ (2024), ‘Orange’ (2020), BabyMonster ‘SUPA DUPA LUV’ (2025)
Park Hee-ah
Song
BIGBANG ‘BLUE’ (2012): A track that stylishly captures a lyrical love story portrayed by BIGBANG. The uncommon melody line is impressive.
Album
Jinusean ‘The Reign’ (2001): The album where the keyword ‘popular hip-hop’, which YG Entertainment heavily promoted, was fully embedded. The featuring of overseas artists, which was hard to find in Korean musician albums at the time, was also impressive.
2NE1 ‘2nd Mini Album’ (2011): This album, which doesn’t even have a title, perfectly shows that 2NE1 pursues a different individuality in an industry that emphasizes conventional beauty, and that they are emotionally different from other idol groups. Although it has no title, the music itself became the name of 2NE1.
Epik High ‘Shoebox’ (2014): A work that can never be omitted from Epik High’s career. It is a rare hip-hop album that achieves both popularity and artistry.
Tablo 1st Full Album ‘Heatwave, Part 1’ (2011): An impressive work where a musician deeply explores their inner self and completes their own story with beautiful language. Through this work, the words Tablo spoke to the public as a young musician and as a human being created his identity.
AKMU 2nd Full Album ‘Puberty Part 2’ (2017), 3rd Full Album ‘Sailing’ (2019): These works make it feel that the company supported them in various ways so that the musician’s inherent charm could be highlighted. The existence of AKMU allowed YG Entertainment to evolve into a label that advocates for diversity.
Seong Sang-min
As mentioned before, YG’s identity lay in bringing Black music to the forefront of Korean popular music. Since others will likely talk about the popular works, I want to choose pieces where this style is deeply infused.
Album
45RPM 1st Full Album ‘Old Rookie’ (2005): The first full album released after YG recruited 45RPM, who were already known through various events and OST work. I believe it is an attempt that well reflects YG’s aspect as a hip-hop crew and their intention to try deeper hip-hop. I still occasionally listen to the main title ‘Lee Gi-dong’.
Stoney Skenk 3rd Full Album ‘Skunk Riddim’ (2006): While hip-hop became known in Korea, YG once recruited Stoney Skenk, who seriously attempted reggae, which was only slightly known through songs like Tutu’s ‘1 and 1/2’ or Kim Gun-mo’s ‘Excuse’. Their indie music was great, but with better recording environments and producing, a traditional and deep reggae album was born that wouldn’t be embarrassing even when compared to North America or Jamaica. It even became a hot topic in Japan.
Epik High ‘Shoebox’ (2014): Starting from the underground, they tried very popular songs like ‘Fly’ or ‘ONE’ for a while. Separate from gaining recognition, they were a group preoccupied with their own music. Like Stoney Skenk, after joining YG, they could focus more on their musical work, leading to this very important result. It is an important album that didn’t easily compromise, broke through with the hip-hop colors they wanted to continue, and received love from the public, allowing Epik High to be noticed again after the late 2000s. It is also an achievement that only YG could have made.
AKMU 2nd Mini Album ‘NEXT EPISODE’ (2021): While AKMU was heavily influenced by folk, they consistently attempted to introduce the grammar of hip-hop. I believe this was a decisive factor in YG recruiting them after ‘K-pop Star’. As the members grew and continued to receive producing, this attempt shows they have grown to another dimension, as the album title suggests. It is a recent result that very well shows what happens when the sensibility of a mixed-gender folk duo meets the rhythm of Black music, and from a producing perspective, it shows the path to preserving their own colors while maintaining the clear direction that is a strength of YG producing. I think it is a truly meaningful result that shows why AKMU didn’t just flash and fade after the audition but has run long for over 10 years.
Jang Jun-hwan
Album
2NE1 2nd Full Album ‘Crush’ (2014): The fact that the modifiers naturally get longer when describing 2NE1 means their spectrum shown between activity periods is that wide. Powerful electro-house sounds that grab the ear, a high understanding of traditional Black music like hip-hop and R&B, unique rap and vocal positioning, and unconventional fashion and the girl crush keyword. If I had to pick a ‘hexagon’ album that encapsulates all these descriptions in one and achieves perfection, I would give that honor to ‘Crush’. Looking at the tracks that aggressively bring out their strengths in different ways, it feels as if their ambition to ‘be an idol that never existed before and will never exist again’ is audible.
Jung Min-jae
Album
Wheesung ‘It’s Real’ (2003): The trendiest and most complete R&B masterpiece that could be heard in our music of that era.
Seven 4th Full Album ‘Se7olution’ (2006): A YG-style R&B masterpiece where Seven’s mature expression, breaking away from his boy-singer image, shone.
G-Dragon 1st Full Album ‘Heartbreaker’ (2009): No one can deny that this is a monumental album for K-pop and YG.
Uhm Jung-hwa ‘D.I.S.C.O’ (2008): The project of the century that perfectly revived singer Uhm Jung-hwa.
2NE1 ‘Crush’ (2014): Beyond being 2NE1’s best album, it is a masterpiece that stands out in the entire history of girl groups.
Cha Woo-jin
Song
WINNER ‘Empty’ (2014): A completely different vibe from the mainstream K-pop grammar at the time of debut. This song dealing with emptiness still sounds fresh today.
2NE1 ‘Ugly’ (2011): Often missing from hit lists, but it is one of the songs that well shows 2NE1’s musical range.
Album
Epik High 7th Full Album ‘Map the Soul’ (2009): Personally my favorite album among Epik High’s albums during their YG days. A work that proved Korean hip-hop can ‘have a narrative’.
Choi Seung-in
Masta Wu 1st Full Album ‘Masta Peace’ (2003), 2nd Full Album ‘Mass Wu Pt. 2’ (2007): Both albums were not fully appreciated at the time of release due to the limits of self-production in the 1st album or the slump of the Korean hip-hop market in the 2nd. However, listening to them again now, it is even clearer that these are works that interpreted the 2000s mainstream hip-hop sound in the most concentrated Korean and YG way.
While there were rappers in the underground who tried South Side or club sounds, the aura combining Masta Wu’s unique indifference, steadfastness, coolness, and attitude is on a different level.
The track ‘Do or Die’ (ft. Teddy) from the 2nd album is a heavy track that would fit right into The Game, 50 Cent, or the Roc Nation catalog, capturing both the solid keyboard sound of the Scott Storch/Dr. Dre line and the vibe of Dirty South. ‘Dol-ai’ (ft. S-Kush) from the same album is clever in how it melts reggae/dub in its own way, and ‘It’z Time’ (ft. Wheesung) from the 1st album is a track that really captured the swing of that era. In the case of ‘Sweet Love’ from the 1st album, it fills the air of the track with only a minimal sound centered on bass and drums, and the aura and coolness emanating from those few sources eventually drive the entire track.
In that these works carved the texture of the sound YG created most clearly into Korean mainstream hip-hop, these two albums are materials that become more worth listening to as time passes.
Hwang Sun-up
Jinusean ‘The Reign’ (2001): A work that gathered great attention just by the fact that world-class artists like Prodigy, Cypress Hill, and Chino XL participated in large numbers. The title track ‘A-Yo!’ also drew attention as Teddy, then a member of 1TYM and now leading THEBLACKLABEL, participated in the production. However, the point to notice in this album lies beyond the flashy guest lineup. The producing of Perry, who was responsible for most of the beats of the remaining tracks, is the true core of this work. This album is the most concentrated result of his sense to actively absorb local sensibilities while placing melody lines that subtly touch the emotions of Korean listeners in the right places. For that fact alone, ‘The Reign’ can be called a work that must be mentioned in the history of Korean hip-hop.
Wheesung ‘It’s Real’ (2003): A decisive turning point that raised the status of the Korean Black music scene by several levels, and thus, a most clear medium that makes one feel his absence even more.
