YG “Abandoned” A Male Rapper? Released Only 1 Single before Turning to Acting? 

Until now, YG has frequently been criticized for its poor management of artists. In particular, the company is notorious for not allowing its artists to come back frequently, with some even not releasing anything for years. Among those, a talented male rapper extremely suffered under this tendency. 

The rapper in question is ONE, whose real name is Jung Jae-won and was born on March 29, 1994. Before officially joining YG, ONE was a member of the hip-hop group 1PUNCH under Brave Brothers. Despite being highly regarded, 1PUNCH disbanded shortly after debuting for only 8 months, as ONE decided to participate in the survival hip-hop program “Show Me the Money 4”, which could be considered a significant turning point in his career.

ONE debuted as a member of the hip-hop group 1PUNCH alongside Kim Samuel.

Thanks to this program, ONE caught the attention of YG’s representatives and was quickly contacted. YG highly appreciated ONE’s rap skills and performance, believing that the potential for the rapper’s development was significant, coupled with his exceptionally bright appearance, which prompted YG to swiftly negotiate a contract to bring ONE to the company. 

Originally, ONE was supposed to debut with WINNER, but in the end, he became YG’s first solo male artist after 14 years since Se7en debuted in 2003.

Despite trying every means to “recruit” ONE, what YG planned for the male rapper left fans extremely frustrated. Throughout his two years with the company, ONE was only allowed to release a single album consisting of 2 songs before his activities got …”frozen”. Additionally, when he finally got to come back, ONE was pushed to begin acting instead of releasing new music. 

In the end, in July 2019, ONE decided to leave YG to establish his own label.

In an interview, ONE once shared his suffocation when following an idol image, saying,  “There, I had to undergo strict training and once again had to conform to a certain mold, which wasn’t really me. This was evident in many aspects, from having to produce songs that didn’t suit my style, to changing my fashion style into something forced and unnatural.“

According to the rapper, what troubled him the most was making decisions that contradicted his true self just to appease management. “I felt that those choices went against my true self”, he confessed.

Not only that, ONE also drew public attention when emphasizing that artists cannot be “made” through training. He said, “The truth is, the so-called ‘artist training’ is unfathomable to me. How can you train someone to become an artist? You can give them tools and advice, but you can’t train someone to become an artist.”

According to ONE, artists need to be given the freedom to create what they want; only then can they feel unrestrained, satisfied, and content. The rapper concludes by sharing that after leaving YG and establishing his own company, he feels proud of himself and no longer feels compelled to compete. 

Source: K14