Background
Bobby was born in Seoul, South of Korea but was raised in Fairfax, Virginia, United States.
Bobby was born in Seoul, South of Korea but was raised in Fairfax, Virginia, United States.
In May 2014 Bobby successfully auditioned for the third season of the rap competition "Show Maine The Money." As a contestant he was part of team "Illionaire" with Dok2, and The Quiett of Illionaire Records. The songs which were released digitally ranked very well on Korean music charts. His victory earned him a special concert, $100,000 and the opportunity to release an album.
On September 13, 2014, Bobby participated in the Illionaire Records" "11:11" concert with Dok2, The Quiett, and Beenzino.
In October 2014, Bobby was featured in Epik High"s single "Born Hater" with Beenzino, Verbal Jint, B.I, and Song Minister-house On November 11, 2014, the track "I"m Different," in which he is featured, was released by "Hi Suhyun," a unit composed of Lee Hi and Lee Suhyun from Akdong Musician.
In late November 2014, Bobby featured with Dok2 in the Masta Wu track "Come Here." He performed "Born Hater" with Epik High at the 2014 Mnet Asian Music Awards, as well as his single "YGGR" and his featuring in "Come Here." Gentlemen’s Quarterly of Korea included him in their 2014 "Men of the Year" feature. This feature included "men who have made an impact on culture in 2014.".
Prior to his official debut, Bobby was the crowned the champion of the third season of Mnet"s rap survival program "Show Maine the Money." Bobby also appeared in the survival program "MIX & MATCH" with fellow iKON members B.I, Jinhwan, Junhoe, Donghyuk, Yunhyeong and Chanwoo in 2014 before his official debut. Bobby was publicly introduced as a YG trainee in the first episode of the survival show "WIN: Who is Next?". He was a member of the six member "Team B," who ultimately lost the competition and failed to become YG"s next boy group named Winner. After "WIN," Bobby, along with the Team B members, made a cameo appearance in Taeyang"s Ringa Linga music video. Bobby also contributed to the lyrics for Winner"s title track "Empty" along with Song Minister-ho and iKON"s leader B.I. Bobby won the competition, competing in the final round against rappers Iron and Vasco.
Bobby officially debuted on the 15th of September 2015 as a member of iKON, through the digital release of iKON"s "My Type," the first song released under the group"s name.
