Episode 49 – Jay B: The Man, The Myth, The Scandals
Today we’re going to be covering a solo artist, which is pretty much the first time we do this so it’s a big moment for us. The special chosen one is Jay B, leader of GOT7.
Listen here:
Brief biography
Born January 6, 1994
Capricorn in western astrology, and water rooster in chinese zodiac
To not be confused with singer Yim Jae-beom, he adopted the stage name of JB. And then once he left JYP and started his solo career, he changed from the letters JB to spelling out Jay B.
He credits his dream of becoming a singer to watching a video of g.o.d. performing while he was seven years old
He started b-boying in his third year of middle school after failing a school test
As a b-boy, he used the stage name Defsoul, inspired by Musiq Soulchild’s “Just Friends” M/V
JYPE Audition/Scouting & Acting Career
He was scouted by JYP Entertainment in 2009 at a b-boy competition, which at first he was not interested in attending, but his father pushed him to do so.
He won first place with Jinyoung over 10,000 applicants.
His main interests while b-boying centered around musical composition and hip-hop culture, but once he became a trainee he focused only on dancing as he thought training in singing was meaningless. Then he listened to artist D’Angelo’s music, and that pushed him to work on his singing and composing skills
In 2011 he debuted as an actor as part of the second season of Dream High.
In May 2012, he and Jinyoung debuted as the duo JJ Project with the single album Bounce.
He did his next drama called When a Man Falls In Love in 2013.
GOT7
JYP had not debuted a boy group since 2PM in 2008.
They were almost called Get7 but “it didn’t sound good.” GOT came from g.o.d. and originally they were going to be Got6, a mixed-gender 6-member group.
Shownu of Monsta X trained with GOT7 but was eventually cut before going to Starship Entertainment, and we have always heard BamBam talk about the fact that he almost didn’t make it into the group and there was another idol meant to take his place, and we recently found out it was Young K from Day6 all along!
GOT7 debuted on January 16, 2014 with the song Girls, Girls, Girls as part of their first EP titled Got It? which peaked at number 2 on Gaon and number 1 on Billboard’s World Albums chart.
In 2010, Mark and BamBam were respectively scouted by JYPE scouts in Los Angeles, USA and Bangkok, Thailand. That same year, Yugyeom became a JYPE trainee after he was offered an opportunity at his dance school. Jackson passed JYPE’s overseas audition in Hong Kong in December, but he did not start his training until the summer of 2011. Youngjae was the last one to join and trained for just seven months before debuting.
The group gained attention even before debuting for including elements of martial arts tricking and street dancing, which was a callback to 2PM, so they were nicknamed “post 2pm”
Won “New Artist Award” at the 29th Golden Disc Awards and at the 24th Seoul Music Awards in 2015
They released their third EP, Just Right, on July 13, 2015. The title track, “Just Right”, peaked at No. 3 on Billboard’s World Digital Songs chart. It’s their biggest hit to date:
On March 5, 2019, Jay B and Yugyeom debuted as Jus2, a sub-unit of GOT7, with their EP Focus and its lead single “Focus on Me”.
They released their 11th EP called DYE On April 20, 2020, and followed it up with their last studio album under JYPE called Breath of Love: Last Piece on November 30th of the same year.
On January 10, 2021, JYP Entertainment initially announced that their exclusive contracts would expire.
On January 11, JYP Entertainment released an official statement reiterating that all members will leave the company after their exclusive contract expires on January 19, 2021.
On February 19, 2021, GOT7 released a teaser for an upcoming single called “Encore” on a new YouTube channel. Jay B and all the members emphasized throughout their solo work that they had not disbanded and although they were signed to different companies, they would always remain as GOT7.
On May 6, 2022, they revealed a new logo and launched new social media accounts under Warner Music Korea.
“GOT7 Homecoming 2022 Fancon” was held on May 21–22 both online and offline
On May 23, 2022 GOT7 released the album and the music video of the title song, “Nanana.”
Jay B’s Solo Career after JYPE
H1GHRMusic
In March 2021, rumors started swirling around that Jay B is signing on with H1GHR. Both deny on April 13,2021 that this is happening.
On July 22, 2023, Jay B left CDNZA Records amid his “DM Scandal”. This came out of left field for everyone, especially those like us who thought this was his own company.
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