Again, & Again

After spending years being the name behind South Korea's charting tracks, rapper, songwriter and record producer GRAY is taking the time to make his own evolutions - on his health, a new record label, and new sonic ambitions. And he is ready to do it all again.

- Manfred Lu

Everything is evolving in real time. For rap music in South Korea, navigating its way around the politics of popular music and the country's homogenous K-pop appetite has, in recent years, created an influx of new sounds distinct from the South Korean identity. That evolved style has long taken the top spots of music charts since the early 2010s, becoming a sub-genre that has encapsulated most, if not all, spectrums of its music scene. However, only one man seems fitting to be credited for his surprise encounter on the pop charts.

Rapper, songwriter and record producer GRAY has made a name for himself in the scene not just by the music he plays under his alias but for being the brains behind some of South Korea's greatest records in modern history. Yet, it would be inaccurate to herald GRAY as the country's "King of Rap".

For the longest time, he has only had his name at the back of chart-topping records and not on the front. But that has all changed since the release of his first studio album, grayground, in 2021 - a trap-infused, emo rap record that went on streaming services more than a decade after he entered the scene and 12 years since his first debut single.

Now, determined to assume a role bigger than a traditional artiste would in the South Korean music scene, the man has ventured away from past ambitions, first by leaving his former record label AOMG to create his own with close collaborators Code Kunst and Woo earlier this year. This is followed by new singles in the pipeline that signal a brand new start for someone who was held at the back of the scene.

He talks to Men's Folio about how he is ready to do it all again, and again.

WHAT ARE YOUR LATEST GOALS IN LIFE?