Jay Park Informations

Jay Park (Korean name: Park Jae-beom (Hangul: 박재범; Hanja: 朴載範); born April 25, 1987) is a Korean American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer, choreographer, entrepreneur, actor, member of the Seattle-based b-boy crew, Art of Movement (AOM), and founder and CEO of the independent hip hop record labels AOMG and H1ghr Music. He also signed with the record label Roc Nation, becoming the first Asian American to do so.Park started as a b-boy and dancer, known for his charismatic performances and stage presence. Park was described as a "born entertainer" by Korean pop singer Patti Kim, and The New York Times quoted the president of digital music distributor DFSB Kollective describing Park as "not just an artist, but also his own PR agent, fan club president, and TV network."

Park initially rose to fame as the leader of South Korean boy band 2PM, formed by record label JYP Entertainment in 2008, after having previously been a trainee for four years. In September 2009, Park returned home to Seattle after comments he wrote about Korea in 2005 as a teenager were publicized by the Korean media; Park officially left the group in early 2010. In March 2010, Park uploaded a cover video of B.o.B's hit "Nothin' on You", with his own rap and lyrics, to YouTube, which went viral and reached over 2,000,000 views in less than 24 hours, leading to the release of Park's first EP, Count on Me in July 2010, which debuted at number one on the Gaon chart. Park returned to South Korea in June 2010 for the filming of Hype Nation, while being represented by Digital Media Wire's CEO and entertainment attorney Ned Sherman, and in July 2010, Park signed a contract with SidusHQ, one of the largest agencies in South Korea, re-debuting as a solo singer and an actor.

Park's first mini album, Take a Deeper Look, released in 2011, went multi-platinum in South Korea. Park became the first ever artist crowned winner on a debut stage by winning on KBS' Music Bank with "Abandoned", and was the only solo artist to win "Record of the Year" at the 2011 Golden Disk Awards. Later in 2011, Park released singles "Demon", "Girlfriend", and "Star", co-starred in the Korean movie, Mr. Idol, and joined the cast of KBS' Immortal Songs 2. At the end of 2011, Park released an EP, New Breed Part 1; the precursor to Park's first full-length album.

In February 2012, Jay Park released his first full-length album, New Breed, quickly topping charts in South Korea and internationally, and went multi-platinum in less than a week. Park also released an English mixtape, Fresh Air: Breathe It, which became the first mixtape by an Asian artist to achieve gold status on DatPiff for surpassing 100,000 downloads. Following the release of New Breed in 2012, Park successfully held his first solo concert in Seoul, as well as embarking on tours around Asia and Australia. Park headlined the Verizon APAHM Tour in the United States, and was the closing act at MTV World Stage Live in Malaysia 2012. Also in 2012, Park returned to KBS' Immortal Songs 2, became a fixed panel member on MBC's Come to Play, and hosted tvN's Saturday Night Live Korea. Park became a permanent cast member of Saturday Night Live Korea in early 2013. In 2014, Jay Park performed 2014 South by Southwest (SXSW) as a Korean representative pop singer. Jay Park released his album Worldwide in November 2015.

Born in Edmonds, Washington, in the Seattle metropolitan area, Park showed great interest in hip hop music and breakdancing at a young age. Park attended Edmonds Woodway High School, where he spent most of his break and lunch times practicing dance with friends. Park started listening to hip hop and rap music in his early teens, and spent time learning and writing raps himself during high school. In 2003, Park became one of the first members of the Seattle-based b-boy crew Art of Movement (AOM). In 2004, Park's mother, seeing how her son spent more time breakdancing than studying, suggested he audition for Korea-based JYP Entertainment, which brought him to Korea in January 2005 to receive further training in dancing, rapping, singing, and the Korean language. Park eventually completed his university education at Dankook University.

Park first appeared through Mnet's Hot Blood Men, a documentary-style reality program that showed the future members of One Day, split as idol groups 2AM and 2PM, in training. Park, finishing at the top spot with the most fan votes, became the leader of 2PM. On September 4, 2008, 2PM debuted with the song "10 Out of 10" (Korean: 10점 만점에 10점; Revised Romanization: Ship Jeom Manjeome Ship Jeom) on the music program M! Countdown after the release of their first mini-album, Hottest Time of the Day, a few days prior.Aside from 2PM's music activities, Park created the song "Jeong" (Korean: 정) with Yeeun of the Wonder Girls for the original soundtrack of the television drama Conspiracy in the Court, and featured on V.O.S's "To Luv...". He also participated in special stage performances, such as Navi's "Heart Damage" (Korean: 마음이 다쳐서; Revised Romanization: Maeumi Dachyeoseo) on May 3, 2009, and K.Will's "One Drop per Second" (Korean: 1초에 한방울; Revised Romanization: Il Choe Hanbangul) on June 20, 2009. In addition to Idol Show and Wild Bunny with fellow 2PM members, he also became a regular cast member in several variety programs, including Star King and Introducing a Star's Friend. In August 2009, he and Kara band member, Nicole Jung, became the new hosts for a cultural variety show called Nodaji.

On September 4, 2009, unfavorable comments towards Korea were found on Park’s personal Myspace account from 2005. The comments, written in English to a friend, were translated by Korean media, quickly spreading across hundreds of news articles. Park expressed deep remorse and shame over his forgotten words and issued an official apology, explained the unhappiness that he experienced during his early days as a trainee in an unfamiliar country where he lacked family, the ability to easily communicate, and an understanding of the culture. Although outraged protesters demanded that Park should be removed from 2PM, JYP Entertainment's CEO, Park Jin-young, stated on September 7, 2009, that he was going to continue as a part of the group. The following day, Park announced on his official fancafe that he would be leaving the group to calm the situation and return to his hometown, Seattle, Washington. He also apologized to the other 2PM members, and promised that he would "come back a better person". Park Jin-young then confirmed that 2PM would continue as a six-member group. Additionally, due to the sensitive topic of Park's departure, all 2PM members were withdrawn from their regular appearances on variety shows, and the final episode of their reality show, Wild Bunny, was postponed indefinitely. Park's vocals would not be removed from the older songs he promoted with 2PM, but he would be absent from the newer tracks, and the remaining six members of 2PM re-filmed their music video for "Heartbeat" without Park on October 31, 2009.

2PM's first official album was titled 1:59PM, to symbolize Park's absence, according to the six remaining members. Through their acceptance speeches at end-of-year award shows for "Again and Again", the members thanked Park and reiterated their wish for his return. At the Mnet Asian Music Awards, the group paid homage to him during their performance of "Again and Again" with a spotlight shown over his usual position in the dance formation and his lines left unsung.

Soon after Park returned to the United States, the South Korean public changed their perspective on the matter when they realized that his Myspace messages had been severely mistranslated and taken out of context, in addition to strong fan support for Park's return. Park was seen at b-boy battles with fellow Art of Movement members during his time in Seattle. However, on February 25, with Park's comeback looking more and more likely, JYP suddenly announced that Jay Park's contract with them had been terminated, citing a separate "personal mistake" that Park had made in 2009. JYP would make reference to this unknown event several times in 2010, but would never elaborate on any details. This termination had been agreed by all six members of 2PM and led to fan boycotts on 2PM-endorsed products. Protests for Park's return to the group began to take place, not only in South Korea, but internationally as well. Various Jay Park-dedicated forums and fansites all over the world organized silent protests and flash dance mobs. Fans also hired a plane with a banner showing "J, what time is it now?" to fly over Seattle, and was broadcast on Seattle-based radio stations.

On several occasions, Park was the number one trending topic on Twitter, even topping the Oscars on March 8. Park's fans revealed plans to release a self-produced album in his honor on March 27 to commemorate the 200th day anniversary of his departure from Korea. However, because the album had been in preparation since January and public opinion on 2PM had since changed, the fans decided it would be in the best interest to not release the CD, and instead, mailed 10–20 copies to Seattle, Park's hometown.

Park created his own YouTube channel on March 15, "jayparkaom", with the first upload being his own version of "Nothin' on You", which went viral and reached over 2,000,000 views in less than 24 hours. In Korea, the original song by B.o.B and Bruno Mars topped the Cyworld music chart in a matter of hours upon the video's release. "Nothin' on You" also reached number 1 on other music sites such as Dosirak, Melon, Mnet, Bugs, and Soribada, making $300,000 in sales through the effect of Park's video. On June 15, 2010, B.o.B released "Nothin' on You" featuring Park, in South Korea, where he replaces Bruno Mars' vocals. His YouTube cover helped contribute to much of the song's success in Korea, with more than 5 million copies sold. Park subsequently thanked his fans for their support and continued to urge them not to hate remaining 2PM members.

He appeared with fellow Art of Movement members at an annual Korean-American festival event called Project Korea III: KSA Cinderella Story at Rutgers University, New Jersey on April 3, along with Ailee and Clara C. Videos of the event were uploaded onto internet portal sites, where footage of Park acting as an MC and dancing to Beyoncé's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" on stage drew much positive interest. On April 24, Dumbfoundead released a free collaboration track featuring Park and Clara Chung on his website, titled "Clouds".

Los Angeles-based entertainment attorney Ned Sherman, CEO of Digital Media Wire, announced on May 28 that he was representing Park as his legal representative. Sherman and his wife Tinzar reached out to Park, after seeing Park's story and feeling bad about what happened to him during the MySpace controversy. The Shermans and Park worked on a lot of projects together, including his movie deal for Hype Nation, an endorsement deal with dENiZEN, Levi Strauss and Co.'s new brand, and others.

Park returned to Korea on June 18 at Incheon International Airport, to the biggest crowd ever seen at the airport, for the filming of Hype Nation. "Park Jaebeom has returned" became the biggest headline in Korea that day, and "JayIsBack" shot up immediately on the trending topics on Twitter on June 18 at 9:30 AM GMT. Pictures of Park in Hype Nation were released on July 2, and Park was able to meet with the Korean media for interviews for the first time, talking about his current activities. It was also revealed that his single "Demon" would be included in Hype Nation's original soundtrack.

It was reported on July 8 that Park would sign a contract with SidusHQ for his domestic Korean activities in terms of acting and singing; his management stated that he planned to redebut as a rookie artist, and the contract with SidusHQ was finalized on July 16. Park released an EP titled Count on Me (Korean: 믿어줄래; Revised Romanization: Mideojullae) containing three tracks, including a rearranged Korean version of "Nothin' on You", on July 13. The English and Korean lyrics were written by Park himself. The song immediately reached number one on Cyworld and Bugs music charts, and also on other music sites such as Monkey3, Soribada, Dosirak, and Melon within the hour of its release. The EP sold 21,989 physical copies on the first day of release, coming in at number one in sales and number seven in the overall ranking of albums released from January to July 13. Without any promotion on music shows, more than 41,316 copies sold, and the EP placed at number 32 on Gaon's year end chart, earning Park approximately 700 million.

Park began working with singer, producer, and fellow AOM member, Cha Cha Malone, releasing "Bestie" in both Korean and English, and a duet titled "Speechless". Also in 2010, Park began collaborations and forming close ties with rappers Dok2 and The Quiett of Illionaire Records, titling the partnership "AOM and 1llionaire".On September 5, Park participated in the 3rd International Secret Agents Los Angeles concert held in Cerritos, California, together with well-known YouTube celebrities such as Ryan Higa, KevJumba, AJ Rafael, Alyssa Bernal, Far East Movement, and America's Best Dance Crew Season 5 champions, Poreotix. Park's performance drew many positive responses.

Park was cast for the 2011 Korean movie Mr. Idol, starring alongside friend and fellow SidusHQ actor, Kim Su-ro. Park was also one of the performers, alongside SE7EN, Taeyang and Musiq Soulchild, at the Seoul Soul Festival held at the War Memorial of Korea on October 10. Park and Musiq Soulchild also performed the latter's song "Love" at the festival. Park held a charity concert in December called the "White Love Party Concert", with Supreme Team and Dok2 making appearances. Park and Art of Movement performed at "Fever Seoul Live" alongside Dumbfoundead, David Choi, and several international b-boys.

On January 6, Park was announced as the winner in "Best Web Video" Category around the globe for his song "Nothin' on You" at the Mashable Awards, and was also nominated in the "Must Follow Personality" category, finishing second. At the beginning of February, Park was featured in two music videos of girl group, 5dolls, called "Lips Stains" and "It's You". Park was chosen to be the sole opener for Ne-Yo in his first concert in Seoul for the "2011 Hyundai Mall 40th Anniversary Concert" held on March 29. He also cooperated with Ne-Yo for a charity event for children dreaming to become musicians on March 28 at the Dream Academy in Seoul. On March 28, Park was a finalist and received the most votes in the special category "Connecting People Award", a joint venture between Shorty Awards and Nokia. Park also was a finalist in the "Celebrity" category at the same event.

Park released his first Korean mini-album, Take a Deeper Look, in April, with the lead single "Abandoned".Take a Deeper Look debuted at number three in the Billboard World Album Charts and ranked number 26 on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums Chart. Park also made his debut as a solo artist on Korean music shows such as KBS' Music Bank, Mnet's M! Countdown, MBC's Music Core and SBS' Inkigayo, returning for the first time in two years. Park made history as the first artist crowned winner at a debut stage, as he won Music Bank on May 6 and won again a week later on May 13.

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