Young B

The winner of the first season of survival competition show High School Rapper, Yang Hong-won (formerly known as Young B) burst onto the Korean hip-hop scene at a young age. Born in the Songpa district of Seoul on January 12, 1999, Yang had already been performing in the city’s underground rap scene for a few years before winning High School Rapper in 2017 at the age of 18. In 2019, he was runner-up on the eighth season of rap competition show Show Me the Money, further propelling the free-spirited rapper into the public eye. The defiant honesty Yang exhibits in his music-making and public persona has struck a chord with the MZ Generation (a combined classification for both Gen Z and Millennial that is frequently used in Korea). Though a solo hip-hop artist, Yang is a frequent collaborator and has released music as part of groups DiCKIDS, D.O.G., and IMJMWDP. Notable solo collections include albums Stranger (2019) and 3 Steps Forward, 2 Steps Back (2021), and mixtape SLOWMO (2024).