He Said He Would Remove the Modifiers…Yet YEONJUN’s World Has Become Even Clearer [HT Focus]

[Hanteo News = Reporter KANG SUYOUNG] YEONJUN, who said he would remove the modifiers, has gained his clearest color yet.

TOMORROW X TOGETHER YEONJUN released his second mini album, “NO LABELS: PART 02,” today (10th). It is a result he has built himself, not as YEONJUN, a member of the group, but as solo artist YEONJUN.

YEONJUN’s solo career has continued to grow steadily. It began with his first solo mixtape, “GGUM,” in 2024, followed by his first mini album, “NO LABELS: PART 01,” last November, and now “PART 02.” His initial chodong sales jumped nearly fivefold from 116,846 copies for “GGUM” to 601,105 copies for “NO LABELS: PART 01.” “PART 01” ranked No. 10 on Billboard’s main album chart, the “Billboard 200,” and also took No. 1 on Hanteo Chart’s weekly physical album category and No. 1 on the Japan and China categories of the country-specific chart. Earlier, YEONJUN also won the Global Artist Award in the Oceania category as a solo artist at the 32nd Hanteo Music Awards 2024.

What stands out in his solo activities is YEONJUN’s high level of participation in production. In “PART 01,” he led the process of writing lyrics, composing, and planning the performance, and showed his stage dominance with the hard rock title track “Talk to You.” In this “PART 02” as well, he participated in writing the lyrics for two songs, “조금 서툴러도 다시 (Baby Wassup?)” and “Long Way Long Ride,” and also contributed to creating the choreography for the title track “Ice Cream.” His musical spectrum has also expanded. This album contains six songs across different genres, including rap rock, punk rock, R&B, pop, and alternative hip-hop.

The title “NO LABELS” was designed as one narrative across two parts. “PART 01” and “PART 02” are connected through music. The short piece of music inserted at the end of the “PART 01” music video was used as the background music for the teaser video announcing the start of the “PART 02” promotions, and that song is none other than “Vanilla,” a track included on this album. If the first part was the starting point that showed his potential as a solo artist, the second part is the stage of completion that makes that color even clearer.

His stage is also expanding. YEONJUN will take the stage at the “Summer Concert Series,” hosted by the U.S. ABC morning program “Good Morning America (GMA),” on August 7 local time. Following BTS JUNGKOOK, he is the second K-pop solo singer in history to appear on the program. This means that he is being recognized for his presence in the global market as a solo artist beyond the group.

“NO LABELS” began with the direction of showing YEONJUN as he is, without modifiers. However, through the two parts, YEONJUN has instead created a distinct color known as “YEONJUN core.” By writing, creating, and designing the stage himself, the identity of solo artist YEONJUN is becoming clearer.

grace@hanteo.com

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