Lee Tae-yong

Lee Tae-yong (Korean: 이태용), professionally known by the mononym Taeyong, is a South Korean rapper, singer, and songwriter. He is best known as a member of the boy band NCT. In 2016, he debuted in the group's first sub-unit, NCT U, and later that year went on to become the leader of the second sub-unit, NCT 127. As a songwriter, Taeyong has participated in writing over 30 songs in four different languages, released mostly by NCT's various units.[1] In 2019, he debuted as a member of the South Korean supergroup, SuperM.[2] He also released his first solo single in 2019.[3]

This is a Korean name; the family name is Lee.

Lee Taeyong
이태용
Taeyong in June 2019
Born	(1995-07-01) July 1, 1995 Seoul, South Korea
Education	School of Performing Arts Seoul
Occupation	Rapper singer songwriter
Musical career
Genres	K-pop hip hop
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	2013–present
Labels	SM
Associated acts	NCT NCT U NCT 127 SuperM SM Rookies SM Town
Korean name
Hangul	이태용
Hanja	李泰容
Revised Romanization	I Tae-yong
McCune–Reischauer	Yi T'aeyong

Career

2012–2016: Pre-Debut

Lee Taeyong was born on July 1, 1995 in Seoul, South Korea. He graduated from the School of Performing Arts Seoul.[4] At the age of 18, he was scouted on the street by an SM Entertainment recruiter and joined the company after successfully passing the audition by singing the national anthem.[5] He was introduced as a member of SM Rookies, a Pre-Debut Training Team, on December 2, 2013.[6] Upon debut, he was assigned the roles of main rapper and main dancer,[7] despite having no background in dance prior to his training and his dance coach expressing doubts whether he would be able to catch up.[5] In 2014, a video of Taeyong performing a fragment of his song "Open the Door" was published on SMTown's YouTube channel.[8] Later that year, Taeyong featured on Red Velvet's song "Be Natural". He was credited in both releases as "SR14B Taeyong".[9]

2016-18: Debut with NCT, NCT U, NCT 127

Main articles: NCT (group) and NCT 127

In April 2016, Taeyong debuted as a member of NCT U with the song "The 7th Sense", which was also the first release of NCT overall.[10] In July of that year, he debuted as a member and leader of NCT 127 with their first EP NCT #127, for which he co-wrote 2 songs, including the main single "Fire Truck".[11][12]

In January 2017, NCT 127 returned with the EP Limitless.[13] Taeyong participated in writing four songs for the album, with the song "Baby Don't Like It" marking the first time he was credited as a composer.[1] In June, the group released their third EP, Cherry Bomb. All of the songs on the album, save one, were co-written by Taeyong.[1][14] The title track, "Cherry Bomb", was later named as one of the best K-pop songs of the year by Billboard and Idolator.[15][16]

In 2017, Taeyong participated in two collaborations with fellow SM Entertainment artists. "Around", an experimental song produced by Hitchhiker, was released with an accompanying music video in May, through the SM Station project.[17] Lee also worked with singer and producer Yoo Young-jin on the rock ballad "Cure", which was released in August 2017, also through SM Station.[18]

Together with NCT 127's vocalists Taeil and Doyoung, Taeyong appeared on the OST for the drama "School 2017", featuring as rapper and songwriter for the R&B ballad "Stay in My Life".[19]

In March 2018, NCT released their first full album as part of a large-scale project uniting all of its subgroups - NCT 2018 Empathy. Taeyong appeared in five of the units featured on the album (NCT 127, NCT 2018, and three units of NCT U). He participated in writing five songs for Empathy.[1][20][21] He made his debut in Japan with NCT 127's EP Chain in May 2018. The album peaked at number two of the Oricon Weekly Albums chart.[22]

That same month, Taeyong joined the cast of Food Diary, a variety show following a group of celebrities exploring farming and the process of food production, together with labelmate BoA.[23][24]

Taeyong co-wrote four songs for NCT 127's first full length album, Regular-Irregular, including the promotional single "Regular". The song was initially released in two languages: English and Korean,[25][26] but later also served as the debut single of the Chinese sub-unit, WayV.[27]

2019-present: Solo work, SuperM

In April, NCT 127 released their first full-length Japanese album, Awaken, for which Taeyong co-wrote the song "Lips".[1][28]

In July 2019, Taeyong released his first solo song, "Long Flight", which he had written and co-composed, with an accompanying music video. The track served as the finale of Season 3 of the SM Station project.[3][29] The song debuted at #6 on Billboard World Digital Song Sales chart.[30]

On August 8, 2019, Taeyong was revealed as a member of SuperM, a K-pop supergroup created by SM Entertainment in collaboration with Capitol Records. The groups promotions began in October, aimed at the American market.[2][31] The group released their first EP, SuperM, for which Taeyong co-wrote the song "No Manners". The album debuted at #1 on Billboard 200 Album chart.[32]

That same month, Taeyong and Punch collaborated on an OST song for Hotel del Luna, a television series starring IU and Yeo Jin-goo. The release, titled "Love del Luna", is the soundtrack's thirteenth (and final) part.[33]

In November 2019, Taeyong featured on Marteen's "Mood".[34]

In March 2020, NCT 127 released their second full album, Neo Zone. Taeyong participated in co-writing three songs for the album.[35] The album was commercially successful. It debuted at number five on the US Billboard 200 and together with the repackage, Neo Zone: The Final Round, was sold more than one million copies in South Korea.[36][37]

Discography

See also: NCT discography and SuperM § Discography

Title	Year	Peak position			Sales	Album
		KOR [38]	Hot [39]	US World [40]
As principal artist
"Around" (with Hitchhiker)	2017	—	—	—	N/A	Non-album release
"Cure" (함께) (with Yoo Young-jin)		—	—	—
"Long Flight"	2019	—	—	6		SM Station: Season 3
As featuring artist
"Be Natural" (Red Velvet featuring Taeyong)	2014	33	—	6	KOR: 65,820+[41]	Non-album release
"Time"[42] (Hitchhiker featuring Sunny, Hyoyeon and Taeyong)	2018	—	—	—	N/A
"Mood" (Marteen featuring Taeyong)	2019	—	—	—	N/A	8
Promotional singles
"Open the Door"	2014	—	—	—	N/A	Non-album release
Collaborations
"City Lights" (夜話) (U-Know featuring Taeyong)	2018	—	—	—	N/A	New Chapter #2: The Truth of Love[43]
OST
"Stay in my Life" (with Taeil and Doyoung of NCT)	2017	—	—	—	N/A	School 2017 OST Part 4[44]
"Love del Luna" (with Punch)	2019	46	87	—		Hotel del Luna OST Part 13[33]
"—" indicates that the song did not chart or was not released in that region.

Filmography

See also: NCT videography

Television appearances

Year	Title	Network	Notes
2014	EXO 90:2014	Mnet	Recurring role[45]
2018	Food Diary	tvN	Regular cast[23][24]

Songwriting

All credits are adapted from the Korea Music Copyright Association, unless stated otherwise.[1]

Year	Song	Album	Artist(s)	Lyrics		Music		Arrangement
				Credited	With	Credited	With	Credited	With
2016	"Firetruck"	NCT 127 (EP)	NCT 127	Yes	Mark • Jaehyun • Lee Seu-ran	No	N/A	No	N/A
	"Once Again"[46]			Yes	Jo Yoon Kyung • Mark	No	N/A	No	N/A
	"Mad City"		Taeyong, Jaehyun & Mark	Yes	Mark • Double Dragon	No	N/A	No	N/A
2017	"Around"		Hitchhiker x Taeyong (SM Station)	Yes	Kim Boo Min	No	N/A	No	N/A
	"Cure"		Yoo Young-jin x Taeyong (SM Station)	Yes	Yoo Young-jin • Yoo Ji-won	No	N/A	No	N/A
	"Good Thing"	Limitless	NCT 127	Yes	JQ (Makeumine Works) • Hyun Ji-won (Makeumine Works) • Mark	No	N/A	No	N/A
	"Back 2 U (AM 01:27)"			Yes	January 8th (lalala Studio)	No	N/A	No	N/A
	"Baby Don't Like It"		Taeil, Taeyong, Doyoung & Mark	Yes	G.Soul, Mark	No	N/A	No	N/A
	"Angel"		NCT 127	Yes	Kevin Oppa (mr. cho) • Mark	No	N/A	No	N/A
	"Cherry Bomb"	Cherry Bomb		Yes	Mark • Deepflow • Lim Jung-hyo • Oh Min-joo	No	N/A	No	N/A
	"Running 2 U"			Yes	Mark • JQ (Makeumine Works) • Kim Jin (Makeumine Works)	No	N/A	No	N/A
	"0 Mile"			Yes	Mark • Jo Yoon-kyung • Cho Jin-joo • Choi So-young • Park Yong-joon	No	N/A	No	N/A
	"Whiplash"		Jaehyun, Mark, Taeyong, Doyoung & Taeil	Yes	Mark • JQ (Makeumine Works) • Oneru (Makeumine Works) • Xitsuh	No	N/A	No	N/A
	"Summer 127"		NCT 127	Yes	Mark • $ÜN (Joombas) • Bae Min-soo (Joombas) • seizetheday (Joombas) • CiaNo (Joombas) • Kim In-hyung	No	N/A	No	N/A
	"Stay in my Life"	School 2017 OST Part 4	Taeyong, Doyoung & Taeil (NCT U)		Park Geun Chul • Jeong Soo Min	No	N/A	No	N/A
	"Lips"	Awaken	NCT 127	Yes	Akira • Mark	No	N/A	No	N/A
2018	"Boss"	NCT 2018 Empathy	Taeyong, Doyoung, Jaehyun, Winwin, Jungwoo, Lucas & Mark	Yes	Wutan • Yoo Young-jin • Mark	No	N/A	No	N/A
	"Baby Don't Stop"		Taeyong & Ten	Yes	Danke (lalala Studio) • Juno (Joombas)	No	N/A	No	N/A
	"Yestoday"		Taeyong, Doyoung, Lucas & Mark	Yes	Jung Joo-hee • Mark • Steven Lee • Cho Jin-joo	No	N/A	No	N/A
	"Black on Black"		Taeyong, Doyoung, Ten, Jaehyun & Mark	Yes	MINOS • Mark • Deez	No	N/A	No	N/A
	"The 7th Sense"		Taeyong, Mark, Jaehyun, Doyoung & Ten	Yes	January 8th (lalala Studio) • Kim Dong-hyun • Cho Jin-joo • Mark	No	N/A	No	N/A
	"City 127"	Regular - Irregular	NCT 127	Yes	JQ (Makeumine Works) • Moon Hee-yeon (Makeumine Works) • Mark	Yes	The Stereotypes • Micah Powell • Clarence Coffee Jr.	No	N/A
	"Regular"			Yes	Coogie (ATM Seoul) • Tommy $trate • Mark	No	N/A	No	N/A
	"My Van"		Taeyong, Yuta, Jaehyun, Jungwoo & Mark	Yes	Kim Dong-hyun • Mark	No	N/A	No	N/A
	"Come Back"		NCT 127	Yes	Bong Eun-young • Ryu Da-som • Mark	No	N/A	No	N/A
	"Regular" (English version)			Yes	Wilbart "Vedo" McCoy III • Mark	No	N/A	No	N/A
	"Welcome to My Playground"			Yes	Seo Ji-eum • Ra.D • BrotherSu • Mark	No	N/A	No	N/A
	"City Lights"	New Chapter No. 2: The Truth of Love	U-Know (feat. Taeyong)	Yes	Hwang Yoo-bin	No	N/A	No	N/A
	"What We Talkin’ Bout"		NCT 127 (feat. Marteen)	Yes	Mark • Marteen	No	N/A	No	N/A
2019	"Long Flight"	SM Station: Season 3	Taeyong	Yes	N/A	Yes	Royal Dive	No	N/A
	"No Manners"	SuperM (EP)	Taemin, Kai Taeyong & Ten (Super M)	Yes	Kim Ran • Cho Yu-ri	Yes	Jonathan Santana • Shae Jacobs • Tyler Holmes	No	N/A
2020	"Pandora's Box"	Neo Zone	NCT 127	Yes	JQ (Makeumine Works) • Hyeon Ji-won (Makeumine Works) • Kim Hye-ji (Makeumine Works) • Mark •Johnny	No	N/A	No	N/A
	"Mad Dog"		Taeil, Doyoung, Mark & Taeyong	Yes	Kim Boo-min • Mark	No	N/A	No	N/A
	"Love Song"		NCT 127	Yes	Seo Ji-eum • Mark • Johnny	No	N/A	No	N/A

See also

List of awards and nominations received by NCT

References

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External links

• NCT website: nct.smtown.com
• SuperM website: www.supermofficial.com