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Rapper Jay Park on being ‘blacklisted’ from K-pop, his hard-earned comeback and why he refuses to be ‘bitter over anything’
- Korean-American entertainer Jay Park has founded two of South Korea’s largest hip-hop labels, released a string of hits and has his own soju liquor brand
- The former 2PM member’s career has now come full circle with his establishment of a third music label aimed at producing a boy band
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K-pop idol. Used tyre salesman. Hip-hop mogul. The course of true success has never run smoothly, but Korean-American entertainer Jay Park has had an unusually bumpy ride to stardom.
The 36-year-old is now one of South Korea’s most recognisable entertainers: he has founded two of the country’s largest hip-hop labels, released a string of hits, has his own soju liquor brand, and was the first Asian-American to sign with Jay-Z’s entertainment agency Roc Nation.
But this success was hard fought, he says, with his first shot at fame – debuting as the leader of a K-pop band – imploding in a scandal that led him to flee Seoul for his hometown of Seattle in the US state of Washington.
“I faced a lot of backlash,” says Park, adding he was once “kind of blacklisted from the industry”.
The problem started with a few throwaway comments posted online by Park – then in his late teens – criticising the intense idol training regime, the K-pop industry and South Korea itself.
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