Agust D

As one of the founding members of the K-pop powerhouse boy band BTS, rapper, producer, and songwriter Suga (aka Agust D) brought an edge to the group with his aggression and street-smart attitude. Born Min Yoon-gi in Daegu, South Korea, Suga began songwriting at 13, later performing as an underground rapper named Gloss and joining the hip-hop group D-Town. In 2013 he made his breakthrough as a member of BTS, a seven-piece pop group that would build a massive global following with chart-topping releases and international tours. In August 2016 he debuted his solo project, Agust D, via a free eponymous mixtape (BigHit Entertainment). The self-produced Agust D brought Suga away from the shiny world of the K-pop idol, tackling topics like depression, fear, and fame. Featuring the bombastic single “Agust D” — which sampled James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” — and appearances by Yankie (“Tony Montana”) and Suran (“So Far Away”), Agust D was re-released in 2018. It rose to the Top Five of both the World Albums and Heatseekers charts, as well as peaking at number 46 on the Billboard Emerging Artist chart. A second mixtape, D-2, arrived in May of 2020. Described by the musician as “a documentation of myself as a 28-year old,” the project paid homage to Korea’s traditional pansori storytelling and daechwita style, within the more rap-centric focus of the musician’s career thus far. ~ Neil Z. Yeung