T.O.P does not have an agency after parting ways with YG Entertainment in 2022 and leaving BigBang in 2023. Photo: T.O.P./Instagram
South Korean rapper T.O.P, a former member of K-pop boy band BigBang, is set to return as a solo artiste later in 2025 with a full-length album, industry sources said on Sept 30.
It will be the 37-year-old’s first solo music release in 12 years since his digital single Doom Dada (2013).
And the singer-actor is bringing in help for the music videos with a creative virtuoso he worked with in Netflix series Squid Game 2 (2024).
In the dystopian survival thriller, he played Thanos (Player 230), a former rapper addicted to drugs who enters the deadly games to escape crippling debt.
“T.O.P’s studio album is scheduled for release sometime in or after October,” an industry source told The Korea Herald on condition of anonymity. “He has completed recording and plans to shoot several music videos. An art director of Squid Game will oversee the production.”
The art director and production designer for Squid Game (2021 to 2025) is Chae Kyoung-sun, who won in the One-Hour Contemporary Single-Camera Series category at the Art Directors Guild Awards in 2022 and 2025.
She also won in the Narrative Contemporary Programme (One Hour or More) category at the Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards in 2022.
There were hints of a T.O.P solo comeback in 2024.
In November 2024, he replied “2025” to a fan asking about his solo activity on his Instagram account. In June, he revealed plans to return as a solo artiste in 2025 during an international interview promoting Squid Game 3.
T.O.P, whose legal name is Choi Seung-hyun, does not have an agency after parting ways with YG Entertainment in 2022 and leaving BigBang in 2023.
Another industry insider said he is in talks to sign with Kakao Entertainment, another South Korean entertainment giant, though the company denied the claim.
T.O.P was involved in a controversy in 2017 when he was sentenced to 10 months in prison, suspended for two years, for using marijuana while serving as a conscripted police officer.
His mandatory military duty was later converted to alternative social service. Following the incident, he announced retirement from the entertainment industry, but reversed course by appearing in Squid Game 2.
T.O.P reflected on his past in an interview with South Korean media in January after the release of Squid Game 2 in December 2024.
“In my 20s, I was fortunate to receive so much love, but I made huge mistakes and collapsed mentally. I still feel ashamed and believe I must always reflect on those mistakes,” he said.
“Whenever I’m in the studio, I feel alive. I’ve been working constantly and created a lot of music, and I believe the time has come to share it with the world.” – The Korea Herald/Asia News Network
