1TYM (원타임)

When "Hot" arrived in 2003, it gave 1TYM the defining moment of a career that had spent five years helping establish Korean hip-hop as a commercial force. The quartet — signed to YG Entertainment and blending Korean hip-hop with R&B — debuted in November 1998 and remained active across six albums over nearly a decade, occupying an early and formative position in the genre's mainstream crossover.

Debut & Formation

YG Entertainment assembled 1TYM in 1998 around a nucleus that mixed Korean and Korean-American sensibilities. The group launched that November with its debut album *One Time for Your Mind*, a title that announced its frame of reference clearly — English-language hip-hop filtered through a Korean pop infrastructure that had not yet made much room for the style. At the center of that approach was Teddy Park, the group's leader, main rapper, and in-house producer, whose creative instincts would shape not only 1TYM's output but, in later years, a significant stretch of YG's broader catalog. Alongside him were Jinhwan, who handled rapping and choreography, Baekkyung as vocalist and songwriter, and Danny as lead vocalist.

Music & Discography

The group's output across the late 1990s and early 2000s traced a steady creative arc. *One Time for Your Mind* established the template: rap-forward tracks built on R&B production, delivered with a bilingual confidence unusual in Korean pop at the time. *2nd Round* followed in 2000 and *Third Time for yo' Mind* in 2001, each album consolidating the group's fanbase — known as Hip Hop Village — without dramatically widening its commercial footprint.

The 2003 album *Once N 4 All* produced "Hot," the track that functions as the group's most representative work. It brought 1TYM its clearest moment of mainstream recognition, demonstrating that the harder-edged, hip-hop-rooted sound the group had developed could translate at scale. The group's final studio album, *One Way*, arrived in 2005, rounding out a discography that spanned seven years of continuous activity.

Members

• Teddy Park — Leader, main rapper, producer
• Jinhwan — Rapper, choreographer
• Baekkyung — Vocalist, songwriter
• Danny — Lead vocalist

Activities

In June 2026, Song Baek-kyung — known within the group as Baekkyung — publicly announced his departure from 1TYM after 21 years, stating that he had personally requested portal sites remove his name from the group's profile. In his statement, he described the decision as a way to draw a clear line from difficult memories associated with his earlier years in music, during which he had stepped back from the industry, as he looked to restart his career as a solo artist.

Legacy

1TYM's significance rests primarily in its timing and its personnel. Debuting at the end of the 1990s under YG Entertainment, the group arrived at a moment when Korean hip-hop was navigating its place within an industry still oriented toward idol pop and ballads, and helped demonstrate that rap and R&B could anchor a sustained commercial act rather than serve as mere stylistic accent. Teddy Park's subsequent career as one of the most influential producers in K-pop — working extensively with YG acts in the years after 1TYM's activity wound down — has kept the group's name in circulation as a point of origin. The 2026 departure of Baekkyung, framed explicitly as a personal reckoning with the past rather than an industry dispute, added a postscript to a career that had largely concluded two decades earlier.