Kim Ji-won, known by his stage name Bobby is a South Korean rapper, singer-songwriter and member of boy band iKon under YG Entertainment. In 2016, he formed a sub-unit with Mino under the name MOBB. He is best known for finishing in first place on Mnet's Show Me The Money 3.
Biography
Early life
Kim Ji-won was born on December 21, 1995 in Seoul, South Korea. In 2005, his family moved to Fairfax, Virginia, United States. There he auditioned for YG Entertainment and later passed through Kim Jinwoo of Jinusean in New York. He was officially recruited as a trainee under the label on January 10, 2011.
2013–2014: ''Win: Who Is Next?'' and ''Show Me the Money 3''
After over two years of training, Bobby participated in the 2013 survival program Win: Who Is Next? under Team B. The show resulted with the victory of Team A, thus going back to training under the label. Soon after in November 2013, while still trainees Bobby alongside B.I and Jinhwan, Winner's Mino and Taehyun, and Blackpink's Lisa appeared on label-mate Big Bang's Taeyang's music video for Ringa Linga. In May 2014, together with B.I he competed on Mnet's Show Me The Money 3, soon finishing in first place under Team Illionaire mentored by Dok2 and The Quiett. Throughout the show, Bobby released singles: "Go", "L4L ", "YGGR#HipHop", and "Guard Up and Bounce". Following the shows end, Bobby participated in Mix & Match, where filming began in midst of appearance of Show Me The Money. The show resulted with the debut of Team B alongside trainee Jung Chan-woo under the name iKon. In October 2014, he featured in Epik High's single "Born Hater" alongside Beenzino, Verbal Jint, B.I, and Mino, and in November 11, he featured in "I'm Different" by Hi Suhyun, a project unit composed ofLee Hi and Lee Su-hyun of Akdong Musician. In the same month, he also featured with Dok2 in Masta Wu's track "Come Here". He performed "Born Hater" with Epik High at the 2014 Mnet Asian Music Awards, also performing "Come Here" and his single "YGGR" together with Dok2, The Quiett and Masta Wu. He was featured on GQ Korea's 2014 Men of the Year list and on December 4, 2014 he appeared as a guest at GQ Party.
2015–present: iKon, MOBB and ''Love and Fall''
On September 15, 2015 iKon released a warm-up single "My Type", followed lead singles "Rhythm Ta" and "Airplane". On October 4, the group attended their first music show at SBS' Inkigayo, also simultaneously receiving their third win for single "My Type". The group released their debut album on December 24, 2015. In March 2016, Bobby featured on Lee Hi's single "Video" from studio albumSeoulite. Bobby also made an appearance on the 9th episode of Show Me the Money 5, featuring in Reddy's song "Like This" and together they performed it on the stage. In September 2016, Bobby released the single "Holup!" as part of a four-track EP, The MOBB, a collaboration between Bobby and Winner's Mino under the name MOBB. They released the lead singles "Full House" and "Hit Me" on September 9 with the music videos. In March 2017, Bobby and B.I made a featuring in Psy's single "Bomb" from studio album 4x2=8. Bobby released his first studio album Love and Fall on September 14, 2017 where he took on the role of producer for the album, thus participating in writing and composing for all singles in the album. His bandmate Donghyuk together with Katie Kim, featured in his song Secret, and label-mate Winner's Mino featured in his song entitled Up. On November 29, he released the Japanese version of the album.
