| Tablo | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | 이선웅 (Lee, Seon Woong) |
| Also known as | Supreme T |
| Born | July 22, 1980 |
| Origin | Seoul, South Korea |
| Genres | Hip hop, alternative hip hop, Pop rap, electronic music |
| Occupations | Rapper, songwriter, lyricist, actor |
| Instruments | Rapping, keyboards, vocals, synthesizer, sampler, sequencer, Violin |
| Years active | 2003 – present |
| Labels | YG Entertainment WOOLLIM Entertainment CJ Music |
| Associated acts | Epik High, Anyband, Eternal Morning, Blac Bakery |
| Website | mapthesoul.com |
Daniel Armand Lee, whose Korean name is Lee Seon-Woong (이선웅)(born July 22, 1980), is more commonly known by his stage name Tablo (Hangul: 타블로). He is a hip hop musician, rap artist, songwriter and lyricist. He is best known as the rapper and leader of the South Korean hip hop group Epik High. Tablo produces almost all the songs of Epik High with DJ Tukutz, and writes the lyrics with Mithra Jin. He has also produced and featured on many songs in South Korea. His work incorporates numerous musical styles, ranging from hip hop, to electronic music such as trance, trip hop, as well as rock.[1] He is a Canadian of Korean descent.
Apart from his work with Epik High, he has collaborated with several artists, including group projects such as Eternal Morning and Anyband. Tablo has also made forays into acting, appearing in some TV dramas and films such as Nonstop 5 (2005), Fantastic Parasuicides (2007), and High Kick! (2007), August Rush (2007), Parkjunggum (2008) as a cameo. Tablo was the DJ for MBC FM4U's Tablo's Dreaming Radio[2] and main MC of KBS's Music Bank.[3]
He recently joined YG Entertainment, and released an album titled "Fever's End" with a total of 10 songs.
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Tablo was born in Seoul on July 22, 1980.[4] His family relocated several times to Indonesia, Switzerland and Hong Kong[5] for his father's career until Tablo was six, when his family returned to South Korea.[4] His family again moved to Canada when he was eight. Tablo attended St. George's School[6] until he was expelled for getting into a fight with another student in Grade 9.[5] Tablo again returned to Seoul and spent three years in Seoul International School.[4] Tablo was a coterminal student at Stanford University.[7] He attained a Bachelor's Degree in English Literature and a Master's Degree in Creative Writing.[8] Tablo started to play the piano when he was six, and switched to violin, which he played for 10 years.[1] His music teacher, who is a pupil of Isaac Stern, used to lecture Tablo saying, "Music is communism, but you're playing democracy". However, he ceased to play violin as he was dismissed from the orchestra after suddenly playing the soundtrack of Jurassic Park while the orchestra was playing Brandenburg Concerto No.3 in a concert.[1] In 1999, when he was in high school, Tablo wrote the lyrics to Kim Gun Mo's song "Rainy Christmas", as Kim took an interest in Tablo after reading his poem.[5]
During his early life, Tablo suffered from bouts of depression, the origins of which are unknown. Through these times of hardship, hip hop music served as an outlet for him and after his interest was sparked later in life, Tablo decided to make hip hop the focus of his career. Tablo's father was adamant that he not embark on such a course, fearing that his son would endure the same hardships that he had suffered in his own youth. Tensions arose in the family and as a result, Tablo frequently tried to escape and leave home. Eventually, he accepted his father's wishes and began to forget about music, ostensibly asking a friend to live out his own wishes to be making hip hop music. This same friend died of cancer sometime afterward, thus serving as an impetus for Tablo to re-enter the music industry at the behest of his dying friend.[9] While he was in university, Tablo associated with an underground hip hop group 4n Objectz for three years.[5]
Tablo married Korean actress Kang Hye-jeong in October 2009. The couple had their first child, a daughter, on May 2, 2010.
In late 2008, Tablo published a book entitled Pieces of You. Although the stories were originally written in English, the book was first published in Korean. The Korean translation sold 50,000 copies in its first week of release and topped the bestseller's list in Korea.[10] The original English version was released in February 2009.
Tablo claims to have been a long time fan of hip hop music, citing an almost lifelong affair with the culture itself. While listening to hip hop at an early age through artists such as Run-DMC and acquiring Cold Crush tapes, he concurrently gained recognition as a rhymer. His major and enduring love affair with making hip hop music was sparked later in life, however; after hearing Drunken Tiger rapping, the group "Epik High" was formed in 2000 at an early time in the culture's local evolution. Tablo has since claimed to be the first emcee to have used the "rhyming rifle" technique. With the hip hop scene in Korea and Korean emcees being known for their fickle tendencies, Tablo has through the years kept alive his legacy and career through numerous shows, appearances on influential overseas (American most notably) hip hop artists work, such as EPMD, and now plans to release a solo album within the near future.
In South Korea, a group of internet users raised doubts about the academic background of Tablo, who majored in English and English Literature at Stanford University. Led by two fan sites, most notably "We Demand the Truth from Tablo" (Hangul: "타블로에게 진실을 요구합니다", also known as "Tajinyo" (Hangul: "타진요"), some netizens claimed that Tablo could not have graduated from Stanford with both a B.A. and M.A. in English and Creative Writing, respectively, in just three and a half years.[11][12][13]
It became front-page news in Korea in June 2010, when Tajinyo's manager, whatbecomes, claimed that that Tablo's academic record was "not making any sense" and showed what he believed to be inconsistencies in Tablo's transcripts. Even though Tablo posted his official transcript and other legal documents online,[14][15] many netizens refused to believe him, and called for other documents such as his immigration statement, diploma, etc.
Tablo visited Stanford University in late August to clear himself by re-printing his documents on camera, and many of his acquaintances and professors from Stanford attested to the validity of his academic background on camera. The documentary was shown in two parts: "Tablo Goes to Stanford", and "Tablo and South Korea Online", which respectively aired on MBC October 1 and 8. However, despite the documentary, and Stanford's administration clearly siding with Tablo, membership at Tajinyo increased to as many as 190,000 within a few days, as numerous netizens refused to believe Tablo or the documentary.
On October 9, however, police confirmed that Tablo had indeed graduated from Stanford, having requested information beyond what Tablo had already provided, directly from Stanford University. South Korean police filed an arrest warrant domestically and with Interpol for the arrest of whatbecomes, who was revealed to be a 57-year old Korean-American named Eung Kim living in the United States.[16] In addition, twenty-two netizens received summons indicating they had been sued by Tablo for criminal defamation.
Tajinyo was shut down soon after by its host site, Naver, following the results of the investigation, which also revealed that whatbecomes had fraudulently used a friend's ID number to create the website, violating Naver's terms of service. However, many members of Tajinyo joined another community called "We Demand the Truth from Tablo 2" (Hangul: "타블로에게 진실을 요구합니다2", or "타진요 2" ["Tajinyo-i"] for short),[17] which has a membership of over 33,000 netizens.
On September 27, 2011 YG Entertainment announced that Tablo will be signing a 4-year contract with them and that his first solo album will be released on the first of November.[18] Although Tablo has signed as a solo singer under YG Entertainment, he indicated that does not mean that Epik High has disbanded nor that they will necessarily sign to YG as a group.[19] On October 14, 2011 YG released the song "Airbag" from the new upcoming album.[20] On October 21, 2011 YG announced that the new album, titled "열꽃", or in English "Fever's End", had been split into two parts. The first part was released along with the recent announcement.[21]
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