KOZ Entertainment by Zico set to reveal new boy band in May

KOZ Entertainment, the agency established by rapper and producer Zico, will be launching its first boy band on May 30. The official website of the upcoming boy band launched on Monday showed a cartoon-like homepage with a cyan ...

Rapper and producer Zico is behind KOZ Entertainment's upcoming boy band [YONHAP]

KOZ Entertainment, the agency established by rapper and producer Zico, will be launching its first boy band on May 30.

The official website of the upcoming boy band launched on Monday showed a cartoon-like homepage with a cyan door in the center and a countdown timer below it. The countdown timer, currently at D-56 days, is ticking down until the boy band’s debut date.

Visitors to the website can also catch a glimpse of the boy band behind the doors by clicking the image.

The names of the members and the name of the boy band have not yet been confirmed.

Zico, whose real name is Woo Ji-ho, started out in the underground hip-hop scene and later shifted to the K-pop industry as the leader of the boy band Block B in 2011. He produced the majority of the band’s songs, including “NalinA” (2012), “Nillili Mambo” (2012), “Very Good” (2013), “HER” (2014) and “Yesterday” (2017). He is noted for having a successful career in both the K-pop and hip-hop scene, the latter mostly depicted by his solo songs like “Tough Cookie” (2014), “Artist” (2017) and “Any Song” (2020).

He has produced songs for other K-pop acts, like Mino of the boy band Winner, Kim Se-jeong, Penomeco and Wanna One.

Zico is the founder and CEO of his own label, KOZ Entertainment, which he launched in 2018. The label was acquired by HYBE in 2020. He confirmed on the 2022 HYBE Briefing with the Community session that he was working to produce a boy band.

BY CHO YONG-JUN [cho.yongjun1@joongang.co.kr]