Seoul, South Korea · k-pop · hip hop

Stray Kids

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K-pop's most self-produced group — noisy, maximalist records written and arranged largely in-house, stadium-scale chaos by design.

Stray Kids formed in Seoul through a 2017 JYP Entertainment survival programme, with leader Bang Chan personally selecting each member before filming began. The group now numbers eight, Bang Chan, Lee Know, Changbin, Hyunjin, Han, Felix, Seungmin and I.N., after original member Woojin left in 2019. They released an unofficial mixtape in January 2018 before officially debuting that March with the EP I Am Not, followed by I Am Who and I Am You.

Their material is largely written and produced in-house by the internal team 3RACHA, made up of Bang Chan, Changbin and Han, which is unusual among groups of their scale and generation.

The sound leans on hard-edged hip hop and electronic production, with abrupt tempo changes, heavy low end and shouted group vocals sitting alongside more conventional pop melodies. They are associated with the fourth generation of K-pop groups, and their live performances are built around dense choreography and the same maximalist arrangements found on record.

The 2019 Clé trilogy built on that early run, and a Japanese debut followed in 2020 with the single "Top," which topped the Oricon Singles Chart. Their first full studio album, Go Live, released the same year, became their first platinum-certified record in South Korea, built around the single "God's Menu," widely regarded as the group's signature track. Noeasy, released in 2021, was their first album to sell a million copies.

Republic Records signed the group for promotion in the United States in 2022, and its subsequent albums have debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. Its album 5-Star was certified for five million sales in South Korea, and the group has sold more than 40 million albums overall. Stray Kids has since appeared on Time's Next Generation Leaders list and Forbes Asia's 30 Under 30.

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k-pophip hop