{ bobby's pre-debut activities with and without ikon } bobby is a successful kid, the fact that kpop is a huge trend in korea and worldwide as of the moment, underground rappers have looked down on rappers on the mainstream scene (labeled as "idol rappers") but at the age of 19, bobby has established himself as one of, if not the best, idol rappers in this generation of kpop; and that many underground/korean hiphop artists had looked up on him and acknowledge his talent.

• bobby was signed in with yg entertainment (ikon's current entertainment management label) when he was 16 on 2011, and was put together in a team called team b with other 5 members. team b competed with and lost to the then known as team a on the survival show win: who is next on 2013, the show giving both teams the opportunity to debut under the name "winner".
  • during win, team b was able to release 2 digital singles, climax (sales: 76,899+) and just another boy (sales: 38,028+).
    • bobby was credited as co-lyricist and co-composer of both songs.
    • bobby also wrote most, if not all, his rap pieces during the entire program.
• on 2014, bobby and co-member b.i, participated on the third season of the korean rap survival program show me the money; allowing both of them to showcase and improve their rapping skills. double b, as fans may call them, received a lot of criticisms due to the prejudice that they'd only come far on the show through their company's backing (as yg ent is one of the biggest entertainment companies in south korea), some other contestants even made fun/dissed them for their lost on win.
  • bobby prospered and ultimately won the competition and earned his well-deserved recognition from the korean hiphop community for his undeniable talent, smashing all the unnecessary preconceived ideas about him and b.i.
    • bobby was able to release 4 digital singles during smtm3, all respectively under his own name:
      • 가 (go), by which him as a lyricist, with 335,618+ sales.
      • L4L (lookin' 4 luv), him as a co-lyricist and features his mentors/producers on the show dok2 and the quiett, with 369,129+ sales.
      • 연결고리#힙합 (yggr#hiphop), as co-lyricist, with 732,755+ sales.
      • 가드올리고 bounce (raise your guard up and bounce), him as co-lyricist and co-composer, with 362,862+ sales.
    • all the songs being chart toppers and even until now, peaked and sold higher than various of established korean group's songs.
    • also, because of the prejudice of company backing, bobby had dissed yg on smtm3 a lot of times, telling that he doesn't need yg and can win the competition on his own, and he did.
    • bobby won a hundred million korean won on smtm3 that made him capable to buy a house and get his whole family to korea. he was technically only 18 then. :")
  • bobby and b.i participating on smtm3 caused good feedbacks on both parts; the show being more famous even to the non-hiphop community viewers, and also to double b being able to "experience" hiphop (because both of them never did underground, unlike some idol rappers who once were) and improve while so.
• another survival show, mix & match was simultaneously filmed with smtm3, a show that gives the team b members a second chance to debut under the name "ikon". although at the press conference for m&m that it was revealed that bobby, along with b.i and jinhwan are already official members of ikon (the other three original members of team b and three new trainees to compete for the remaining four spots in the group), the three of them are responsible for leading the tentative ikon members as team leaders throughout the show, so bobby still had to write songs/rap pieces.
  • on the beginning of m&m, team b members released the song 기다려 (wait for me) (sales: 67,366+) for team b fans, which bobby co-wrote.
  • ikon, along with the tentative members who weren't able to make it to the final line-up of the group, was able to make two singles: long time no see and 시노시작 (shinoshijak), but unfortunately, these songs weren't released.
    • both songs credited to bobby as co-lyricist.
• other things that include bobby's successful pre-debut activities are:
  • november 2013 : him and team b members appearing on bigbang member taeyang's music video for ringa linga. (he a good ass dancer too qirlies)
  • april 2014: team b being included in yg family's japan tour at osaka kyocera dome.
  • august 2014 : credited as co-lyricist on winner's debut title track empty (sales: 1,266,271+). the song was number one on various music charts.
  • september 2014 :
    • he participated on illionaire records' (which his producers on smtm3's own record label) concert 11:11.
    • bobby was the only trainee who attended yg entertainment's clothing line nonagon's launching party. every yg artists who were possible to attend went. it was held in a night club, possibly a reason why b.i wasn't able to go despite the two of them promoting the brand, because he was underage at that time. bobby also performed his song "go" on the party.
  • october 2014 : featuring and participating on lyric-writing on epik high's song born hater (sales: 852,352+), with co-member b.i. the song was a title track for epik high's 8th studio album.
  • november 2014 : featuring on hi suhyun collaboration unit's song 나는 달라 (i'm different) (sales: 830,695+), which received multiple certified all-kills (meaning the song has peaked number one on all eight main korean music charts) from instiz.
  • december 2014 :
    • featuring on masta wu's single 이리와봐 (come here) (sales: 169,275+) with dok2.
    • being an opening act for 2014 mnet asian music awards wherein he performed yggr#hiphop and come here + performing born hater with epik high, b.i, and winner member song mino.
      • the mamas is a prestigious awards ceremony, only the groups who made a huge impact on that year will be invited to attend. no trainee/non-debuted idol ever attended the mamas, until 2014 when bobby and b.i showed up. read again: they're still technically trainees that time. there are groups who debuted years ago, but never got a chance to attend or even at the least got nominated to the mamas. i don't know what more to say to emphasize how much of an achievement this actually is.
  • appearing on various photoshoots and promotional videos:
    • for 2014 november issue of nylon magazine.
    • for 2014 december issue of adidas x high cut magazine with b.i.
    • [ !!!! ] being featured on gq korea magazine's final issue on 2014 as one of the 2014 men of the year, which features nine men who had made an impact on culture in 2014.
    • for 2015 january issue of arena homme plus magazine.
    • for 2015 febuary issue of haru hana magazine and andGIRL magazine.
    • for 2015 june issue of nepa x high cut magazine.
    • for clothing line nonagon from 2014 to late 2015 with b.i and another yg trainee lalice, even writing a small rap verse for the 2015 fall winter collection.
    • for the soft drink brand sprite with actress kang sora.
    • for smart school uniform brand with another yg entertainment trainee kim jisoo.

all of the things mentioned above are bobby's (and ikon's) success-induced pre-debut activities. all those in just a span of two tears (since 2013 with win until september of 2015). *notes : { 1 } if you want to find the links to the music videos/live performances, please head to the "on-going" folder of this listography account. { 2 } i will be updating all the sales count throughout this entire list every now and then. updated last: 160114