Best Absolute Perfect
B.A.P at one time had worldwide number one hits, numerous world tours and
was leading the charge of Kpop becoming popular in America, almost reminiscent of BTS today.
But because of terrible lawsuits and hiatuses, B.A.P's growth was stunted and ultimately completely destroyed.
Today we're gonna cover B.A.P's history, accomplishments and what happened to them?
But before looking forward, I always like to look back. TS Entertainment, a relatively average
Kpop company that brought up popular girl group SECRET teased their new boy group in 2011.
The first member to be introduced is Bang Yong Guk, in a music video for SECRET's Song Jieun's solo 'Going Crazy'.
Yong Guk soon made his solo debut with the song 'I remember' featuring BEAST's Yoseob.
The next moment to be seen was Himchan as an MC for the music show, The Show.
Then Yong Guk teamed up with a young, curly blond haired rapper, Zelo in a new special collaboration
'Never Give Up' building the hype and the image of this new boy group in 2011,
it was time, time to debut. Before their official debut, this new group was revealed to the public through a reality show.
Another thing that was revealed was their name. The reality show
'TA-DAH! It's B.A.P' premiered in January 2012. The show explained that the members were aliens from a different planet called Mato,
sent to earth to save their dying planet.
The show ran for nine episodes
showcasing who B.A.P are before debuting.
B.A.P's debut was and still is one of Kpop's best debuts in the whole genre.
Warrior aged so well till today. It proved from the very beginning B.A.P had that effect.
They were going to be something special. From hip hop, acrobatic and stomp choreography, a strong rap line between Yong Guk's low deep rap
to Zelo's mid-range rapid-fire flow
and a rough bad-boy image going against the pretty boy image that was popular in kpop at the time,
it is incredible to imagine how good B.A.P was from the start
and it's not just me saying it.
Critics and news outlets praise B.A.P stepping out and trying something new in the Kpop industry
and that bad-boy image paid off as the album for 'Warriors' sold over
10,000 copies in South Korea within just two days. And if that wasn't impressive enough the album also found itself in
Billboard's World Album chart at number 10. That was almost unheard of in Kpop at the time.
Imagine how insane that is. A brand new group just comes in and almost immediately
becomes well-known and as with all rookie groups, they have to keep up the momentum.
So B.A.P released their single 'Secret Love'. Then in April, B.A.P made a full-fledged comeback with 'Power'.
Power was powerful.
Again with creative choreo and great physical sets, the 'Power' album repeated their debut success in selling
30,000 copies in their first press release and again had an international presence by hitting number 10 on Billboard's World Album Chart again.
B.A.P then took a break from their rough bad boy image to release their fourth single 'Stop It'.
It was silly, cheesy and cute mimicking the unique scenarios and K-dramas. I mean, come on
is there anything B.A.P can't do?
Now 2013 is when it starts to get good. B.A.P was gearing up for a comeback
but this one would be different. In February, B.A.P
released an almost 7 minutes short film music video titled 'One Shot'.
Guys
'One Shot' is undeniably, one of the most memorable music videos ever.
A real story based music video hasn't been done like this for a while and
especially in today's Kpop. 'One Shot' is an intense gangster theme music video, which if you haven't seen it
I'm gonna spoil it for you
but there's a huge twist ending. Good go go watch it after you finish my video 'cause I
need the views. This whole comeback took so much time, effort and money
but it paid off big-time by smashing their own record hitting number one in Billboard's World Albums chart which only a
handful of Kpop acts has ever achieved. TS entertainment then plan for B.A.P to have their Japanese debut
with the Japanese version of the debut title track 'Warrior'. Later in 2013,
The EP was battling with how to follow up 'One Shot' and they came up with the EP 'Badman', promoting three songs:
'Hurricane', 'Coffee Shop' and 'Badman'.
Badman was a riot literally anti-establishment and all but it's amazing to see the versatility in this group.
As I said Batman was rebellious
but 'Coffee Shop' was a softer R&B song set in San Francisco and 'Hurricane' was a party track in Vegas. That's crazy.
2014 would be a great year for B.A.P
but it would also be a difficult one. Starting off with their first studio album 'First Sensibility' and the title track being '1004 (Angel)'.
It reminds me of a song you would hear on the radio in the 2010s, you know.
'1004 (Angel)' did well and gave B.A.P
their first win on the show, beating out giant groups and songs like Girl's Day with 'Something' and
AOA with 'Miniskirt'. Following promotions from the new release, B.A.P began their B.A.P Live on Earth 2014 Continent Tour,
appearing in over 20 cities across the world in Asia,
Europe, North America and Australia with plans to perform in South America
but it was canceled by TS Entertainment to allow the boys some time to rest. Then before the end of 2014,
controversy struck. It was reported that all six members filed a lawsuit against their label TS Entertainment.
B.A.P claimed their contracts for violating the Fair Trade Commission's policy on slave contracts
which of course has been infamous in the world of Kpop for countless artists and groups. B.A.P
specifically noted unfair working conditions and terrible profit distributions.
It was said that B.A.P made over $9 million over the course of three years and the members have only seen
$18,000 each. TS entertainment did deny this is true
but B.A.P was not gonna let this go easy as they consider filing another suit against TS Entertainment for defamation of character.
B.A.P would not promote during this time after the lawsuit for almost a year until in August where there was news that B.A.P
and TS Entertainment came to a settlement. The agreement is still private
but it means that B.A.P can continue to make new music but this lawsuit and break may be the reason people believe B.A.P
couldn't reach their full potential. Think about it B.A.P had an explosive debut,
consistently on World Album charts,
successful world tours and you can't help but imagine what could be. B.A.P could be up there with BTS
or maybe it was timing. You didn't have that much of a wave that we see today with BTS, Blackpink, Monsta X and
NCT all coming in at once.
Anyways, B.A.P did return and reminded everyone what made them different in the first place with 'Young, Wild & Free'.
Months later in 2016,
B.A.P came back with their fifth album 'Carnival' and the header "Feel So Good' a more pop sound than what we're used to with B.A.P
but it was refreshing to see. The boys then went back to where they left off with a new world tour 'Life on Earth 2016'
going to unique stops such as Finland, Poland, New Zealand, and Russia. After that B.A.P
dropped a new album with 'That's My Jam' as the title track.
It was a fun quick little comeback but BABYz aka B.AP fans were saddened to hear
Yong Guk would be sitting out promotions for the upcoming 'Noir' album due to anxiety issues
but he would feature in the music video and track for the ambitious return to form
'Skydive'.
This was a 10 minute masterpiece
It had drama, story,
action and of course great music almost like 'One Shot' part two.
This showed new K-pop fans what they've been missing and helped B.A.P break a record.
'Noir' became their fourth album to appear in the number one spot on World Album charts, breaking the tie between
B.A.P
and GOT7, each of which previously had three number ones on the chart.
2017 would prove to be a great year for B.A.P
as it released three new songs and saw the return of Yong Guk.
Tracks like 'Wake Me Up' which tackled difficult issues such as depression,
racism, terrorism, eating disorders and suicide telling people to wake up and look around you.
There are people close to you suffering and we need to be aware to help. Then the beautiful song 'Honeymoon' and the last release
of 2017 and the last for the group 'Hands Up'
a bittersweet,
empowering inspirational track to keep your head held high. After that busy year, in 2018,
Yong Guk and Zelo left TS Entertainment as their contracts expired
leaving everyone in confusion as to what will happen with B.A.P until this year where the remaining four members: Himchan, Daehyun,
Youngjae and Jongup left the company as well. The members however did mention they wanted something simple as just a reunion sometime
but we don't know when. After all that, with what B.A.P went through, many still think B.A.P is and was underrated.
They were almost left behind with how fast Kpop moves on with hundreds of new groups debuting every year but B.A.P
stay true to who they were.
Never following trends and doing what they wanted, staying different till the end, putting in so much work and music and especially music videos,
you can't help but ask what if, what if TS Entertainment treated them right and promoted them in the U.S.
What if they didn't have their lawsuit and hiatus or was it simply wrong timing?
Well we'll never know the answers to these questions
But one answer we do know is, did B.A.P have an impact on Kpop and the world? Yes.
Yes, they did.
There is no one that was in B.A.P situation,
in what they went through, their unique case in Kpop.
Are there any BABYz around because going through the music videos to get footage,
I saw in the comments like 'listening in 2019' and there's still a lot of BABYz out there
so are you guys a BABY?
and who is your bias and how has B.A.P affected you. I really want to know down in the comments
'cause I feel B.AP is a very influential group in Kpop. I love to hear your stories,
I love to hear your comments down below. I'll be there as well liking or replying to people
I want to see wave coming strong with all the comments and everything and let's just talk about it.
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Annyeong.