Today’s feature has been active as a Hip-Hop artist since 2011, he is well known for his killer melodic rapping and amazing flow. Today we are talking about Beenzino.
Beginnings
Lim Sung-bin officially debuted in 2011, his stage name ‘Beenzino’ comes from the play between the name of the American rapper ‘Benzino’ and his name ‘빈’ pronounced as ‘been’.
He gained a lot of attention after posting his recordings on the DC Tribe website, and was recruited by Simon Dominic. Beenzino’s first appearance was in 2009 as an MC for Primary’s collaborative album ‘P’Skool’s Daily Apartment’.
Before signing with newly formed hip-hop independent label Illionari Records, Beenzino was featured in some incredible collabs, here are a few of them.
(2009) Epik High – Rock Steady feat. Paloalto, Dok2, Beatbox DG & Beenzino
(2009) Verbal Jint – Dramas of Life feat. Beenzino
(2010) Verbal Jint – How dare you pour oil or something (기름 같은걸 끼얹나) feat. Deb, Beenzino
(2010) Dok2 – Fantom feat. Beenzino
Signed under Illionaire Records, Beenzino released the collab ‘Illionarie Way’ in 2011 along with the label founders The Quiett and Dok2.
In the same year he was part of a few collabs with big acts such as Dynamic Duo, Zion T., Palo Alto, Jay Park, among many others well known artists in the industry. Here are a few of the collabs.
In 2012, he released his first album ‘24:26’, this release includes one of his most well known songs ‘Aqua Man’. Check out this single below, and you can listen to this release here.
‘24:26’ includes one of my favourite tracks by Beenzino, ‘If I die tomorrow’ is a fantastic song and the lyrics are personal, and talk about his journey as an artist. Part of the lyrics go like this:
“(…) the language that I first learned after being born covered with my mother’s blood
and English that I learned easily after falling on foreign lands
the hatred I had for my father and my respect for my new father
an expression, life’s like an orange-colored tunnel (…)”
“(…) a young painter’s career gone astray, because out of nowhere I found hip-hop
but I wasn’t afraid at all cuz I didn’t give a fuck
about others’ opinions, cuz life is like, a tunnel I walk alone(…)”
Source: Princess of Tea
One of Beenzino most famous songs is ‘Dali, Van, Picasso’, this one was released in 2013, in the lyrics of this track he talks about his identity as an artist, part of the lyrics go like this:
“My identity can’t ever be stolen
Artists will know what I’m talking about
Like a fearless and daring child’s feel
Tonight is like that ”
“Some may think I’m crazy but
I’m not the type to care
On summer nights when my brush was sticky with paint
My voice spread here and there (…)”
Source: Princess of Tea
This year he also released a few collabs, among them is the one with K.Will in his song ‘Bon Voyage’ and Lee Hyori’s ‘Love Radar’.
In 2014. the first mini album ‘Up All Night’ was released. This mini album did well in the Korean Music Charts. The song ‘Jackson Pollock D*ck’ from this album was one of the most popular ones of this release. You can listen to this song below, and the full release here.
In the same year he teamed up with JUNGGIGO for the song ‘Want U’, this track peaked in the charts and sold more than a million copies. Check out the music video below.
Beenzino also collaborated with Epik High for the hit song ‘Born Hater’ in 2014. This track also did extremely well in the charts, and had a great response from the public. You can watch the music video below.
In 2015, the singles ‘So What’, ‘Break’ and ‘We Are Going To’ were released. Below you can watch the music videos.
In 2016, Beenzino released his first full length album ‘12’, including the pre-released songs ‘Break’ and ‘We Are Going To’, as well as, his hit song ‘Dali, Van, Picasso’. You can find the the music video for the singles ‘Time Travel’ and ‘January’ included in this album below.
Lim Sung-bin enlisted for his mandatory military service in 2017 and finished it in early 2019. Later on in 2019, he released the singles ‘OKGO’, ‘Fashion Hoarder’ and ‘Blurry’, as well as the collab ‘The Fearless Ones’ including The Quiett, Changmo and Sik-K. Check out the music videos below.
Final Thoughts
Beenzino has a lengthy list of incredible features and singles, we were able to mention just a few of our favourites. Check out his releases timeline here. And you can listen to part of his discography below.
