Today we are back with a new edition of Rapper in the Spotlight, and this artist had a slightly different journey in the beginning of his music career.
Park Jun-won, also known a pH-1 is a Korean born Hip-Hop artist that spent most of his teens living in New Jersey in USA. Before becoming a rapper, he worked in a dental clinic and as a web developer, but he always had a passion for music. It eventually led him to move back to Korea to pursue his music career.
The Beginnings
He debuted under H1GHR Music, Jay Park’s label and after his participation in Show Me The Money 777 he gained a lot of attention from the public.
His first EP ‘The Island Kid’ was released in 2017 and it is an absolute piece of art. This release is, as expected heavily hip-hop influenced. However the mixture of vocals and tunes make it versatile and quite different. The song ‘15’ is my favorite one, it’s quite personal and emotional. I feel that it shows the human side of pH-1, the struggles of his life and it is so relatable. The lyrics go like this:
“I remember the hot summer of 15
The start and the end and everything in between
All day, my father did laundry
The blisters on his hands, my mom fasting, my sibling
Leaving far away to San Francisco
My parents got so thin even without exercise
I’m the oldest but I kept changing my career
I couldn’t tell my parents, it’d be too hard on them
New York is hard (…)”
“ (…) A lot of empty thoughts filling up my days and nights
Music that I couldn’t hold onto was still my life
It was an unknown life, nights weren’t short
Darkness whispered “you’re a seed that can never grow” ”
You can watch the performance for this song below (be ready to fall in love).
The Future
In 2019, he came back with his first full length album ‘Halo’ and I can definitely say that the album shows his growth as an artist. It is one of my favourite releases of 2019 and the song ‘Malibu’ has been in my playlist since it came out. Here is the music video:
Undoubtedly, pH-1 is one talented hip-hop artist and I hope to see more of his music in the future. Let us know what your favourite song is. And make sure to listen to all his releases, they are amazing!
