Beenzino is finally returning from his long military service. Refresh your knowledge about this outstanding artist in our Artist Spotlight!
About Beenzino
The Gifts
Sungbin Lim was born in 1987 to his mother Dongwon Keum, a famous painter. With an inborn sense, he has always expressed himself through art. Having lived in New Zealand for three years, Sungbin Lim also gained a good grasp of the English language. Around the age of eleven, he first came into contact with hip-hop music and soon after started rapping and writing songs. When he uploaded one of his self-made tracks to a hip-hop community one day, Simon Dominic contacted him and Beenzino’s career began.
The Hard Work
Young Sungbin Lim telling his father that he didn’t want to go to university but do hip-hop instead didn’t go well. As a result, after attending Seoul Arts High School, he started studying plastic arts at Seoul National University while making music.
When Beenzino‘s name first came up on albums by Overclass, Primary, Epik High, and Verbal Jint in 2009, nobody knew him. He did start to receive attention though, especially for being the host MC of P’Skool’s “Daily Apartment” and for being a member of Simon Dominic’s Illest Konfusion (IK) crew.
However, Beenzino himself wasn’t satisfied with his performance on “Daily Apartment,” and when people only complimented his flow he realized that his lyrics were lacking and thus focused on improving his lyricism. One year later, Jazzyfact (consisting of Beenzino and long-time friend Shimmy Twice) released their famous “Lifes Like” LP. The reviews were excellent; Beenzino’s lyrics received a great deal of praise as they were well-written and listeners could easily relate to them.
In order to make himself known even better, Beenzino worked hard, accepting nearly every featuring request that came in. Consequently, he was awarded “Featured Artist of the Year” by Hiphopplaya both in 2010 and 2011.
When he joined Illionaire Records that year, many were doubtful Beenzino would fit in, but the rapper surprised everyone with skillful hard-hitting, tough rapping that was in no way inferior to that of Dok2 and The Quiett. Clearly another result of his hard work, just like Beenzino’s live performances: Fans had often expressed disappointment with his live rapping, until it improved greatly in 2016.
The Artist
Beenzino never settles for the status quo. He is always on the lookout for something new to try or ways to improve. Creativity rules.
“[E]ven when I buy electronic products, I don’t look at the instructions.”
— Beenzino
The different types of music he does as a solo artist, as a member of Jazzyfact, Hotclip (with Beatbox DG), and Illionaire attest to this.
Furthermore, at the time when everyone expected his first full-length album to be just like his famous “24:26” (often regarded as one of Korean hip-hop’s best albums) he surprised his fans by releasing something quite unlike it.
And then there is IAB (I’ve Always Been). Together with fellow hip-hop and art lovers Dongmin Shin and Hanjoon Kim, Beenzino founded IAB Studio in 2013. They have not only done artworks for Beenzino himself or artists like Eddy Kim and Suran, but also for brands like Pepero and Dunhill cigarettes.
The Lyricist
“Beenzino’s lyrics immediately unfold scenes [in your mind], like you’re looking at a painting.”
— Huckleberry P
Many like to consider Beenzino the greatest lyricist of Korean hip-hop. His rap flows like brush strokes and his lyrics appeal to all senses, particularly vision.
He also likes to hide “Easter eggs” in his lyrics, i.e. little hidden meanings that one can only find with considerable attention. The most famous are probably the Nike logo-shaped eyebrows in “Nike Shoes:” “Your Nike shoes, as distinctive as the line of your eyebrows when your eyes are tightly closed because of the wind from the river”
While a good number of Korean listeners dislike lyrics that mix English with Korean, Beenzino does this so smoothly that he is an exception to the rule.
Everybody’s Darling
Especially in his early career, Beenzino has been well-known for having very good relationships with his fans. He once told HiphopLE that he actively tries to maintain those relationships.
Beenzino is also highly popular among fellow rappers. Everyone and their mother has named him as one of their favorite or top rappers of the country, including Gaeko, Verbal Jint, Dok2, The Quiett, E SENS, Swings, Paloalto, Okasian, Code Kunst, nafla, Basick, Hash Swan and ZICO. Swings in particular had his eyes set on Beenzino (pre-Illionaire), trying several times to get him to join Just Music.
“Every day, I still think that I want Beenzino in JM.”
— Swings
The Trendsetter
Before Show Me the Money, there was Beenzino. His skills aside, he made Korean hip-hop popular with his good looks (though he himself seems unconvinced of them) and style, and on the other hand by working with artists from both the underground and mainstream (BoA, HA:TFELT, Infinite H, just to name a few).
He brought forth a wave of rookie rappers that imitated him — his most prominent fan being Black Nut.
“Apparently, they’re all my sons and daughters”
— Beenzino (Jazzyfact – Journey)
At one point, Beenzino was the center of attention. In 2013, a few of his tweets in which he jokingly gave relationship advice using dried persimmons blew up. The topic became number one on search engines and a group called Star Candy Project (별사탕 프로젝트) even made a song about it.
Did You Know?
- The artist name “Beenzino” is a combination of US rapper Benzino’s name and the “been” (or “bin”) of Sungbin Lim. It was a childhood nickname. Beenzino is absolutely no fan of Benzino. So he doesn’t really like his own artist name and has often thought about changing it but never came up with anything else.
- His trademark “isshoman” doesn’t have any particular meaning, he just made it up while fooling around.
- When he first started writing rap lyrics, Beenzino’s favorite topic was the gap between the rich and poor. He now owns a Maserati Ghibli, an Audi R8, and a Porsche Cayenne.
- Beenzino loves smoking and the topic often comes up in his music. According to his lyrics, he’s been smoking since high school.
- In his schooldays, Beenzino was popular for resembling H.O.T.’s Tony An.
- Beenzino’s idols were Gaeko and Verbal Jint because Gaeko also majored in arts and VJ also went to Seoul National University.
- Apparently, Dok2 bought Beenzino hard-to-get kicks from the US in order to make him join Illionaire Records.
- Illionaire Records is said to not have contracts, meaning Beenzino isn’t legally bound to the label.
- The first official release that contained Beenzino’s name was Overclass’ “Collage 2” where he featured on the tracks “Ride” and “Sunshine.”