Kwon Ji-yong and Dong Young-bae first met as trainees at YG Entertainment. After signing a contract with the record label, they spent the first year cleaning the studio and fetching water bottles during dance practices for YG artists. Dong later admitted that current artists at the time weren't friendly towards him or Kwon. The original plan for the two was to debut as the hip-hop duo GDYB, with Kwon choosing the stage name G-Dragon ("Ji" is pronounced like "G" and Yong is Korean for "dragon"). Though they made several appearances both as a duo and as individuals on other artists' music, the plan for their debut was scrapped and they were joined by four other trainees (
T.O.P,
Daesung,
Seungri and
Jang Hyun-seung) to form BigBang instead. The formation of the group was documented on television, but prior to their official debut, Jang was dropped. Member Seungri later admitted that G-Dragon was initially cold towards Daesung and himself because G-Dragon had wanted to be in the hip hop duo and disliked being placed in a band. Taeyang himself was also initially hesitant about being placed in a band but eventually warmed up to the other members. after which G-Dragon subsequently recorded a "Part Two" to the EP's lead single "Only Look at Me" (). Later, G-Dragon had a rap verse on Taeyang's single "I Need a Girl". Taeyang returned the favor by appearing in the song "Korean Dream" for G-Dragon's first album
Heartbreaker (2009). G-Dragon later wrote and produced several songs for Taeyang's first and second albums
Solar (2010) and
Rise (2014)
. The single accrued 1.2 million downloads in South Korea, In 2015, the duo participated in the
Infinite Challenge music festival, teaming up with
ZE:A's
Hwang Kwanghee for the single "Mapsosa", which peaked at number two on the Gaon Digital Chart and sold 1.3 million copies by the end of the year, making it one of the best-selling songs of 2015. ==Discography==