Early life and career Kwon Hyuk was born and raised in
Hongeun-dong,
Seoul. He developed an interest in American
hip hop and
rap in
middle school, and began singing in high school. At that time, he considered music as an "escape from studying," He began writing songs in his room, which he initially kept hidden from his parents. By eighteen, he was writing tracks for
K-pop idols, under the name 'Deanfluenza'. The name originated from actor
James Dean, whose rebellious image appealed to him, and the word 'influenza', signifying his desire to make a "viral" impact on the music industry. He was credited on tracks including Exo's
"Black Pearl" and
VIXX's "
Voodoo Doll".
FACT UK magazine's Claire Lobenfeld subsequently referred to his work with Bellinger, when listing him as an R&B artist to watch for in 2016, noting that artists like
Justin Bieber and
Chris Brown had also worked with Bellinger. That year, he also collaborated with
Mila J on "Here & Now" and
Anderson Paak on "Put My Hands on You". He debuted in South Korea in October that year, and his second single "Pour Up", featuring
Block B's rapper
Zico, He also collaborated with Korean hip-hop artists
Zion.T,
Crush, and
Junggigo on the single "247",
Dok2 on "I Love It",
2016: 130 Mood: TRBL, and music producing On January 8, 2016, Dean released the single "What 2 Do", featuring
Crush and Filipino-American singer
Jeff Bernat, On March 25, he released his first EP
130 Mood: TRBL, which he wrote and produced with collaborators. The EP charted at No. 10 on the
Gaon Album Chart, No. 3 on the
Billboard World Albums chart, and No. 22 on the
Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart, while "Bonnie & Clyde" entered Billboard's World Digital Songs chart at No. 12. The EP was well received, and was nominated for Album of the Year and Best R&B & Soul Album on Korean Hip-Hop Awards and
Korean Music Awards, respectively, as well the two track on the album "D (half moon)" and "21" received multiple nominations. In 2016 he collaborated with several artists, notably featuring on
Taeyeon's single "Starlight",
Heize's single "Shut Up & Groove" and "And July", and a collaboration on a single and music video with Zico and Crush, named "Bermuda Triangle", which debuted on
Billboard's World Digital Songs chart at No. 3, making it the highest position he had received on that chart. He also placed for the first time on two "overall popularity" charts; he and his song "D (Half Moon)" featuring Gaeko debuted at No. 2 on the
Billboard Twitter Emerging Artists chart and the song at No. 33 on the
Billboard Twitter Top Tracks chart. On December 11, "Bermuda Triangle" won the weekly competition on the
Inkigayo music show. Also, in 2016, Dean wrote and produced for other artists and music programs, such as two tracks for
Lee Hi's album
Seoulite; he also created songs for
Block B,
Boys Republic and BASTARZ, a Block B sub-unit consisting of three members. He also appeared on the
JTBC show
Two Yoo Project Sugar Man as a producer, arranging a well-received version of the Mose song, "It's Love," for a performance by
iKON, and "Je T'aime" performed by
Winner. He prepared two tracks for a September 2 appearance as producer on the
Unpretty Rapstar 3 show where contestants would use the tracks in the rap competition.
2017–2019: Widespread recognition and collaborations On February 17, 2017, Dean released his first solo work in eleven months, a single album
Limbo, with two tracks, "Come Over" featuring
Yerin Baek, and "The Unknown Guest". "Come Over", the title track, quickly rose to the top of several South Korean music charts. The accompanying music video was created and directed by artist Seong Lib, who had also worked with
SHINee. At the end of the year, he released the single "
Instagram", the song topped all local music charts in South Korea. In April 2017, Dean also participated in a campaign with
Kolon Sport alongside
Bae Doo Na, to protect
Jeju Island's
Leontopodium hallaisanense, which is an endangered flower species. In July,
Kakaopay released a commercial advert featuring Dean and a track he produced for the collaboration (Get the Feeling). Dean also acted in the advertisement to promote the Korean digital wallet service. Later that year in September, Dean also collaborated with Puma, on a campaign called 'Run the Streets', for which he produced a track and starred in a commercial video. In November 2018, he has since released single "Dayfly", collaborating with artists Rad Museum and former
F(x) (group) member
Sulli. On April 18, 2019, Dean was featured along with labelmate Tabber on
ROMderful's song "1 Missed Call" from his debut album
Press L To Continue. On May 25, 2019, Dean released his fourth English language single "Howlin' 404" at the same time of his performance during Seoul Jazz Festival 2019. On July 12, 2019, it was announced that Dean alongside FANXY CHILD (
Zico,
Crush,
Penomeco, Millic and Stay Tuned) would be holding concerts in Seoul, South Korea at the Olympic Handball Gymnasium on August 10 and 11, 2019 which speculated a comeback for the crew after two years. On July 31, 2019, it was announced that FANXY CHILD would make a comeback with their single album "Y". The single album "Y" was officially released on August 8, 2019, with a music video released on KOZ Entertainment's official YouTube channel. Dean appeared on
Crush's sophomore album
From Midnight to Sunrise on the song "Wake Up" which he co-wrote and produced with Crush, and was released on December 5, 2019.
2020–present: Hiatus, features, and comeback On February 5, 2020, Dean was featured on Korean-American rapper
Nafla's single "Under the Ground" from his album
u n u part. 2 which was released on March 24. On August 4, Dean and labelmate Miso participated in a music collaboration titled "Imagination" with
GQ Korea and
Burberry for the TB Summer Monogram Collection. Dean described the song as "a message to this reality" to "find the lost imagination" during the
COVID-19 pandemic and "a situation where people are busy looking for a different reality than before" and "even in such a confusing situation, through imagination, you can go here and there, too". The next day, Dean announced his upcoming label compilation album which was followed by the first single "breath" that features labelmates Rad Museum and
Mokyo. On August 10, Dean collaborated on the track "3AM Freestyle" with labelmate Tabber and South Korean rapper
Kim Ximya which was uploaded to you.will.knovv's YouTube channel. Dean featured on Tabber's debut mixtape
Deep End on the track "Honey!" released on August 13. Dean co-directed Tabber's music video for "Look At My/Like A Vampire" with Russian photographer and visual artist Anton Reva which was released on September 8. Dean co-composed Rad Museum's song "Wet Umbrella" from his single album
SINK which was released on December 10. Dean featured on Mokyo's debut album
accent fried on the track "paranoid" which was released on December 21. On March 10, 2021, it was revealed that Dean would feature on South Korean singer-songwriter
IU's upcoming fifth studio album
Lilac, on the song "Troll" which was released on March 25 along with the rest of the album. The two previously collaborated when Dean made a special appearance at IU's Palette Tour in
Busan on November 3, 2017, where they performed a duet of IU's "
Can't Love You Anymore". On March 7, 2022, Dean and
Lee Hi were featured on Rad Museum's song "Off-Line", the 7th track from Rad Museum's first full-length album:
[RAD]. The accompanying music video was released on you.will.knovv's YouTube channel on the same day and starred Rad Museum, Lee Hi, and Dean. On February 14, 2023, Dean appeared as a feature on Wesley Joseph's song "Sugar Dive". The song and music video were released ahead of Wesley Joseph's EP
Glow. In November 2023, Dean reactivated his Instagram account and archived all of his posts, fueling speculation about an upcoming comeback. It was later announced that Dean would release the single "
Die 4 You" on November 18, his first solo single in over 4 years. It was his first song to chart on the
Circle Digital Chart in over 5 years, debuting at number 191, and peaking at number 9. In early 2024, Dean appeared as a feature on Tabber's song "Chi-Ka". The song and music video were released ahead of Dean and Tabber's multi-city tour of
Asia in March 2024, and ahead of Tabber's EP
Madness Always Turns to Sadness. Later in the year, he collaborated with
French Kiwi Juice on the two-part single titled
3:33, including
Ctrl and
NASA. It was released in November 2024, his first under a new deal with
Island Records. == Reception ==