Early life and pre-debut BM was born in Los Angeles, California on October 20, 1992. BM moved to South Korea in 2011 in order to audition and take part in the
first season of the
SBS reality competition show
K-pop Star. He entered within the top 50 of the competition, before eventually being eliminated. Due to his then poor Korean language skills, he forgot the lyrics during his audition on several occasions. After
K-pop Star, he was recruited by
DSP Media. He was featured in
Goo Hara's song "La La La" from her 2015 debut EP
Alohara (Can You Feel It?) and was her dance partner for the music video and live performances of its lead single "Choco Chip Cookies".
2016–2020: Debut with Kard, Solo activities DSP Media first revealed the upcoming debut of its new co-ed group
Kard along with its members on December 5, 2016, with a card game-based concept. BM was assigned a role as a "King" card. In November 2018, BM was featured in the eponymous title track for singer Zsun's album ''I'm On My Wave''. In the same month, he also uploaded the self-produced track "Better Myself" on
SoundCloud. On December 6, 2018, he made a guest appearance on the
JTBC variety show
Shall We Walk Together in celebration of
g.o.d's 20th debut anniversary. He appeared alongside Woosung of
Snuper and
Heo Chan of
Victon, wherein they visited and walked through the
Santiago pilgrimage route for three days as they made their way towards g.o.d's dormitory. In May 2019, BM appeared on the magazine cover of
Men's Health Korea. He was then confirmed to be joining the lineup for the
SBS television series
Law Of The Jungle on June 6, appearing alongside several acts including Korean entertainer
Kim Byung-man,
PENTAGON’s
Hongseok,
Hong Soo-ah, and
Nature’s Saebom. The show began airing a week later on June 13. In September, he received his first major credits as the primary songwriter, composer, and producer for the single "
Dumb Litty". The title of the song was derived from usual slang words used by BM when he lived in Los Angeles. BM had previously taken part in producing Kard's music, initially through writing and composing his rap parts. In 2020, BM was cast in the Dive Studios variety program
HWAITING!, starring alongside Ashley of
Ladies' Code,
Jae of
Day6,
Peniel of
BTOB,
Jamie Park and
Amber Liu. The program first premiered on Facebook Watch on February 12. Since July, BM began hosting the DIVE Studios podcast
Get Real alongside
Peniel of
BTOB and Ashley from
Ladies' Code. He then featured in the track "Put It On Ya" alongside Korean rapper Nafla as part of
Jessi's second EP
Nuna which was released on July 30. On October 9, he appeared as an intern in the
TBS show
Hong Gi-mak Studio.
2021–present: Solo debut with The First Statement BM revealed the first teaser image for his debut solo single "Broken Me" through his Instagram account on April 29, 2021. He has stated that the song is a reflection of his internal struggles, sharing about how the track is about "fighting a war" with oneself. On June 30, DSP Media released a documentary video detailing the behind-the-scenes work of BM for his upcoming single album,
The First Statement. BM then collaborated with
AleXa when he featured in the music video of her single "Xtra", which was the title track of her album
ReviveR released on July 1. The following day, BM released his debut single album
The First Statement, with its lead single "13IVI".
The First Statement is accompanied the deep house-inspired song "Body Movin'" and the Korean-language version of his debut single, "Broken Me", with BM penning the lyrics of all three tracks and also participating in the songwriting and composition for each song. On January 21, 2022, BM released his new digital single "Lost in Euphoria". On August 9, 2022, BM released his second single album
Strangers, with its eponymous lead single.
Strangers is accompanied the hip hop-inspired song "Bad Intentions", with BM penning the lyrics of all two tracks and also participating in the songwriting and composition for each song. == Other ventures ==