Mino

Song Min-ho (born March 30, 1993), better known by the stage name Mino, is a South Korean rapper, singer-songwriter, music producer, artist and actor.

Song Min-ho was born on March 30, 1993, in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province.

He has a sister named Song Dan-ah, who is one year younger than him and was previously a member of the defunct girl group "New F.O."

Mino also has a cousin named Song Gun-hee, better known by the stage name "#Gun", a rapper who was under Starship Entertainment.

After a stint in the two-year ballad group BoM from 2011 to 2013, he joined YG Entertainment, leading to his debut in 2014 with the boy band Winner, formed through Mnet survival program WIN: Who Is Next.

Mino graduated from Hanlim Multi Art School in 2011.

In the early years of his musical career, Mino was an active participant of the Korean underground rap scene, performing under the name Mino or Hugeboy Mino.

Among others who would later become well-known, Mino often performed with underground rappers-turned-idols, namely Block B's Zico and P.O, and Phantom's Hanhae.

He auditioned and trained under Stardom Entertainment for several years before attaining a position in the line-up for the boy band, Block B alongside trainees Zico, U-Kwon, B-Bomb and Jaehyo.

However, due to not being of legal age at the time, his father consulted with the company on his behalf in terms of business regarding the contract and ultimately was unable to reach an agreement.

In result, Mino left to pursue his career elsewhere.

Starting from scratch, Mino joined and trained under Y2Y Contents Company for nearly two years before making his debut on July 27, 2011, as a rapper under the stage name "Tagoon" in the ballad boy band BoM.

While promoting with the group, despite writing five songs among their releases, the executive of the company did not register nor credit Mino's contributions for copyright and instead forged another person's name to receive royalties.

Mino reported that he made as little as ₩10 won ($0.09) during his time at the company.

BoM disbanded within two years of their debut in March 2013.

In 2013, YG Entertainment reached out to Mino upon discovering a video of him covering Big Bang's La La La in his March 2012 appearance on Channel A cable drama The Strongest K-POP Survival.

After a successful audition, Mino was accepted by the agency and joined as a trainee.

That same year, he appeared on Mnet survival program WIN: Who Is Next as a contestant under "Team A".

Initially, he was appointed as the leader by Yang Hyun-suk during the first episode of the show, however, due to an injury part-way, he was replaced as leader by Kang Seung-yoon.

Seeing the synergy and improvement in performance, Yang Hyun-suk made the change permanent in benefit of the team.

On October 25, during the finale episode of the survival program, Team A was announced as the winners of the show.

Team A was set to debut under the name, Winner.

Winner officially made their debut on August 17, 2014, with the studio album, 2014 S/S and the double A-side singles, "Empty" and "Color Ring".

The ten-track album also featured Mino's first solo release titled, "I'm Him", which peaked at number 15 on the Gaon Digital Chart.

Upon their debut, the quintet shot to instantaneous success with "Empty" topping all South Korean charts including Gaon, earning them the title "Monster Rookies".

Their unprecedented success earned them multiple awards that year including Top 10 Artist (Bonsang) at the Melon Music Awards and "Most Popular Korean Group" at the Tudou Young Choice Awards.

The group also went on to becoming the fastest act to win on a televised music show, within four days through Mnet's M Countdown.

In October 2014, Mino was featured in labelmate senior Epik High's lead single "Born Hater" from their studio album Shoebox, alongside Beenzino, Verbal Jint, and labelmates iKon's B.I and Bobby.

The single peaked at number 3 on the Gaon Digital Chart, selling almost 1.5 million digital copies.

The song was later performed for the first time at the 2014 Mnet Asian Music Awards.

That same day, he also had a collaborative stage with South Korean singer, IU, performing her single "Friday".

In December 2014, Mino co-hosted the 2014 SBS Gayo Daejeon alongside South Korean actress, Song Ji-hyo and singers 2PM's Nichkhun, CNBLUE's Yonghwa, Infinite's L and B1A4's Baro.

In April 2015, Mino appeared in the Mnet rap survival program Show Me the Money 4 as a member of "Team Zipal" competing under Zico and Paloalto.

He finished the show as the series runner-up behind rapper Basick.

Alongside label-mate Bobby, he is also part of the hip hop duo MOBB, formed in September 2016.

As a solo artist, Mino first gained recognition as a contestant in the rap-survival program, Show Me the Money 4, where he finished as the series runner-up, and became the best-selling artist among the show's history with his single, "Fear" (겁).

He made his official solo debut with the studio album, XX in November 2018; its lead single, titled "Fiancé", became his first number one hit in South Korea, spawning to number one on Gaon's digital and streaming monthly charts for the month of December.

It also became his first single to receive a platinum certification from the Korea Music Content Association (KMCA) after achieving sales of 2.5 million digital copies.

In television, he is currently a series regular in tvN variety programs, New Journey to the West and Kang's Kitchen.

In addition, he appeared as a judge in a variety show called Sing Again, which has recently gained popularity.