Kino | |
---|---|
강형구 | |
![]() Kino in December 2017 | |
Born | Kang Hyung-gu January 27, 1998
Seongnam, South Korea |
Other names | Knnovation |
Occupations |
|
Musical career | |
Genres | |
Instrument(s) | Vocals |
Years active | 2016–present |
Labels |
|
Korean name | |
Hangul | 강형구 |
Hanja | |
Revised Romanization | Gang hyeong-gu |
McCune–Reischauer | Kang hyŏngku |
Stage name | |
Hangul | 키노 |
Revised Romanization | Ki-no |
McCune–Reischauer | K'ino |
Kang Hyung-gu ( Korean: 강형구; born January 27, 1998), better known as Kino (키노), is a South Korean singer, songwriter, rapper, composer and dancer. He is best known as a member of the boy group Pentagon, which debuted in 2016 under Cube Entertainment. He releases solo music on SoundCloud under the name Knnovation. [1]
Kino released his first single album Pose in 2022, before departing Cube Entertainment the following year. In late 2023, he established a one-man agency Naked, where he began continued releasing music leading up to his first EP If This Is Love, I Want a Refund in 2024.
At his group debut showcase, he explained the meaning behind 'Kino'. He said, “My real name is Kang Hyung-gu. I wanted to find a name that could show myself as a singer and in the team in the future, so Kino became it. 키노 is Kino, 'INO' is an acronym for innovation. K is from my original family name, Kang's K, Korea 'K'”. [2]
Kino was born in Seongnam, South Korea, on January 27, 1998. He has a younger sister. [3] He lived in the Philippines for 3 months when he was a kid. He can speak Korean, Japanese, and English. He graduated from Hanlim School of Performing Arts in 2017 and got admitted into Sejong University as a practical dance major through non-scheduled admission. [4] He is named as the dance master in the group. [5] He's friends with Park Ji-min of 15&, Woodz of UNIQ, Vernon of Seventeen, Nathan, and Hoho. Together they form a project group called M.O.L.A (Make Our Lives Awesome). [6] Kino was a former Power Vocal and JYP Entertainment trainee before joining his current agency, Cube Entertainment. [7] He also regularly uploads demos for other self produced tracks on his SoundCloud, " Knnovation".
Before his K-pop debut, he was a member of a dance team called Urban Boyz. [8] He appeared in G.NA's "Secret" music video and promotional activities. [9] He also appeared in Rain's "Rain Effect".
In 2016, he competed in the reality program Pentagon Maker. [10] [11]
With the released of "Young", Cube Entertainment confirmed Kino to debut with Pentagon. [12] He helped create the choreography for their debut track, " Gorilla". [13] Kino makes a cameo in the drama Hello, My Twenties! 2 with his bandmates as a member of Asgard. [14]
In 2017, he helped choreograph the Pentagon songs "Like This" for the EP Demo_01 [15] and "Runaway" for Demo_02, with the latter being alongside Jay Black. [16] He also produced the song "Violet" in Demo_02, which has both a Korean and Japanese music video and later became the title track for their second Japanese mini album, Violet.
On July 14, 2018, Kino posted a video of himself doing the " In My Feelings Challenge". Being the first celebrity in South Korea to do the challenge, the clip went viral and the challenge gained popularity in the country. [17] [18] On July 17, he was cast with Gongchan of B1A4 and Yoo Seung-Woo as the MC for Bus King, a program where musicians surprise bus passengers by performing series of songs. [19] M.O.L.A, a musical group consisting of Kino, Park Ji-min of 15&, Woodz of UNIQ, Vernon of Seventeen, and Nathan, released an unofficial song "Chillin" on SoundCloud. [20] In September, he was featured on Park Ji-min's "PUTP" (Pick Up The Phone) alongside M.O.L.A members Woodz and Nathan. The song was released on Jimin's second mini album jiminxjamie. [21] Later that month, he wrote the song "Crossroad" for Jung Dong-ha's first full album of the same name. [22] In November, Kino participated in labelmate A Train To Autumn's debut track "That Season You Were In" [23] and "Bad" by KRIZ featuring Woodz. [24] In late December, he wrote Jisu's debut single "Dear Dawn". [25]
In January 2019, he co-wrote the lyrics for M.FECT's "Designer". [26] On March 11, he contributed in writing and composing "Always Difficult Always Beautiful", for Wooseok on Wooseok x Kuanlin's debut extended play 9801. The song was inspired by the episode " San Junipero" from season three of British anthology series Black Mirror. [27] That same month, Pentagon held the comeback showcase for their eight mini album Genie:us, which contained three songs produced by Kino: "Lost Paradise", "Spring Snow", and "Round 1". Kino participated in all scheduled activities with the exception of performances due to an ankle injury he suffered in January. [28] [29] Pentagon continued promoting with "Spring Snow", and he was able to participate in the promotions for a week. [30] On April 30, he co-wrote, co-produced, and was featured on KRIZ's "1 Sided Love". [31] On September 1, he was featured on KRIZ's track "Hard to Love". [32] He produced "What's Going On With Me?" (이제와 무슨 소용 있겠냐고) by Han Seung-hee, which was released on October 30. [33]
In 2020, Kino debuted as a radio host on the Casper Radio's radio program, Kino's KiSingBooth (키Sing부스). [34] With the release of Pentagon's first studio album Universe: The Black Hall on February 12, Kino co-composed "Die for You" with Nathan. He wrote the song using Harley Quinn from the movie Suicide Squad as an inspiration. [35] [36] In June 2020, he co-produced "Shine Bright" by Lee Soo-young, which was the fourth OST for the comedy-drama Kkondae Intern. [37] On September 16, Kino produced the Pentagon song "Twenty-Twenty", which was the first OST for the web drama Twenty-Twenty. [38] He and bandmate Hongseok later made a cameo in the drama a month later. [39] On October 12, Pentagon released their 10th mini album We:th, for which he produced two songs: "Beautiful Goodbye" and "Paradise". [40] Kino shared that the online album art cover was drawn by him as a gift to Pentagon's leader Hui. [41] This marks Kino's "debut drawing". [42] He also drew the teaser image and the inside pages of the album. [43] In November, Kino participated as the first artist in Unordinary Sunday's project album with the song "Poison ( )". The jazz song describes one's conflicted feelings of leaving behind a toxic person even though he is still in love. [44]
In March 2021, Kino began hosting the Dive Studios podcast Unboxing alongside Astro's Jinjin. [45] He participated in Unordinary Sunday's second project album alongside Yumin with the song "Sunflower", released on May 21. [46] On June 19, Kino was featured on Davii's single "Don't play me love". [47] He wrote and co-produced A.C.E's song "Atlantis" from their EP Siren:Dawn, released on June 23. [48] Days later, he was officially announced as an MC for the FashionN original program titled Follow Me - True to your taste, a beauty program that presents various ways to become pretty, covering fashion, beauty and life. [49]
On August 9, 2022, Kino released the special single "Pose". [50]
On October 9, 2023, it was announced that he had left Cube Entertainment alongside fellow Pentagon members Yeo One, Yan An, Yuto, and Wooseok. [51] Following a private listening party event in November, Kino established a one-man agency called Naked in December. He held a solo performance called "Kino's Housewarming Party" in Tokyo, Japan on December 22. [52]
On January 8, 2024, Kino released his first single with Naked called "Fashion Style". [53] He held his first solo concert in Seoul titled "Born Naked" on January 27. [54] In March, he released the single "Freaky Love". [55] He released his first solo EP, If This Is Love, I Want a Refund on May 2, accompanied by the single "Broke My Heart" featuring American singer Lay Bankz. [56]
Title | Details | Peak chart positions | Sales |
---|---|---|---|
KOR [57] | |||
If This Is Love, I Want a Refund |
|
26 |
|
Title | Details | Peak chart positions | Sales |
---|---|---|---|
KOR [59] | |||
Pose |
|
15 |
|
Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Album | |
---|---|---|---|---|
KOR DL [61] | ||||
As lead artist | ||||
"Poison (독)" (with Unordinary Sunday) |
2020 | — | Unordinary Sunday Vol.01 | |
"Sunflower" (with Unordinary Sunday, Yumin) |
2021 | — | Unordinary Sunday Vol.02 | |
"Pose" | 2022 | 47 | Pose | |
"Fashion Style" | 2024 | — | If This Is Love, I Want a Refund | |
"Freaky Love" | — | |||
"Broke My Heart"
(ft. Lay Bankz) |
— | |||
Collaborations | ||||
"Chillin" (as M.O.L.A) | 2018 | — | Non-album single | |
As featured artist | ||||
"Pick Up the Phone (PUTP)" (전화받아) ( Park Ji-min featuring Kino, Woodz and Nathan |
2018 | — | JiminxJamie | |
"Gravity" (Jinho of Pentagon featuring Kino) |
2020 | — | Magazine Ho | |
"Don't Play Me Love" (Davii featuring Kino) |
2021 | — | Don't Play Me Love | |
Soundtrack appearances | ||||
"Miss U" (with Jinho and Hui) |
2019 | — | On the Campus OST | |
"Stay with Me" | 2021 | — | Pumpkin Time OST | |
"A-HA!" (with Jinho) |
2022 | — | User Not Found OST | |
"—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that region. |
Year | Title | Format | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|
2017 | "Lonely" | Digital download, streaming | [62] [63] |
"Universe" | [64] | ||
"Voicegasm" | [65] | ||
"Eyes" | [66] | ||
"지금 너에게로 가는 중이야" | [67] | ||
2018 | "sing for thy son, when he comes in the figure of an angel" | [68] | |
"Aquatic Talks" | [69] | ||
"Butterfly" | [70] | ||
"Keep Rollin'" | [71] | ||
"Sunshine/Mango" | [72] | ||
"Nobody else" | [73] | ||
2019 | "224.12" | [74] | |
"The Greatest Wall" | [75] [76] | ||
"Badtiming" | [77] [78] | ||
"La Di Da" | [79] [80] | ||
"Do I Deserve It" | [81] | ||
"똑딱" | [82] | ||
2020 | "Tell Me What You Want" | [83] | |
"도망가자 (Rock Ver.)" | [84] | ||
2021 | "Beautiful Goodbye (Rock Ver.)" | [85] | |
2022 | "Now Or Never" | [86] |
Year | Title | Artist | Note(s) | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
2016 | "Gorilla" | Pentagon | [13] | |
"Pentagon" | ||||
2017 | "Critical Beauty" | [87] | ||
"Like This" | [15] | |||
"Runaway" | [16] | |||
"Wake Me Up" | Hui, Jo Woo-chan | [88] | ||
2020 | "Follow (Pentagon Ver.)" | Pentagon | [89] | |
" Daisy" | Main and Daisy's challenge choreography. | [90] | ||
"Nostalgia" | Unibong choreography | [91] |
Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
2017 | Hello, My Twenties! 2 | Cameo | member of idol group Asgard | [14] |
Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
2020 | Twenty-Twenty | Cameo | [39] |
Year | Title | Network | Notes | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
2016 | Pentagon Maker | Mnet-M2 | Contestant | [92] |
2018 | Bus King | BerryTV | Main cast, MC, 6 episodes | [19] [93] |
2019 | Bookmark | GlanceTv | [94] | |
GINI Stage | MBC | Contestant, as Cheering Team 2 | [95] [96] | |
2020 | Idol Cooking Class | STATV | with Hui, Hongseok and Shinwon | [97] |
2021 | Follow Me - True to your taste | U+ Idol Live | MC with Ha Sung-woon, Kwon Eun-bi and Song Ji-ah | [49] [98] |
Hidden: the Performance | KakaoTV | Host with Boi B, Hangzoo, Hanhae, Taeil, Peakboy, Zai.ro and Jeong Se-woon | [99] | |
2022 | Be Mbitious | Mnet | Contestant | [100] |
Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
2020 | Kino's KiSingBooth (키Sing부스) | Radio host | January 13, 2020 – June 22, 2020 | [34] |
Year | Title | Platforms | Notes | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
2021 | UNBOXING w/ Jinjin & Kino | YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcast | Host with Jinjin, 12 episodes | [101] |
Kino | |
---|---|
강형구 | |
![]() Kino in December 2017 | |
Born | Kang Hyung-gu January 27, 1998
Seongnam, South Korea |
Other names | Knnovation |
Occupations |
|
Musical career | |
Genres | |
Instrument(s) | Vocals |
Years active | 2016–present |
Labels |
|
Korean name | |
Hangul | 강형구 |
Hanja | |
Revised Romanization | Gang hyeong-gu |
McCune–Reischauer | Kang hyŏngku |
Stage name | |
Hangul | 키노 |
Revised Romanization | Ki-no |
McCune–Reischauer | K'ino |
Kang Hyung-gu ( Korean: 강형구; born January 27, 1998), better known as Kino (키노), is a South Korean singer, songwriter, rapper, composer and dancer. He is best known as a member of the boy group Pentagon, which debuted in 2016 under Cube Entertainment. He releases solo music on SoundCloud under the name Knnovation. [1]
Kino released his first single album Pose in 2022, before departing Cube Entertainment the following year. In late 2023, he established a one-man agency Naked, where he began continued releasing music leading up to his first EP If This Is Love, I Want a Refund in 2024.
At his group debut showcase, he explained the meaning behind 'Kino'. He said, “My real name is Kang Hyung-gu. I wanted to find a name that could show myself as a singer and in the team in the future, so Kino became it. 키노 is Kino, 'INO' is an acronym for innovation. K is from my original family name, Kang's K, Korea 'K'”. [2]
Kino was born in Seongnam, South Korea, on January 27, 1998. He has a younger sister. [3] He lived in the Philippines for 3 months when he was a kid. He can speak Korean, Japanese, and English. He graduated from Hanlim School of Performing Arts in 2017 and got admitted into Sejong University as a practical dance major through non-scheduled admission. [4] He is named as the dance master in the group. [5] He's friends with Park Ji-min of 15&, Woodz of UNIQ, Vernon of Seventeen, Nathan, and Hoho. Together they form a project group called M.O.L.A (Make Our Lives Awesome). [6] Kino was a former Power Vocal and JYP Entertainment trainee before joining his current agency, Cube Entertainment. [7] He also regularly uploads demos for other self produced tracks on his SoundCloud, " Knnovation".
Before his K-pop debut, he was a member of a dance team called Urban Boyz. [8] He appeared in G.NA's "Secret" music video and promotional activities. [9] He also appeared in Rain's "Rain Effect".
In 2016, he competed in the reality program Pentagon Maker. [10] [11]
With the released of "Young", Cube Entertainment confirmed Kino to debut with Pentagon. [12] He helped create the choreography for their debut track, " Gorilla". [13] Kino makes a cameo in the drama Hello, My Twenties! 2 with his bandmates as a member of Asgard. [14]
In 2017, he helped choreograph the Pentagon songs "Like This" for the EP Demo_01 [15] and "Runaway" for Demo_02, with the latter being alongside Jay Black. [16] He also produced the song "Violet" in Demo_02, which has both a Korean and Japanese music video and later became the title track for their second Japanese mini album, Violet.
On July 14, 2018, Kino posted a video of himself doing the " In My Feelings Challenge". Being the first celebrity in South Korea to do the challenge, the clip went viral and the challenge gained popularity in the country. [17] [18] On July 17, he was cast with Gongchan of B1A4 and Yoo Seung-Woo as the MC for Bus King, a program where musicians surprise bus passengers by performing series of songs. [19] M.O.L.A, a musical group consisting of Kino, Park Ji-min of 15&, Woodz of UNIQ, Vernon of Seventeen, and Nathan, released an unofficial song "Chillin" on SoundCloud. [20] In September, he was featured on Park Ji-min's "PUTP" (Pick Up The Phone) alongside M.O.L.A members Woodz and Nathan. The song was released on Jimin's second mini album jiminxjamie. [21] Later that month, he wrote the song "Crossroad" for Jung Dong-ha's first full album of the same name. [22] In November, Kino participated in labelmate A Train To Autumn's debut track "That Season You Were In" [23] and "Bad" by KRIZ featuring Woodz. [24] In late December, he wrote Jisu's debut single "Dear Dawn". [25]
In January 2019, he co-wrote the lyrics for M.FECT's "Designer". [26] On March 11, he contributed in writing and composing "Always Difficult Always Beautiful", for Wooseok on Wooseok x Kuanlin's debut extended play 9801. The song was inspired by the episode " San Junipero" from season three of British anthology series Black Mirror. [27] That same month, Pentagon held the comeback showcase for their eight mini album Genie:us, which contained three songs produced by Kino: "Lost Paradise", "Spring Snow", and "Round 1". Kino participated in all scheduled activities with the exception of performances due to an ankle injury he suffered in January. [28] [29] Pentagon continued promoting with "Spring Snow", and he was able to participate in the promotions for a week. [30] On April 30, he co-wrote, co-produced, and was featured on KRIZ's "1 Sided Love". [31] On September 1, he was featured on KRIZ's track "Hard to Love". [32] He produced "What's Going On With Me?" (이제와 무슨 소용 있겠냐고) by Han Seung-hee, which was released on October 30. [33]
In 2020, Kino debuted as a radio host on the Casper Radio's radio program, Kino's KiSingBooth (키Sing부스). [34] With the release of Pentagon's first studio album Universe: The Black Hall on February 12, Kino co-composed "Die for You" with Nathan. He wrote the song using Harley Quinn from the movie Suicide Squad as an inspiration. [35] [36] In June 2020, he co-produced "Shine Bright" by Lee Soo-young, which was the fourth OST for the comedy-drama Kkondae Intern. [37] On September 16, Kino produced the Pentagon song "Twenty-Twenty", which was the first OST for the web drama Twenty-Twenty. [38] He and bandmate Hongseok later made a cameo in the drama a month later. [39] On October 12, Pentagon released their 10th mini album We:th, for which he produced two songs: "Beautiful Goodbye" and "Paradise". [40] Kino shared that the online album art cover was drawn by him as a gift to Pentagon's leader Hui. [41] This marks Kino's "debut drawing". [42] He also drew the teaser image and the inside pages of the album. [43] In November, Kino participated as the first artist in Unordinary Sunday's project album with the song "Poison ( )". The jazz song describes one's conflicted feelings of leaving behind a toxic person even though he is still in love. [44]
In March 2021, Kino began hosting the Dive Studios podcast Unboxing alongside Astro's Jinjin. [45] He participated in Unordinary Sunday's second project album alongside Yumin with the song "Sunflower", released on May 21. [46] On June 19, Kino was featured on Davii's single "Don't play me love". [47] He wrote and co-produced A.C.E's song "Atlantis" from their EP Siren:Dawn, released on June 23. [48] Days later, he was officially announced as an MC for the FashionN original program titled Follow Me - True to your taste, a beauty program that presents various ways to become pretty, covering fashion, beauty and life. [49]
On August 9, 2022, Kino released the special single "Pose". [50]
On October 9, 2023, it was announced that he had left Cube Entertainment alongside fellow Pentagon members Yeo One, Yan An, Yuto, and Wooseok. [51] Following a private listening party event in November, Kino established a one-man agency called Naked in December. He held a solo performance called "Kino's Housewarming Party" in Tokyo, Japan on December 22. [52]
On January 8, 2024, Kino released his first single with Naked called "Fashion Style". [53] He held his first solo concert in Seoul titled "Born Naked" on January 27. [54] In March, he released the single "Freaky Love". [55] He released his first solo EP, If This Is Love, I Want a Refund on May 2, accompanied by the single "Broke My Heart" featuring American singer Lay Bankz. [56]
Title | Details | Peak chart positions | Sales |
---|---|---|---|
KOR [57] | |||
If This Is Love, I Want a Refund |
|
26 |
|
Title | Details | Peak chart positions | Sales |
---|---|---|---|
KOR [59] | |||
Pose |
|
15 |
|
Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Album | |
---|---|---|---|---|
KOR DL [61] | ||||
As lead artist | ||||
"Poison (독)" (with Unordinary Sunday) |
2020 | — | Unordinary Sunday Vol.01 | |
"Sunflower" (with Unordinary Sunday, Yumin) |
2021 | — | Unordinary Sunday Vol.02 | |
"Pose" | 2022 | 47 | Pose | |
"Fashion Style" | 2024 | — | If This Is Love, I Want a Refund | |
"Freaky Love" | — | |||
"Broke My Heart"
(ft. Lay Bankz) |
— | |||
Collaborations | ||||
"Chillin" (as M.O.L.A) | 2018 | — | Non-album single | |
As featured artist | ||||
"Pick Up the Phone (PUTP)" (전화받아) ( Park Ji-min featuring Kino, Woodz and Nathan |
2018 | — | JiminxJamie | |
"Gravity" (Jinho of Pentagon featuring Kino) |
2020 | — | Magazine Ho | |
"Don't Play Me Love" (Davii featuring Kino) |
2021 | — | Don't Play Me Love | |
Soundtrack appearances | ||||
"Miss U" (with Jinho and Hui) |
2019 | — | On the Campus OST | |
"Stay with Me" | 2021 | — | Pumpkin Time OST | |
"A-HA!" (with Jinho) |
2022 | — | User Not Found OST | |
"—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that region. |
Year | Title | Format | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|
2017 | "Lonely" | Digital download, streaming | [62] [63] |
"Universe" | [64] | ||
"Voicegasm" | [65] | ||
"Eyes" | [66] | ||
"지금 너에게로 가는 중이야" | [67] | ||
2018 | "sing for thy son, when he comes in the figure of an angel" | [68] | |
"Aquatic Talks" | [69] | ||
"Butterfly" | [70] | ||
"Keep Rollin'" | [71] | ||
"Sunshine/Mango" | [72] | ||
"Nobody else" | [73] | ||
2019 | "224.12" | [74] | |
"The Greatest Wall" | [75] [76] | ||
"Badtiming" | [77] [78] | ||
"La Di Da" | [79] [80] | ||
"Do I Deserve It" | [81] | ||
"똑딱" | [82] | ||
2020 | "Tell Me What You Want" | [83] | |
"도망가자 (Rock Ver.)" | [84] | ||
2021 | "Beautiful Goodbye (Rock Ver.)" | [85] | |
2022 | "Now Or Never" | [86] |
Year | Title | Artist | Note(s) | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
2016 | "Gorilla" | Pentagon | [13] | |
"Pentagon" | ||||
2017 | "Critical Beauty" | [87] | ||
"Like This" | [15] | |||
"Runaway" | [16] | |||
"Wake Me Up" | Hui, Jo Woo-chan | [88] | ||
2020 | "Follow (Pentagon Ver.)" | Pentagon | [89] | |
" Daisy" | Main and Daisy's challenge choreography. | [90] | ||
"Nostalgia" | Unibong choreography | [91] |
Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
2017 | Hello, My Twenties! 2 | Cameo | member of idol group Asgard | [14] |
Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
2020 | Twenty-Twenty | Cameo | [39] |
Year | Title | Network | Notes | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
2016 | Pentagon Maker | Mnet-M2 | Contestant | [92] |
2018 | Bus King | BerryTV | Main cast, MC, 6 episodes | [19] [93] |
2019 | Bookmark | GlanceTv | [94] | |
GINI Stage | MBC | Contestant, as Cheering Team 2 | [95] [96] | |
2020 | Idol Cooking Class | STATV | with Hui, Hongseok and Shinwon | [97] |
2021 | Follow Me - True to your taste | U+ Idol Live | MC with Ha Sung-woon, Kwon Eun-bi and Song Ji-ah | [49] [98] |
Hidden: the Performance | KakaoTV | Host with Boi B, Hangzoo, Hanhae, Taeil, Peakboy, Zai.ro and Jeong Se-woon | [99] | |
2022 | Be Mbitious | Mnet | Contestant | [100] |
Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
2020 | Kino's KiSingBooth (키Sing부스) | Radio host | January 13, 2020 – June 22, 2020 | [34] |
Year | Title | Platforms | Notes | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
2021 | UNBOXING w/ Jinjin & Kino | YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcast | Host with Jinjin, 12 episodes | [101] |