G-Dragon

I wasn't trying to be famous when I started making music. I mean, that wasn't the first thing I wanted.

I just listened to regular commercial music from Korea. I would just follow the choreographed dance routines. I didn't have any ambitions of pursuing rapping. I liked dancing, so I did that.

There was this hip-hop collective called People Crew. And at the time in Korea, there was no real place to access rap music. So People Crew used to host this summer school program, which taught rapping and dancing. I begged my mom to attend that school to learn how to rap.

I was about nine years old when I first heard Wu-Tang's 'C.R.E.A.M.' Before that, I didn't know anything about rap or hip-hop. I was just into Korean pop.

When I perform as a solo, I think a lot about what I always wanted to do but have not done yet.

As a musician myself, I wouldn't be confident if I received some other composers' song, because I choose to express myself through the music that I make.

You can't explain Chanel. It's a verb.

I want a daughter no matter what.

When I was young and didn't know any English, I was drawn by the energy and power of foreign songs and their melodies.

It would be better to be recognized first for music, but people go with what they like. If I'm here because I'm recognized more so as a style icon, then, if I'm smart enough, I will use this opportunity to share more insight about my music.

We are Korean, so obviously they call our music K-pop. But we never thought of our music as K-pop. Our music is just our music.

I would write down the lyrics to 'C.R.E.A.M.' in Korean - not translating it, but phonetically writing out each word. I didn't know what they were saying, so I would just write everything down as I heard it. I would recite it and imitate it like that. That's how I started to write my own raps.

There are albums that I like because of specific songs, but then there are albums that I like as a complete body of work. 'Ghetto Fabolous' is an album I lived with daily.

Whatever I like, even after a long time, I still like it. And I reminisce about the moment when I first heard it. That's what I love. Just remembering those moments.

People may see me as a luxurious star, but I am always thinking I can be represented by my psychological world that is fraught with vanity, loneliness, and always feels inadequate.

I want to continuously instigate, whatever it may be.

I stand on stage hoping to give good energy to the audience, but if I cannot give good energy anymore, I will have to leave right away.

I am a songwriter and producer, and though you have to be personal in everything you do, you always having to look at things from another's perspective.

When I was younger, Big Bang didn't go on many variety programs, so we used to try and plan many fun events for our concert, like drama parodies, which Korean fans enjoyed.

I occasionally rapped along to some homegrown Korean rap. And then a friend introduced me to Wu-Tang and played me 'Enter the 36th Chambers.' It was very shocking. And then I started to look for different albums. This was pre-Internet, so it's hard to find the music, and it was even harder to find music videos.