On August 17th, YG posted another “from YG” message, covering Taeyang’s upcoming solo concert and international release album, 2NE1′s first full-length album, their work with Wil.i.am, their planned future US activities, and the opening of YG-Life.
He opened the post by sharing a picture of his daughter and also revealed her name, Yang Yoo Jin (양유진), before thanking the fans for their congratulations.
Here’s a run-down of the major points discussed in the message This is not a word-for-word translation, but it covers everything YG wrote.
Taeyang’s solo concert
The concerts will take place on September 25th and 26th at Kyunghee University’s Grand Peace Palace, and 90% of the music will be performed by a live band. Tickets will go on sale through GMarket on August 20th at 8PM, KST, and prices vary from ₩88,000 to ₩66,000. The first night will be for all ages and the second night will be 18+, as originally planned.
The promotional activities for “I’ll Be There” will be done by September. The concert will be Taeyang’s last solo activity for a while, and YG doesn’t know when Taeyang will be able to work on another solo album or other solo activities.
Taeyang’s international album
A Korean version of “I’ll Be There” will be promoted in Korea, and the English version will be available on foreign websites. English and Korean versions of the music video are being filmed.
Promotional activities were scheduled to start on the 21st on Music Core, but have been postponed to the 25th.
YG also uploaded a behind-the-scenes preview of I’ll Be There, filmed by him on his cell phone.
As planned, the album will be on sale on August 19th, with YGE-shop and other online and offline stores accepting pre-orders starting August 17th to August 24th. The price is ₩14,800 (~$13 USD). It comes with a DVD containing all of Taeyang’s MVs to date, some making-of footage, a YG Family card and a poster. Here’s the full track list:
Disc 1
01. SOLAR (Intro)
02. Superstar
03. Kido (Feat. Teddy)
04. I’ll Be There (English)
05. Wedding Dress (English)
06. Connection (Feat. BIG TONE) (English)
07. Move (Feat. Teddy)
08. Where U At
09. I Need A Girl (Feat. G-dragon)
10. Naman Barabwa
11. Take It Slow
12. I’ll Be There (Korean)
Disc 2 (DVD):
01. Kido (Feat. Teddy) MV
02. Naman Barabwa MV
03. Where U At MV
04. Wedding Dress (English) MV
05. I Need A Girl (Feat. G-Dragon) MV
06. I’ll Be There (Korean) MV
07. I’ll Be There (English) MV
08. MV Making Film 1
09. MV Making Film 2
2NE1′s first full-length album
The album will be called To Anyone and will be released September 9th. It will have twelve tracks: six new songs, four digital singles [probably "Nal Ttarahaebwayo", "Please Don't Go", "Kiss" and "You & I" -Ed.] and two bonus tracks.
2NE1′s off-the-wall promotional activities
To Anyone will have three singles that will be promoted equally starting from the release date. YG points out that there’s been double-singles albums before, but never triple-singles albums.
He also says that this is going to be difficult both for the singers and as far as production is concerned, because of the financial and scheduling difficulties involved in promoting three songs, making three music videos, and making them all popular enough to be chosen by the major networks for TV performances. They chose to go the hard way because they want to showcase the variety of musical styles 2NE1 are able to do.
One of the singles will have an English version released at the same time as the album through foreign websites. YG also says that there are no teaser videos or previews planned for 2NE1′s first album; all three music videos will be released at midnight on September 9th along with the album.
2NE1′s work with the Black Eyed Peas’s Will.i.am
2NE1 have been working on music with Will.i.am, the producer of the Black Eyed Peas, for the past few months. YG thinks that Will.i.am is one of the most sought-after international producers, for obvious reasons.
YG was able to show 2NE1′s music videos to Will.i.am through a close acquaintance, and Will.i.am decided on the spot to work with them as a producer and to help them break into the American market. YG says that he wasn’t expecting such a strong reaction from Will.i.am.
2NE1 and Will.i.am had three recording sessions, including in LA and London, and in three week’s worth of work they managed to record ten tracks. All ten songs were recorded in English and YG said it was easier than expected, partly due to three of 2NE1′s members being fluent English speakers.
2NE1′s plans for future US activities
The specific schedule for 2NE1′s expansion to the US has not been determined. Because of the Black Eyed Peas currently having a world tour and Will.i.am being busy preparing the Black Eyed Peas’ next album, it will be hard for 2NE1 to debut in the US within a year.
Plans and decisions will be made after discussing with Will.i.am, since he plays a key role in 2NE1′s American debut, but YG has stated that he prefers to avoid having 2NE1 stay in the United States for long periods of time to promote.
Because they don’t want to neglect Korean promotional activities and because 2NE1 also have plans to debut in Japan early next year, YG Entertainment will have to come up with a way for them to be active in three countries at once.
Teddy was involved in the work with Will.i.am on their American debut. He is planning to leave for the US and cooperate with other famous producers, and YG expects this to have a positive impact on YG’s music.
2NE1′s recording process with Will.i.am will be shown on season two of 2NE1 TV, which will be aired on MNet starting in September.
YG-Life.com opening
Although YG had said he would stop writing “from YG” messages in order to stop the fans from misunderstanding them, he now says that he’s actually the one responsible for failing to communicate well with his fans. Through the new site, YG-life.com, he’ll try to open a dialogue with fans and communicate more information to them.
Sometimes fans joke “let’s steal Yang-sajang’s hard drive” in reference to all of the unreleased material that’s on there. YG gives a few examples of things he sees daily in the studio – the recording process of YG artists, GD wearing nice clothes and shoes, Bom secretly eating rice cakes, Dara sleeping at dawn… He’s a unique position to document life inside YG Entertainment and plans to share what he sees on the new website.
In addition, some YG artists will also participate – they’ll have their own personal blogs and upload their own material.
YG wants to make YG-Life compatible with YouTube, Twitter, and “applications” [by which he probably means applications for mobile devices like iPhones and so on -Ed.].
He’s planning to post “from YG” messages to YG-Life in the future, and implied that the website will be launched on September 1st.
