Jeanie

From Clumsy Media

Current revision as of 15:23, 18 July 2020

Im Soo Ah (born May 15, 1995), known by her stage name Jeanie (Hangul: 지니), is a South Korean rapper, singer-songwriter and producer. Born and raised in Gangnam, Seoul by a prestigous social family, she would rap for fun since an early age, being heavily influenced by veteran Yoon Mi Rae who would later become her mentor, and American rapper Lil' Kim. When her company was scouting for acting talents and came across Hoon Tae Nam, who is Jeanie's middle school teacher, he sugguested them to give her a chance to audition. The officials made her perform a freestyle right on the spot. Impressed with her, they took her in and she began her music career, whiched started off with two years of formal training.

Her debut was announced on the Valentine's Day of 2013 with various teasers released the very next day. Prior to the release of her debut mini album "Girlfriend", Jeanie released three tracks off the album as digital singles, which began with "Sleepless Night", becoming her official debut work. In just two hours of release the single peaked in second place across all major charts, the highest chart position for a debut artist that year at one point. Her second single "Kill (Love You Baby)" was an even bigger success, topping all charts in four hours of release, ultimately an 'all kill', making her the first debut artist in 2013 to do so.

Background Information

Birth Name: Im Soo Ah / 임수아 / 任洙雅
DOB: May 15, 1995
Nationality: Korean
Graudate: Konkuk University (2013-2015)
Management: Clumsy Media (2010-current) || Mnet Media (2013-2017) ||

Early Life

Real name Im Soo Ah (Hangul: 임수아), better known by her stage name Jeanie, is a Korean rapper, singer, song-writer and producer. She's born to Im Hwa Woo, a well-known real estate agent and Lim Yoon Ah, a primary school teacher.

Born and raised in the rich district of Gangnam, Seoul, South Koea, Jeanie was brought up in what the Korean society believes as a 'prestigous social family', as she attended the local reowned schools nearby that's exclusive to family backgrounds. Starting from an young age, Jeanie would rap for fun, being heavily influenced by veteran Yoon Mi Rae who would later become her mentor, and American rapper Lil' Kim. Unlike most people her age at the time, she did not find a liking in Korea's pop music or follow idol groups, and instead found 'classicism black music' and American hip-hop much more interesting.

To improve her abilities she joined many competitions and has won several award for her efforts. When she was tweleve she competed in the Gangnam Annual Bright Star Music Festival and ultimately won second place. One of its judges suggested for her to pursue a career in music and recommended her into Sunhwa Arts School, a private coeducational college preparatory arts academy. It is considered to be among the most prominent visual arts, music and dance middle schools and high schools in South Korea. The school is known for its high academic standards and requires high entrance examination scores and interviews for acceptance.

She continued her high school education at the Kyunggi High School when she signed as a trainee at Clumsy Media and believe an arts academy will no longer benefit her musically. She has since graudated with prefect and student representative honours.

Career

2010-2012: Accidental scouting and training

The company was scouting for acting talents in a series of private auditions held around middle and high schools around Seoul back in 2010 and came across Hoon Tae Nam, who is Jeanie's middle school teacher. Officials tried to scout him to become an actor but he refused at first as he wanted to finish his student teaching degree first, instead, he sugguested them to give one his students, Jeanie a chance to audition. The officials made her perform a freestyle right on the spot. Impressed with her, they took her in on the day and offered her with an exclusive contract and and with this she began her music career, whiched started off with two years of formal training.

During the training period instead of focusing heavily on rapping she was encouraged to concentrate on singing and composing music as well as writing lyrics instead. Officials believed her rapping would improve itself overtime and she was already better than average in such an area, on the other hand they thought it would benefit her in the long run if she focused on the areas she's as aweaker at. She was noted to have trained together with solo artist and producer Ophelia.

Prior to debut she was featured on the track "Manslaughter Me" in the album "Mocking Bird" by Korean rapper Mr. Kid.

It has also been revealed that she was a trainee at Pledis Entertainment from December 2011 till March 2012 as a exchange trainee along with another trainee at the time, Ren. She was scheduled to join idol group After School at the time as a fifth generation member but decided to withdraw as she felt the musical style would not satisfy her and her rapping would not have a chance to be performed at full potential due to the large amount of members within the group. She decided to return to her previous company instead and pursue a solo career, objecting to be promoted as an idol figure, whereas Ren decided to stay in order to make a debut with idol group NU'EST. Another trainee named Lee Kaeun from Pledis Entertainment later replaced her and became the official member in May 2012 instead.

2013-2015: Debut, Girlfriend and Panacea

Her debut was announced on Valentine's Day, Febuary 14, with various photo teasers released the very next day. In reaction to the news the public reacted positively. Her name became the most searched topic across all major search engines, becoming the third most searched name of the week and the first new artist of 2013 to do so.

Prior to the release of her debut mini album "Girlfriend", Jeanie released three tracks off the album as digital singles, which began with "Sleepless Night", becoming her official debut work. In just two hours of release the single peaked in first place across all major charts, ultimately an 'all kill', making her the first debut artist in 2013 to do so. Her second single "Kill (Love You Baby)" was an even bigger success, topping all charts in four hours of release, ultimately an 'all kill', making her the first debut artist in 2013 to do so. She then followed on to release the third single, "Haru Day", a track aimed to show off her vocal abilities which received great critical acclaim from the professionals and made it into the top ten listing across all music charts.

"Girlfriend" was ultimately released March 7, 2013 and peaked at #2, right behind female soloist Lee Hi's first album "First Love".

After the release she stated in an interview with ELLE Korea that production on her 'next work' has already begun, "We're already recording new materials" and "I'm trying really hard to come out with a time schedule that will allow [label-mate; singer-songwriter] Ophelia and I to collaborate" but did not give out an general estimate of when the release will be. She later attended label-mate musical actress Park Seul's first fan event where she performed various songs as well as quoted saying that there'll be a song that's based on the actress, showcasing their close friendship.

On June 5 in an editorial Star Column with ELLE Korea she talked about working on the new album once again, "It's nowhere close to finishing. (laughs) I'm bit of a perfectionist" and concluded with she does not know when it will be released but is 'aiming for the later months of 2013'.

2016-current: Consolidation as singer-songwriter

Jeanie began recording songs for her third overall album, "PINK Walls" in December 2015. On 3 January 2016 Jeanie revealed the album release will be delayed indefinitely due to her projects for other artists as a producer. She went on to produce tracks for artists including SEVENTEEN, Zico, WINNER and acted as the executive producer for five album releases during this period, including Jonghyun, WINNER and TVXQ!.

In February 2019, Jeanie confirmed the album will be released the following month, officially ending her five year hiatus as a recording artist.

Discography

Singles

• 2013: "Sleepless Night"
• 2013: "Kill (Love You Baby)"
• 2013: "Haru Day"
• 2014: "Mi Amor"
• 2014: "Cyntoia"
• 2016: "Yellow is the Warmest Colour"
• 2019: "Bittersweet Hallucinations"

Albums

• 2013: "Girlfriend"
• 2014: "Panacea"
• 2019: "PINK Walls"
• 2019: "Girlfriend Volume II"

Featured Work

• 2012: "Manslaughter Me" (of 'Mocking Bird by Mr. Kid)
• 2013: "Gangnam Glory" (of 'A Series: Birth of a Kid' by Mr. Kid)
• 2013: "Comfort Touch" (of 'The Third Album' by Outsider)
• 2014: "Twisted Madame" (of 'Mr. Snoutfair' by Mr. Kid)
• 2014: "United Monsters" (of 'Mr. Snoutfair' by Mr. Kid)
• 2014: "Chocolate Wrapper" (of 'Seoul Search Project I' by Gentleladies)
• 2014: "Darkest Night Out" (of 'Seoul Search Project I' by Gentleladies)

Produced Work

Music

Singles

• 2013: "Coffee Shop" (by B.A.P)
• 2013: "Lonely" (by Hyolyn)
• 2015: "Pride and Prejudice" (by Zico featuring Suran)
• 2016: "Very Nice" (by SEVENTEEN)
• 2016: "I Am You, You Are Me" (by Zico)

Track(s) of an album

• 2013: "Amor Mio" (of 'Monochrome' by Lee Hyori)
• 2013: "Gentleman" (of 'Round 3' by Kim Hyun Joong)
• 2013: "Closer" (of 'Love & Hate' by Hyolyn)
• 2013: "Tonight" (of 'Love & Hate' by Hyolyn)
• 2015: "Auditory Hallucinations" (of 'Kill Me Heal Me OST' by Jange Jae In)
• 2017: "Stay with Me" (of 'Goblin OST' by Chanyeol and PUNCH)
• 2018: "EVERYDAY" (of 'EVERYD4Y' by WINNER)
• 2018: "Luxury" (of 'EVERYD4Y' by WINNER)
• 2018: "Something New" (of 'Something New' by Tae Yeon)
• 2018: "Into You" (of 'The First Scene' by YURI)
• 2019: "When the Wind Blows" (of 'A Walk to Remember' by Yoona)
• 2019: "Promise" (of 'A Walk to Remember' by Yoona)
• 2019: "Page" (of 'Spinning Top' by GOT7)

Albums

• 2012: "Mocking Bird" by Mr. Kid)
• 2014: "TENSE" (by TVXQ!)
• 2016: "She Is" (by Jonghyun)
• 2017: "FATE NUMBER FOR" (by WINNER)
• 2017: "The Collection: Story Op.2" (by Jonghyun)
• 2018: "Poet l Artist" (by Jonghyun)
• 2018: "New Chapter No. 1: The Chance of Love" (by TVXQ!)

Filmography

Dramas

• [Reply 1994] (cameo), (tvN), 2013
• [You Who Came From the Stars] (cameo), (SBS), 2014

Modelling

• ELLE Korea, (Hachette Filipacchi Media), 2013-current

Events & Performances

Live Performances

Fan Meetings

Awards

• 2014: 28th Golden Disk Awards - Hip-hop Award
• 2014: 28th Golden Disk Awards - New Rising Star (Digital)
• 2014: 20th Korean Entertainment Arts Awards - Rookie Artist Award

In the media

The general public has labelled her as one of the most surprising performers. In contrast to her sweet and innocent appearance she is also known for her speed-rapping and is reputed to be able to rap at 20 syllables per second, the second fastest female rapper in Korea behind Tymee (formely known as E.Via).

Personal life and family

Jeanie is known to be close friends with Ophelia and Ren of idol group NU'EST.

On 19 July 2019, Dispatch released an exclusive report which stated Jeanie is currently in a relationship with actor Kim Young-dae. The news was shortly confirmed by their managers.

Mentors

• Yoon Mi Rae, formely known as T or Narsha is one of Korea's most respected and recognised female rappers. Yoon played a role of mentor during her two years of training and Jeanie is known to have been heavily influenced by her flow, style as well as musical tastes.
• Mr. Kid, real name Hwangbo Gun is one of Korea's best-selling solo male rapper as well as a second generation member of the award wining project group Coffee Musicians. Both belonging to the same company; Jeanie convinced him with her abilities shown during her training period and was invited to be featured on a track of his first studio album, Mocking Bird. Since then Mr. Kid has played an active role of producing and teaching her in areas of rap and creating a signature style.