Artist of the week - Lexy

PROFILE:

Date of Birth: May 3, 1979
Real name: Hwang Hyo-sook
Education: University of Maryland (not yet graduated)
Record Company: YG Entertainment
Debuted: 2003 through “Music Camp” at MBC for the song "New Kid"
Awards: 2003 SBS Gayo Awards New Artist Award, 2003 MBC Gayo Awards New Artist Award
Homepage: http://www.lexy.co.kr/

BIOGRAPHY:

Our featured artiste this week is Lexy. She is known as "The First Lady of YG Entertainment". Lexy started out as a pure rapper, and she was in training for 5 years at YG. Before her solo debut, she was featured in YG Family's 1st and 2nd albums and performed on stage with other well known YG artistes. At that time, YG artistes were male-dominated and she was the first major female project of the record company, thus becoming YG's First Lady. With her good looks and excellent rapping skills, she caught attention of many fans. Her solo debut was highly antipicated.

At the end of 2003, Lexy finally debuted with her first solo album "Lexury". To many fans' surprise, Lexy debuted as a singer rather than a rapper. YG's strategy was to introduce Lexy to the mainstream audience, and it's more appealing if she's a singer. Lexy did not disappoint fans. With the help of well known rapper and songwriter Psy, her first hit "New Kid" topped the music chart at the end of 2003. Her follow-up song "Let Me Dance" was also a top 10 hit. Lexy also won new artistes awards at several year-end ceremonies that year.

In the summer of 2005, Lexy released her 2nd album "Lextacy". Many fans believed that she would rise to become one of the top female artistes in Korea with this release. However, her comeback was derailed by an unfortunate incident – on her comeback show at MBC's "Music Camp", members of an underground group Rux exposed their genitals on stage and the show was immediately cancelled. Lexy was visibly upset and depressed about the incident, and she cut short her stage performances on this album. Even so, the title song "Wipe My Tears and Put on Makeup" still went to No. 2 on the chart without much publicity.

After 2 years of regrouping, Lexy is coming back with her 3rd album "Rush" in 2007. This time she finally goes back to her hip-hop roots, which means more rapping and less singing. The title song "Up To The Sky" reached No. 1 on our chart, and the album sales are also decent. Lexy has finally re-captured her glory from the 1st album and more.

Even though YG Entertainment has debuted many female artistes and groups now, few have enjoyed the success that Lexy is having. An interesting fact is that most YG artistes are doing better on album sales than songs on the chart, but Lexy is the opposite. While her album sales are respectable, her title songs have always been in the top 3 in music charts. It shows that Lexy's fanbase is very diverse. She has now established herself and is going back to her style of music. For sure, she will further expand her fanbase.

DISCOGRAPHY:

Lexury (1st album, 2003) : New Kid; Up And Down; Let Me Dance; Fool; Girls

Lextacy (2nd album, 2005) : Wiping My Tears and Fixing My Makeup; That Much, That Much; Animal; Get Out; Hey Everybody; Party

Rush (3rd album, 2007) : Up To The Sky; Rush