Monsta X’s I.M confirmed that he will debut as a solo and release first solo EP “Duality” on Feb. 19.

The youngest member of the band has been honing his music skills making raps for all the songs of Monsta X since debut in 2016. He also made songs such as “Mohae,” “Champagne,” “UR,” “Zone” and “Night View.” “Night View,” from the band’s third studio album “Fatal Love,” landed at No. 13 at Billboard’s World Digital Song Sales chart last month. 

On the side, he has been putting out a string of mixtapes and singles on his own that demonstrated his unique sensibilities and groovy style. Besides the strong signature of the band, he wants to convey his own color in solo projects, the rapper once said. 

The 25-year-old was featured in “Need To Know” for Elhae, an American R&B singer/songwriter, collaborating for the second time after “Horizon,” title track from I.M’s same-titled personal mixtape. He has expressed his wishes that he wants to work with Elhae someday and Monbebe, the band’s official fandom, delivered the message to the musician themselves via SNS.

Ateez signals pending return 

Ateez unveiled a timeline detailing its promotion activities for its new EP at midnight hailing its return after about six months.

Against a backdrop of flames, the image posted on its official SNS account listed a series of what is coming next leading up to the D-day, March 1, of coming out with “Zero: Fever Part 2.”

The boy band will first share a concept photo taken as a whole on Tuesday midnight, followed by individual shots, tracklist of the album and a preview of the performances. 

“Zero: Fever Part 2” is a sequel to its previous EP “Zero: Fever Part 1” that sold over 250,000 units in pre-order in July last year.

The band became the final winner of last week’s “Immortal Songs: Singing the Legend,” a television show in which younger musicians reinterpret the hits from established artists. The eight-piece act won the episode for Rain with “It’s Raining.” 

Mingi has been taking some time off since November last year due to anxiety issues.

BTS’s Jungkook sets another record on SNS

 
Jungkook of BTS earned another title, as the first artist ever to have two tweets with 3 million likes. 

His selfie showing his newly blonde hair, posted Jan. 25, got 3 million likes this weekend. The selfie tweet received 1 million likes in less than an hour and was the most retweeted in 2021. It has second-most replies in Twitter’s history as well.

His “Never Not” cover video, tweeted in May last year, was the band’s first to pass the milestone in August. The clip, about one and a 1/2 minutes long, in which the artist singing the Lauv song sitting cross-legged on his bed amassed over 1 million viewings within 10 minutes. It was the second-most retweeted post on Twitter in 2020. 

In addition, former US President Barack Obama and current US President Joe Biden are the only two other figures who have more than one tweet with over 3 million likes. 

The youngest member of the septet also ranked top on TikTok as “#jungkook” raked in 33 billion views as of Sunday, becoming the most searched for individual in the world.

By Hwang You-mee (glamazon@heraldcorp.com)