Exy South Korean Rapper With 661K Instagram Followers

Early life

Exy, whose legal name is Chu So-jung, was born on 6 November 1995 in the Geumjeong District of Busan, South Korea. She trained at the School of Performing Arts Seoul and later studied at Dongduk Women's University, graduating in August 2020 in the same period as her bandmate Soobin.

Career

Exy first appeared before a wide audience in 2015, when she took part in the rap competition programme Unpretty Rapstar 2. That year she worked with the rapper Crucial Star on a single released on 1 September, and on 10 November she released her first solo single, "Gettin' Em". She was also cast as Saerim in the television series The Flatterer.

On 24 December 2015 she was introduced as a member of WJSN, the girl group managed by Starship Entertainment together with Yuehua, and became its leader. The group debuted on 25 February 2016 with the EP Would You Like?, which carried the lead singles "Mo Mo Mo" and "Catch Me". In June 2016 she competed as a contestant on King of Masked Singer. In August of that year she joined six other WJSN members in Y-Teen, a project unit formed with the label mates Monsta X that promoted a mobile phone fare service for KT and issued EPs, music videos and other entertainment content.

From 2017 onward Exy built a record of solo and songwriting work alongside her group activities. In April 2017 she announced a collaboration with the rapper Euna Kim, and their single "Love Therapy" came out on 4 May with a music video. Her first songwriting credit came in February 2018 on "Thawing", a track from the WJSN EP Dream Your Dream. A second composition, "You & I", was revealed to fans at the group's first fan meeting in March 2018 and later appeared on the EP WJ Please?. During 2018 she was also featured on two songs by other artists, Sobae's "Homegirl" in March and Choi Nakta's "Love Professor" in December.

She continued to write for WJSN, co-composing and co-writing "Don't Touch" for the EP As You Wish in November 2019, "Tra-la" for the EP Neverland in June 2020, and "Yalla" for the EP Unnatural in March 2021. On 19 March 2020 she took part in the soundtrack of the drama Meow, the Secret Boy together with her WJSN colleague Dayoung. Beyond her own group, she wrote lyrics for the label mate Cravity, including the title track "My Turn" and the song "Bad Habits" from the EP Season 3. Hideout: Be Our Voice, released in January 2021. In March 2021 she co-wrote the lyrics for "Prism" by The Boyz, from that group's first Japanese studio album, Breaking Dawn, with credits on some platforms listed under the name XYZ (makeumine works).

On 26 April 2021 it was announced that she would be a member of WJSN's second sub-unit, WJSN THE BLACK, which debuted on 12 May. In September 2021 she was confirmed for the cast of the JTBC drama Idol: The Coup, which aired in the second half of that year and is her one listed screen credit in the database used for this site. On 1 August 2022 her participation in the competition programme The Second World was confirmed.

Her work is classed in the hip-hop and K-pop genres, and her releases have appeared through Starship Entertainment. Professionally she is described as a singer, rapper, songwriter and actress, and she is listed with two groups, WJSN and WJSN THE BLACK.

Public roles

Within WJSN, Exy has served as leader since the group's formation in 2016. She also belongs to the sub-unit WJSN THE BLACK, formed in 2021, and earlier took part in the temporary project unit Y-Teen in 2016.