If the name alone has invited some raised eyebrows and curiosity regarding their works, time to find out all the details about this unique duo in the article below!
Group Profile
Group name: Eluphant Genre: Korean hip-hop Years active: 2006–present Labels: Soul Company, Brand New Music Members: Kebee, Minos Discography: Studio albums: Eluphant Bakery (2006), Man On The Earth (2011), Man On The Moon (2015) | Extended Plays: Apollo (2012), The Art of Travel (2017) | Single album: You Are Still Beautiful (2011) Website: Official website
Full Profile of Kebee
Birth name: Bae Lee-sak (배이삭) Birthplace: South Korea Birthday: May 29th, 1983 Occupation: Rapper Years active: 2004–present Labels: Soul Company, Brand New Music Associated acts: Eluphant, Loptimist SNS: Instagram, Twitter
Fun Facts about Kebee
He was the former CEO of Soul Company, a hip-hop label that debuted Eluphant He withdrew from Soul Company in 2011, and now the company is no longer operating After that, he signed with Brand New Music There are rumors that his stage name is derived from a character drawn on tissue paper At first, his stage name had no meaning, but later it was said that his stage name means ‘to keep the shortest distance’ and later changed to ‘raining on a small tree’ He started his music creation activities in 2000 and debuted in the Haja OST Hip-hop Project Album with the song “Beginning of Beginning” In 2003, he participated in the album People & Places vol.1 made by Shinuiji with three songs: “Comfort Boys,” “Second Diary,” and “Foot Love pt.2” He collaborated with Verbal Jint for a song titled “Comfort Boys” He had unrivaled rapping skills, especially in flow and rhymes His hip-hop lyrics are mostly talking about the inside of hip-hop He said he is good at freestyle He appeared in Mnet’s Show Me the Money 6 He has often been named as a lyricist for K-POP idols’ music He participated in the lyrics of TWICE’s “You Must Be Crazy” and IZONE’s “Sunflower” According to VLIVE Eluphant Radio, his original hometown was not Seoul, but Jeonju, Jeollabuk-do He sets his Twitter account private
Full Profile of Minos
Birth name: Choi Min-ho (최민호) Birthplace: South Korea Birthday: February 17th, 1983 (age 37) Occupation: rapper Years active: 1999–present Labels: Soul Company, Brand New Music Associated acts: Virus, Eluphant, Minos in Nuol, Noise Mob SNS: Instagram, Twitter
Fun Facts about Minos
He is a Korean hip-hop MC from Daegu He debuted in 1999 as a member of the Daegu-based hip-hop duo Virus with rapper Mecca through the debut EP Pardon Me? in 2003 and later disbanded in 2006 due to their military enlistment He began to form the stage name Minos when Eluphant was formed after his military discharge in 2006 He succeeded in creating the new term ’emotional hip-hop’ by showing off fancy-style album designs and soft songs He has been recognized as a rapper who is similar to Kebee and is an emotional hip-hop rapper In 2009, he released the project album The Lost Files with Artisan Beatz, and in 2010, he released the project album Humanoid/Hypnotica with New Orleans His style is described as a hardcore MC, which was a style that spits out rap with a rough vocal tone His name Minos came from changing his name (Minho → Mino → MINO → MINOS) He is quite a smoker, he has a few songs about smoking He has many nicknames, such as The Storyteller, Elephant Factory Manager, Ugly Talker, Crazy Elephant, Psycho Dumbo, Drunken Figaro, and many more When he was in the military, the senior sergeant found out that Minos was a Virus member, so whenever the sergeant called him, he had to rap He is the rapping teacher for Bae Su-min, a member of the girl group STAYC
Eluphant’s Pre-debut
Prior to joining Eluphant, both Kebee and Minos had debuted a few years earlier with Kebee starting his music creation activities in 2000 and debuting in the Haja Ost Hip-hop Project Album, and Minos joining the duo called Virus back in 1999 with another rapper named Mecca. Kebee and Minos have known each other since before the creation of the Soul Company and had collaborated on a song. After the Soul Company was founded by Kebee, Minos, who was just discharged from his military service was contemplating what path to take to resume his music activities. Kebee then gave him a project, and thus a two-member group called Eluphant was born. The name Eluphant combines the Japanese dolphin (Eluka) and the elephant (Elephant). Dolphins are Kebee’s favorite animals, and elephants come from Minos being impressed by Haruki Murakami’s novel Happy End of Elephant Factory. In fact, Eluphant even has a song titled “Happy End of Elephant Factory: Graduation Ceremony.” Eluphant was announced on the last day of 2005 and drew the attention of many fans. Since Eluphant was a project team, they didn’t always release albums as a duo, but they continued to work together with songs such as “Stupid Doctor” (from Minos’s 1st album) and “Make Music” (from Kebee’s 2nd album). But in 2006, Soul Company decided to regroup the duo as a formal group.
Eluphant’s Official Debut and Albums Through the Years
Eluphant released their first album Eluphant Bakery on March 31st, 2006, with the title track “The Happy End of the Elephant Factory: Graduation.” The songs and albums offer a unique take on hip-hop since they have this emotional hip-hop feel that is difficult to see in existing hip-hop albums. Their work was very well received.
At first, the group started out as a project team and then took root as a formal team, and then they steadily released songs that raised emotional feelings through delicate storytelling. They then made their first comeback through a single-album, You Are Still Beautiful, in 2011 as the pre-release single of their 2nd album. This single contains four of the songs from the 2nd album, 1500 on CD. It was also sold on a limited number basis.
On June 9th, 2011, they finally released their second album, Man On The Earth. The album still has a good reputation for portraying their story as an adult who lives young like a boy. After the disbandment of Soul Company, there was a concern that the team would be disbanded, but then Kebee made a new label called the Standard Music Group, and both Kebee and Minos continued to work in the Standard Music Group. In 2012, when Kebee enlisted in the military, he released Apollo, a mini-album that consisted of unreleased songs. According to the album introduction, the reason the title is Apollo is that it is an album that connected Eluphant’s 2nd album Man On The Earth, and their third and upcoming album, Man On The Moon. After Kebee completed his military service in 2013, he released his solo album (4th album), and soon after, Standard Music Group stopped operating.
Finally, in 2015, both Kebee and Minos started anew and signed contracts under Brand New Music. They released their full-length album Man On The Moon on July 8th, 2015, which drew good reviews from listeners.
2020 Release ft. Other Brand New Music Artists
In 2020, Eluphant released a brand new MV titled “1 Year” with a few Brand New Music artists such as Hanhae, Kanto, Yenjamin, Rudals, and GREE. The song is about the reflection of what happens in the past year and the future plans for the upcoming year. The song is written by Nomad and Kebee. Check out their masterpiece song below!
So, those are all the things you need to know regarding the emotional hip-hop group Eluphant! What do you think about this group? Listen to their songs and share your thoughts with us in the comment section below!
