Taeyong has shown his qualities as a songwriter and rapper since 2016 by writing his own raps on some NCT songs. However, even before the creation of his Soundcloud account in 2021, Taeyong has also been producing songs to express his feelings and experiment with different music styles. Therefore, Taeyong has a long list of self-produced unreleased songs that he has teased over the years through VLIVE and Bubble.
Fans always wondered how long they would have to wait until they would be able to finally appreciate the complete versions of these songs. That’s why the release of ‘Dark Clouds’ and the remix on Soundcloud marks the beginning of a new era for Taeyong and his fans. The song is a demo version produced and composed by Taeyong along with ROYAL DIVE, and its release was a success. ‘Dark Clouds’ reached 1 million streams within 24 hours, debuted at #1 on “Hot on K-R&B” on Genius Korea chart and #1 on “Top 50: Hip-hop & Rap” and “New & Hot: All music genres” on Soundcloud. Many fans interpret this song as a sequel to ‘Long Flight’, his first official single released under SM Entertainment.
Considering that SoundCloud is not a platform that the general public usually utilizes, Taeyong is having incredible results with the release of his independent productions. All songs have over 1 million streams and his account is not even a year old yet, which has been making fans very excited for future official releases.
Taeyong knows how to build the hype for his releases by engaging the fans with his teasers. That is why reading the sentence “Check out my Instagram at midnight (KST)” has become a reason for euphoria for TyongFs in 2021. Many artists would simply drop the song and call it a day, but Taeyong makes sure to set the mood and prepare the fans for what’s coming up next, and his commitment to his productions is admirable. The song “GTA 1”, released on Soundcloud on April 5, was already known by the public because of his remarkable performances on “SuperM – We Are The Future ” World Tour in 2019. Thanks to the combination of his creative teasers on Instagram featuring his big pink plush bunny Tokki Knight, and a few emojis on the caption, the fans were able to guess that the Grand Trouble Artist was back.
The creation of his Soundcloud account has also been an opportunity for fans to know more about the work of composers and producers like ROYAL DIVE, Zayson and SQUAR who are friends with Taeyong and have worked with him on his releases so far. Regarding the production of thumbnails for his song, Taeyong has worked together with KIM J.E in the artwork. Therefore, the fans are thankful to know that Taeyong is surrounded by incredible and talented producers who are as passionate about music and art as he is.
Taeyong’s artistic partnerships also involve incredible artists who are featured in some of his songs. EXO and SuperM’s main vocalist Baekhyun had mentioned in interviews how much he would like to collaborate with Taeyong. Then, for the fans’ surprise both sang ‘Monroe’ together, which was released days before Baekhyun’s enlistment. As of the moment, Taeyong’s latest collaboration was with Seulgi, lead vocalist and main dancer of Red Velvet. Both have performed together before, but this time, besides singing, she had the opportunity to debut as a composer and songwriter by working with Taeyong and SQUAR in the song ‘Rose’. Therefore, Taeyong’s SoundClound has been a creative place for other artists to experiment and try things they usually wouldn’t as well.
As this is his creative space, Taeyong has been able to constantly outdo himself and surprise fans with every release because he has been exploring his creativity, musicality and vocal techniques freely. By sharing freestyle dances, paintings and the songs he prepared with so much love and dedication, Taeyong is also trying to make his fans happier, which is a goal he is definitely achieving! At this point, all fans are well aware of Taeyong’s versatility, range and huge potential to be a solo artist, thus the fan’s engagement with their favorite songs can guide the directions he might take with his debut solo album in the future. Smartly, Taeyong released all songs as Demo versions, which means any of these can have their official release one day, hopefully with the MV and promotions it deserves.
On VLIVE, the performer, model, songwriter, producer, composer, choreographer and photographer Taeyong said that there’s a lot he prepared and he’s very excited to show everyone in the future, and we are definitely looking forward to it.