Epik High

About

Name origin

Officially explained as 'epic height' — the ambition to make music as grand as an epic poem — with 'Epik' a stylized spelling of 'epic'. The group's greeting '(1,2,3) Always High! Epik High!' plays on the name, and Korean-language sources note the double entendre of being perpetually 'high' on music.

Formation

Epik High formed in 2002 after Tablo returned to South Korea from Stanford University. He had met rapper Mithra Jin through producer J-Win in the underground Movement crew scene; turntablist DJ Tukutz joined in March 2002 to complete the two-MC-one-DJ trio modeled on Dilated Peoples. Their first show was at Everland amusement park in 2002. After being defrauded by a crew associate and working part-time jobs to fund their record, they signed with the newly founded Woollim Entertainment and debuted with the album 'Map of the Human Soul' on October 23, 2003. 'Swan Songs' (2005) broke them into the mainstream with the chart-topper 'Fly'; the 2-CD 'Remapping the Human Soul' (2007) sold over 120,000 copies and won Album of the Year at the MKMF. After military service hiatuses and founding their own Map the Soul label (2009), the trio signed with YG Entertainment in 2012 ('99', 'Shoebox', 'We've Done Something Wonderful'), left YG in October 2018, and set up their own in-house agency OURS Co., signing with William Morris Endeavor for overseas promotions. They became the first Korean act to play Coachella (2016; re-invited 2022).

Why fans love them

Epik High are widely regarded as the godfathers of Korean hip-hop: one of the first acts to bring literate, socially conscious lyricism — tackling sex crimes, war, religion, education and online hate — into the mainstream, at the cost of repeated censorship of their albums. Their 'no genre, just music' philosophy let them absorb alternative, electronic and ballad influences ('Fan', 'Love Love Love', 'Umbrella', 'Born Hater', 'Happen Ending', 'Love Story'), bridging the underground and the charts for over two decades with the same three members. Tablo's candid public battle against the 2010 TaJinYo Stanford-degree smear campaign made the trio symbols of artistic integrity, and their self-produced longevity — 10 studio albums, EPs 'Sleepless in __________' and 'Strawberry', the 2024 mixtape 'Pump', and the 2026 '3.0' North American tour — keeps their High Skool fandom multi-generational.

Members

• 
  Tablo · Leader, Main Rapper, ProducerLee Seon-woongBorn 07-22-1980Seoul, South Korea
• 
  Mithra Jin · Lead Rapper, Lyricist, MCChoi JinBorn 01-06-1983Goheung County, South Jeolla Province, South Korea179 cm (5'10")
• 
  DJ Tukutz · DJ, Producer, TurntablistKim Jeong-sikBorn 11-19-1981Seoul, South Korea

Member photos: Tablo, Mithra Jin, DJ Tukutz — Wikimedia Commons contributors (CC BY 3.0 / CC BY 4.0)