Chinese multi-hyphenate and founder of Team Wang,
Jackson Wang made his international debut as a member of the chart-topping K-pop group
Got7 before branching off both as a solo artist and member of
Panthepack. He hit the U.S. Top 40 with his 2019 debut album,
Mirrors, and released singles such as 2020's "100 Ways" and 2021's "Alone" and "LMLY." In 2022,
Wang issued the mixtape
Lost & Found.
Born and bred in Hong Kong,
Wang built a career in South Korea, joining the K-pop boy band
Got7 and launching his own solo musical trajectory. A childhood athlete, he decided to pursue music in his teens when he auditioned for JYP Entertainment in 2010. Successful, he moved to Seoul to begin training, which eventually led to a spot in the hip-hop-influenced
Got7. The group made their debut in early 2014 with the EP Got It?, which topped the Billboard World Albums chart.
As
Got7 continued their chart dominance,
Wang nurtured his own solo pursuits. Following early singles "Some Strange Work" and the booming, electronic Pepsi-advertising "Generation 2," he issued the English-language "Papillon" in the summer of 2017. He took a brief step outside the hip-hop world with the sweeping theme for Novoland: The Castle in the Sky, returning with the Boytoy-produced "Okay" at year's end. In 2018, another Boytoy production, "Dawn of Us," was released. He followed with the Fendi China collaboration "Fendiman," which topped the U.S. pop streaming chart in May 2018. A slew of singles arrived the following year, including a handful of collaborations with the
88Rising crew on their
Head in the Clouds II collection; a popular remix of "Papillon" that charted in China; and "Bullet to the Heart," which landed on his late-2019 debut LP,
Mirrors. In addition to a Chinese version of his
Stephanie Poetri duet "I Love You 3000 II," the effort also featured guests
GoldLink ("Bad Back") and
Rich Brian ("Titanic"). Upon release, the set charted in Australia, France, and the U.K., rising into the Top 40 on the U.S. album charts.
2020 saw
Wang issue the cosmopolitan single "100 Ways" and launch his very own fashion brand, Team Wang Design. More non-album singles arrived that year, including "Pretty Please" with
Galantis and "Should've Let Go" with Singaporean pop star
JJ Lin. In 2021, he released "Alone," the English-language "LMLY," and the
Internet Money collaboration "Drive You Home."
Wang also joined Ice,
J. Sheon, and Karencici to form the group
Panthepack, releasing their debut,
The Pack, that August. In 2022, in addition to the eponymous single "Jackson Wang" ("Wang Jia Er") and "Blow,"
Wang released the mixtape
Lost & Found. That April, he joined members of the
88Rising roster on-stage at Coachella. ~ Neil Z. Yeung & Matt Collar