GD X Taeyang

Kwon Ji-yong and Dong Young-bae first met as trainees at YG Entertainment. After signing a contract with the record label, they spent the first year cleaning the studio and fetching water bottles during dance practices for YG artists.[4] Dong later admitted that current artists at the time weren't friendly towards him or Kwon.[5] The original plan for the two was to debut as the hip-hop duo GDYB, with Kwon choosing the stage name G-Dragon ("Ji" is pronounced like "G" and Yong is Korean for "dragon").[6] Though they made several appearances both as a duo and as individuals on other artists' music,[7][8] the plan for their debut was scrapped and they were joined by four other trainees (T.O.P, Daesung, Seungri and Jang Hyun-seung) to form Big Bang instead. The formation of the group was documented on television,[9] but prior to their official debut, Jang was dropped.[6] Dong later adopted the stage name Taeyang.[10] Member Seungri later admitted that G-Dragon was initially cold towards Daesung and himself because G-Dragon had wanted to be in the hip hop duo and disliked being placed in a band.[11] Taeyang himself was also initially hesitant about being placed in a band but eventually warmed up to the other members.[5]

Despite activities with their band, the duo continued to collaborate with one another outside of Big Bang's materials, with G-Dragon participating as a writer and producer for Taeyang's first extended play Hot (2008),[nb 1] after which G-Dragon subsequently recorded a "Part Two" to the EP's lead single "Only Look at Me" (Korean: 나만바라봐; Revised Romanization: Naman Barabwa). Later, G-Dragon had a rap verse on Taeyang's single "I Need a Girl". Taeyang returned the favor by appearing in the song "Korean Dream" for G-Dragon's first album Heartbreaker (2009). G-Dragon later wrote and produced several songs for Taeyang's first and second albums Solar (2010) and Rise (2014).[10]

An official collaboration between the two as the subunit GD x Taeyang emerged in 2014 with the song "Good Boy," which reached number one on Billboard's World Digital Songs, making it the third time a Korean act had topped the chart after PSY and 2NE1.[2] The single accrued 1.2 million downloads in South Korea,[3] and its music video accumulated over 100 million views on the video-sharing website YouTube.[12] In 2015, the duo participated in the Infinite Challenge music festival, teaming up with ZE:A's Hwang Kwanghee for the single "Mapsosa", which peaked at number two on the Gaon Digital Chart[13] and sold 1.3 million copies by the end of the year, making it one of the best-selling songs of 2015.[14]