T.O.P, former rapper of K-pop juggernaut BIGBANG, is officially staging his long-awaited comeback as a solo artist in the fourth quarter of 2025. The release will mark his first solo project in 12 years since his digital single Doom Dada dropped in 2013.
An industry insider told the Korea Herald on Tuesday that the album is slated for release “sometime after October,” adding, “The recording is already finished, and multiple music videos are now in the pipeline. The project is being overseen by the production designer of ‘Squid Game.’”
That designer is Chae Kyung Sun, best known as the art director of the Netflix global hit Squid Game. She has twice won the Art Directors Guild (ADG) Award in the U.S.—in 2022 and again in 2025—and also took home a Primetime Emmy Award for production design in 2022.
Hints of T.O.P’s comeback have surfaced before. In November last year, he responded to a fan’s question on Instagram about solo activities with a simple “2025.” Then in June, during an overseas interview promoting Squid Game 2, he publicly confirmed plans to return this year.
Since parting ways with YG Entertainment in 2021 and formally leaving BIGBANG, T.O.P has been operating without agency representation. Industry chatter previously linked him to a potential exclusive contract with Kakao Entertainment, though the company denied those reports.
T.O.P’s career hit turbulence in 2016 with a marijuana conviction and suspended sentence, followed by a temporary retirement before resurfacing in Squid Game 2 last year, sparking debate over his return.
Reflecting earlier this year in an interview, he said, “In my 20s, I received an overwhelming amount of glorious love, but I made a huge mistake. That downfall was something I had never experienced before, and I crumbled in that state of psychological collapse.”
He added, “Whenever I’m in the studio, I feel alive, so I’ve kept working. I’ve made so much music, and I felt one day I had to bring it into the world.”
>> T.O.P Drops the Mic on His Solo Comeback
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