For someone with such strong ideals about society and its flaws and imperfections, Bang Yongguk has lived a fairly sheltered life. With his parents working for the government in Seoul and too busy to mind their children, he and his siblings spent the early years of their lives in the quiet, idyllic island of Ijak in the West Sea, with their grandparents doting and spoiling them like no other. Being the younger of identical twins, he was always second to his brother - not that he really minded. Yongnam was always the smartest, the brightest, the more talented one, placing first in school competitions while he'd come in second place, and it didn't help either that Yongguk couldn't speak until he was five. Still, he loved his brother, who stood up for him against playground bullies when he could barely speak a work and who he spent most of his time playing with, and he was content with his life. The realization that just because all was well with his life didn't mean that all was well with world came early on to him, however, as well as the desire to make a difference; these he credits to time spent with his grandfather watching news programs about social issues around the world, and witnessing his grandmother never fail to lend money to those who came her in need, never asking to be repaid. His grandparents were and remain to be angels in his eyes, and their example is something he has strived to live up to since then.
He moved back to Seoul with his siblings to live with their parents when he reached middle school, and it was around this time when he started to fall in love with music, thanks to his sister's influence. Hip-hop was a genre that sparked his interest enough to want to start rapping and composing his own music the more his interest grew, using it to express his dissatisfaction with society and intolerance to the world's injustices. People began noticing his work and praising him for it when he'd published them on an online forum, and eventually he began meeting up with artists who were promoting underground who'd gotten wind of his compositions. He studied and learned more about composing through them, and under the alias Jepp Blackman, began producing his own music, earning a name for himself in the underground scene as well as becoming part of a hip-hop group called Soul Connection.
To please his parents, who weren't exactly the happiest about one of his new-found passions, instead of neglecting his studies, he strived harder, putting in more hours for study and eventually ranking first in his entire school. Even after that, he maintained his status in the school's rankings, all while continuing to produce music, perform in Hongdae, and being active in the underground music scene.
Even then, Yongguk never lost sight of his desire to make a difference in society, and after graduating high school, he decided that the best way to achieve that was to attend college to study Political Science and International Relations, earning an early acceptance to Yonsei University, before going on to Law School. However, he never gave up music, and though he'd ended up having to withdraw from Soul Connection due to his course load, he continues to work on and produce his own music every chance and free time he gets. Pledging for Beta Chi Theta wasn't something he'd originally planned, but nevertheless, it's a choice he doesn't regret, and the brothers are like family to him now.
