Jiyong is the leader of Big Bang & vocalist/rapper of the group, alongside T.O.P. He is a widely-accepted & talented songwriter, having won the ‘Songwriter Award’ in 2007 from MKMF, Jiyong has taken on an active role of composing songs for Big Bang, such as their hit song 'Haru Haru'

He was originally suppose to debut as a child hip-hop artist in hope of gaining fame, popularity, & success like Lil' Bow Wow & Lil' Romeo did in the states. However he was unable to release an album & was limited to only appearing in YG artists’ albums. On January 2001, Jiyong debuted on the album, “Daehanmingook Hip-Hop Flex” as a rapper. He was later recruited with Tae Yang to act in JinuSean’s MV as their minis, which happened on February of the same year.

Afterward he began to train for his planned debut as the hip-hop group, GDYB, with Tae Yang. During his training, he was already featured on songs & appearing in MVs by Perry, Se7en, JinuSean, Masta Wu, Wheesung, YG Family, Gummy, Swi.T, & Lexy. GDYB was allowed to release 2 songs for YG Family’s second album & appear alongside Se7en for the World Cup, but they, unfortunately, was never able to release an album nor debut. In 2004, both Tae Yang & Jiyong were listed as YG’s fresh, new faces & was scheduled that year. However, those plans were quickly cancelled by Hyun Suk, who had planned on forming a 4-6 member group. It wasn't until 2 years later, in 2006, that Big Bang was finally able to announce their official debut.