SUGA (슈가), also known as Agust D, was born in 1993 as Min Yoongi (민윤기), in Daegu, South Korea. He is a rapper, songwriter, composer and producer. He is also known as a member of the South Korean group BTS.
Being inspired at the age of 12, after listening to Stony Skunk’s “Ragga Muffin” and Epik High’s “Fly” Yoongi begun to make a name for himself in the place he’s most proud of—his home town, Daegu.
As a underground rapper and producer, he did it under his stage name Gloss (the direct translation of his name into English). To name some of his famous underground produced works, are songs such as “518-062” (a song based on the Gwangju Uprising) and “Who Am I?” by Reflow. He was also part of the hip-hop crew D-Town.
In 2010, after the casting, he joined BigHit Entertainment as a trainee, where he debuted with BTS in 2013 under the name SUGA. Soon after debut, Yoongi revealed the reason behind this stage name—pale skin, pretty when smile, and sweet. He also mentioned other reason—before debut he used to play basketball and his position was a shooting guard (슈팅가드) what abbreviates to SUGA (슈가). Yoongi is not only one of the three rappers in BTS, but he has written and composed many BTS songs as well.
Aside from his activities with his BTS, Yoongi works on his own music. Under the stage name Agust D, in 2016, he released his first solo mixtape—Agust D. Four years later, in 2020, he released his second mixtape, D-2, that made him the highest-charting Korean solo act on Billboard 200 (the title previously held by his bandmates–RM and j-hope, respectively), as well as the first Korean artist with No. 1 on The Billboard’s Rap Sales Chart.
SUGA has not only been producing for BTS but has also produced the high-charted song “Wine” by Suran along with “Song Request” by Lee So Ra and “Eternal Sunshine” by Epik High. He has also helped write and produce “We don’t talk together” by Heize and still hopes to produce many more. In the interview mentioned above, SUGA states that the music he wishes to make overall in his career is:
I want to make music that tells our stories. Music aimed for people in their 10’s and 20’s is disappearing these days. I believe that an idol’s role is to send out messages, so I want to make music that people can relate with.
As an artist, he has grown successful through hard work and determination and has been credited for his achievements. In 2018, along with the other members of BTS, he was awarded the fifth-class Hwagwan Order of Cultural Merit by the President of South Korea for the contribution to Korean culture.
During the same year, SUGA was promoted to an official member of the Korea Music Copyright Association — KOMCA. Fast forward to 2020, he is credited officially as a writer/producer of over 160 tracks on KOMCA (10005239).
In September 2020, alongside with the other members of BTS, Yoongi has spoken at the United Nations General Assembly about the hope in times of pandemic.
Later in 2020, SUGA, alongside with J-hope, become the first Koreans to write and compose a #1 Billboard Hot 100 song.
After co-writing songs on BTS' BE, he was placed among top 10 on Billboard Hot 100 Songwriters.