DPR LIVE
Professional Moniker: DPR LIVE
Real Name: 홍다빈 Hong Dabin
Birthdate: January 1, 1993
Country of Origin: South Korea
IMPORTANT NOTE
DPR LIVE is currently on hiatus from DPR. On October 9, 2023 Dabin announced live on Instagram that he had started his own company (CTYL) and would be releasing music under his real name 홍다빈 (Hong Dabin). He created new social media accounts on Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. Dabin's [Giggles] EP was released on January 23, 2024. DPR IAN, DPR CREAM, DPR ARTIC, and his cousin Cline (as JIMMYCLINE) contributed to the writing and production of multiple songs on the album. (see more credits here) Although Dabin and DPR don't know when he will return, DPR IAN has assured fans that Dabin is his lifelong brother and that he will always be DPR LIVE.
– MBTI: INFJ
-- Dabin is one of the founding members of DPR.
– Born in South Korea, moved to the US Territory of Guam and lived there until 10th grade when his family moved back to South Korea
– Dabin started as a b-boy. He became interested in dance when he was in high school. He wanted to learn how to breakdance, so he looked up b-boy how-to's on YouTube. Dabin stumbled upon Christian's videos on his YouTube channel, and he really liked Christian's style. Dabin decided to send Christian a direct message as a fan, and Christian responded to him. They ended up continuing to correspond that way until they met in Seoul a few years later, and then Dabin actually began to appear in some of Christian's videos.
– When he graduated from high school, Dabin was considering going to college to study philosophy or psychology. However, during his military service (which is mandatory for every male citizen of South Korea), he reconnected with his love for music, and he felt the pull to pursue a career in music instead. After his discharge, he was ready to dive into becoming a rapper and music artist.
-- At one point (ca. 2015/2016) Dabin worked at Subway. In an Instagram Live celebrating the release of Is Anybody Out There?, Dabin and Christian reminisced about that time. Christian would come in and order the same simple sandwich every time. Dabin would to try tempt him to try something new by making fancy sandwich creations, but Christian would always say no. He just wanted his simple ham, lettuce and onions.
-- Artist Name: Dabin was inspired by Drake's lyrics on "Moment 4 Life" by Niki Minaj. He was listening to it one day and this line jumped out at him: "'Cause everybody dies, but not everybody lives." The word "live" stuck with him. He decided to use L.I.V.E. as his moniker (pron. /liv/). Sometime later, Dabin dropped the dots between the letters and changed the pronunciation to /laiv/ (like the word "alive). He wanted to represent how he wanted to be transparent and honest when he was performing. It also went along with his first tag line of "coming to you live" like a radio announcer. Shortly after the Coming To You Live album was released, he added DPR to the begining to make his music easier to find in search results. He's been DPR LIVE ever since.
-- When Dabin is on stage, he prefers to to move to the music as he feels it. Much of his performance style is of the moment, which is part of what inspired his artist name of LIVE. He is very energetic when he performing with a lot of jumping, and he moves around the entirety of the stage (sometimes even off of and onto the monitors or speakers). He had said in an interview in 2020 that he wasn't interested in doing choreography, but he did show off a lot of his dance skills during the Regime Tour Finale in Seoul shows in February 2023.
– Released debut song as DPR Live “Till I Die” on Soundcloud on July 27, 2015 and the MV was posted on YouTube on August 22, 2015
– Released 1st EP Coming To You Live on March 15, 2017
– Released 1st studio album Is Anybody Out There? on March 3, 2020
-- Has collaborated with many other artists (go to DPR's work --> music section for more details)
-- Learned how to roller skate for the "Summer Tights + Boom" MV
-- Height: While DPR LIVE has never mentioned how tall he is, people who have met him in real life estimate him to be around 167-170 cm.
