T.O.P Is Back on the Charts With Nothing to Hide on His First Full-Length Album
Twenty years after Choi Seung-hyun helped rewrite the rules of K-pop with BIGBANG, the elusive star returns with "ANOTHER DIMENSION" to address art, his past and, above all, gratitude.
Billboard interview by Jeff Benjamin.
T.O.P knows exactly what he was doing when he opens his first-ever solo album with a baby voice cooing, “I may be 99 percent angel, but that one percent gets me in trouble.”
It’s unexpectedly disarming, slightly devastating, but also funny, and ultimately sets the tone for TOP SPOT – ANOTHER DIMENSION. Despite the innocent intro, the opening track “SELF CRUCIFIXION” brings a boom-bap beat and a sampled soul singer pleading to “set me free,” before a torrent of news clips, pulled from Korean and English broadcasts, discuss highs and lows throughout 20 years in the entertainment world.
While T.O.P’s voice is temporarily buried beneath the headlines and as others step forward to define him — marijuana charges, a hospitalization following a medication overdose, being named the first Korean civilian for a lunar mission — the audio drops out and he reclaims the mic by the song’s end: “What am I doing these days? I make my music. Our music.”
It is rare for any artist to deliver a full account of their lowest moments, especially one raised in the K-pop scene. Yet, T.O.P approaches it as an artistic act of empowerment instead of an apology.
Debuting with the stage name T.O.P as a member of BIGBANG in August 2006, Choi Seung-hyun became one of K-pop’s most recognizable global figures as he and his band mates broke new ground for the Korean-pop scene after accepting the inaugural best worldwide act trophy onstage at the 2011 MTV Europe Music Awards, beating out the likes of Britney Spears for the honor. With that, the act became the first K-pop group to send an album to the Billboard 200 (when 2012’s ALIVE reached No. 150) and showing their live prowess with two world tours (hitting multiple U.S. arenas in 2012 and 2015).
To date, BIGBANG have five No. 1s on Billboard‘s U.S.-based World Digital Song Sales chart, and even scored their first Top 10 hit on the Billboard Global 200 with the special 2022 reunion single “Still Life” that marked T.O.P’s final release with the group.
While he was a key songwriter and rapper for the group, T.O.P ended his contract with BIGBANG’s YG Entertainment in 2022 and formally left the band the year after as part of a retreat from the spotlight after a series of personal and legal issues and controversies.
But 15 years after T.O.P earned one of the very first K-pop albums to bow on World Albums with his collaborative GD & T.O.P record in 2011 with BIGBANG band mate G-Dragon, the star is back on the music scene — and the charts — after constructing what he has described as “a gift to my fans.” With a digital-only release in the States, TOP SPOT – ANOTHER DIMENSION debuted at No. 20 on the April 18, 2026-dated World Albums chart, marking his debut solo appearance via the first-ever release from his newly created independent label, TOP SPOT PICTURES.
“This album is especially meaningful to me because it’s my first full-length solo album,” T.O.P shares in an exclusive interview with Billboard. “So, being able to enter the Billboard World Albums chart with this record, as a solo artist, truly means a lot to me. The members of BIGBANG and I make very different kinds of music now, but I’ll always support and respect their music…it’s been such a long time since I returned with music, so I sincerely thank everyone for the overwhelming response and love you’ve shown me.”
Co-producing and writing every track, T.O.P shared that he spent a decade working on a collection that isn’t just his 11 best songs, but “a 37-minute film that freely crosses different genres according to my own taste” and “an album built from multiple perspectives.” The connection to cinema seems particularly important as T.O.P only fully returned to the promotional spotlight for his role in the second season of Netflix’s Squid Game, playing the failed, drug-addicted rapper nicknamed “Thanos,” who lost his wealth in a cryptocurrency investment. With his TOP SPOT PICTURES boasting a Hollywood studio-esque name, T.O.P is approaching his new work with a director’s eye that needs to consider all aspects of the production.
Inspired by Notorious B.I.G., Tupac and other ’90s hip-hop greats, T.O.P’s longtime influences are present within the record, as are references to his time with BIGBANG, but DIMENSION also uncovers new sides of T.O.P’s talents. “THE GIANT” lets T.O.P the vocalist take center stage with a controlled, pop-star-quality that recalls early Adam Levine. His lyrics also touch new personal parameters where T.O.P, a noted art collector, compares his work to South Korea’s Leeum Museum on “SEOUL CHAOS” while seemingly making comments on fame via the aptly titled “A SMALL, FILTHY SHOW WINDOW.”
“For many years, my goal with this album was to create something with a truly original composition, like an art exhibition, and present it as a gift to my fans,” T.O.P explains. “I wanted it to reflect my personal taste — not just as an auditory experience, but as something visually memorable as well, almost like a collectible work of art. I wanted everyone who owned this album to feel that it had real value as an object to keep and treasure…the album turned out exactly in line with my taste, and now that the music is finally out in the world, I’m happy that so many people are able to hear it.”
For as personal and special as the process has been for him, T.O.P wasted no time sharing his favorite online reviews and unboxing videos from YouTube to his 20 million Instagram followers. He adds, “When I watch fans unboxing the album and sharing those videos online, it feels as though pieces of the dream I once imagined are finally coming true one by one. I’m incredibly grateful that my new music is allowing me to reconnect with my fans again after such a long time.”
Looking ahead, T.O.P shares that more DIMENSION trackswill soon have music videos released beyond the singles “DESPERADO” and “Studio54,” with visuals created using a “completely different approach from anything I’ve done before.” While he laughs when he says that his future acting plans “are still a secret,” he also notes that his ambitions expand beyond singing and acting.
“TOP SPOT PICTURES will continue to be the label through which I release my new music,” he confirms. “In the future, I naturally hope to nurture the next generation of artists as well and, eventually, I also dream of producing films.”
Although his mission to visit the moon aboard a SpaceX Starship as part of the DearMoon lunar tourism project was ultimately canceled in 2024, T.O.P remains keen on visiting the site of one of his greatest inspirations: “Themes related to the moon and outer space have now become deeply connected to my music and, personally, they’ve become incredibly important motifs in my artistic world as well. Because I sincerely hope that the music I continue to release in the future will keep drawing inspiration directly from the moon, I truly believe that one day, I’ll make it there,” he says with a laugh at the end that boasts an undeniable sense of determination.
One of the album’s last tracks, “FOR FANS,” sees T.O.P speaking to supporters not via a throwaway thank-you cut typical of K-pop records, but a vulnerable letter of admission he’s been worried they’ll leave him. It’s the overarching point T.O.P returns to several times while discussing ANOTHER DIMENSION: the decade of work is ultimately in service of refusing to let his relationship with fans go cold.
“There’s also something I’ve wanted to say to my fans for a long time that I wanted to share my new music with you even a little sooner,” T.O.P adds. “Starting with this album, I will continue to give back to you through music and I’ll keep striving to be an artist who always brings sincerity and something new to my work.”
Twenty years in, it truly sounds like T.O.P has shared the artist he has always known himself to be. Even if T.O.P is 99 percent angel — as he hints to at the very beginning of the LP — the rest is up to him to create whatever kind of art — or trouble — he wants to express himself.
