GD and TOP (album)

Background

While working on materials with their bandmates for their next album, G-Dragon and T.O.P began to experiment with different styles. According to G-Dragon, the members were trying new "combination[s]" with their music, in which the vocalists — Taeyang, Daesung, and Seungri — were to record their own music as a trio while G-Dragon and T.O.P were to branch off as a duo since they "hadn't been with our fans for the past two years." Although the division of the group was initially for Big Bang's materials only, G-Dragon and T.O.P saw a positive response to their materials from the fans and went to Yang Hyun-seok, the CEO of YG Entertainment, to allow the duo to release an album. After receiving Yang's approval, news of their collaboration was announced in November 2010.

G-Dragon and T.O.P co-wrote majority of the lyrics to the album, noting that as "rappers [...] we'd like to tell more stories for our fans to listen." In an attempt to create their own style away from their band, the duo opted for a more hip-hop genre to contrast the group's current genre of electronic music, though G-Dragon acknowledged the influence of R&B, acoustic, and electronic music. The two admitted to becoming "much more diverse [in their] attempts" to create their own style, as well as "how the music develops and the images that the melody and rap portray[s]." They later went on to say that "the reason we mixed such a variety of genres is because we wanted to bring out more of our character that we don't get to show when we're Big Bang." When recordings were done, 11 tracks were recorded, including a collaboration with singer Park Bom. The duo would later mention that after recording the album, they became "attached" to all of their songs as they "worked on each and every one of the songs in...[the]...album by staying up many nights." T.O.P's solo song "Turn It Up" was also included on the album as a bonus track.

Promotion and release

Preceding the release of the album, the duo held a worldwide premiere showcase for their album at Times Square in Yeongdeungpo of Seoul, South Korea, which was also broadcast live on YouTube. While hosting it, the duo sampled parts of their tracks to their fans and explained its lyrical contents and background. The duo also showcased a change in their physical appearances. Their constant use of the "peace sign" for their promotional activities (such as the cover design for their album) also gained attention, with the duo explaining that since the mark is similar to the Playboy logo, their attractive, sexy, and fun sides have come out while promoting the album. The peace sign was later retracted after YG Entertainment was asked by Playboy to remove the image for its similarities to its own logo. It was replaced by a typographic image of a heart composed of GD&TOP. This also led to the action of removing all of the music videos on the official BIGBANG YouTube channel except for "Baby Goodnight".

In support of their album, the duo released three singles: "High High", "Oh Yeah", and "Knock Out". All three singles preceded the release of the album and were commercial successes: "High High" was a chartopper while "Oh Yeah" and "Knock Out" peaked at #2 and #3 respectively. They also performed at a Christmas party hosted at a club in Kangnam of Seoul for SK Telecom's "Christmas T Social Party" in addition to the SBS music show Inkigayo. Pictures of the two on the set of their music videos were also released online. The album was released on Christmas Eve, and debuted at number one with pre-orders of 200,000 copies.

Album sales and awards

The album has sold 130,000 in 2010 and an additional 33,276 copies in 2011. Additionally, GD&TOP won the "Best Rap and Hip-Hop" performance award in the 2011 Melon Music Awards.

Track listing