Song Min ho

Early life and career

Song Min-ho was born in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. He has a younger sister named Dan-ah, who was a member of New F.O. He graduated from Hanlim Multi Art School in 2011.

He was also a member of the underground rapping scene, under the name "Mino" or "Hugeboy Mino", collaborating with other underground rappers-turned-idols, namely Block B’s Zico, Kyung, P.O, Phantom's Hanhae, SPEED's Taewoon and M.I.B's SIMS.

2011–13: BoM and Acting debut

Mino debuted in 2011 as a rapper in the group BoM, under Y2Y Contents Company. However, the group disbanded two years later. Mino went on to make his first acting appearance in March 2012 in the cable drama The Strongest K-POP Survival, broadcast on Channel A.

2013–14: Debut with Winner and solo appearances

In 2013, Mino was accepted into YG Entertainment through auditions. In the same year, he competed as part of the trainee group "Team A" in the reality-survival program WIN: Who Is Next. He was the leader of Team A, but due to an injury part-way through the show, he was replaced as leader by Kang Seung-yoon. During the finale episode on October 25, 2013, it was announced that Team A had won the competition and would be debuting as Winner. Winner released their debut album 2014 S/S on August 12, and made their debut performance at Inkigayo on August 17, 2014.

In October 2014, Mino was featured in Epik High's single "Born Hater" with Beenzino, Verbal Jint, B.I, and Bobby. In December 2014, he collaborated with 2PM's Nichkhun, CNBLUE's Yonghwa, Infinite's L and B1A4's Baro to perform at the 2014 SBS Gayo Daejeon. He also co-hosted the event.

2015: Show Me The Money

In April 2015, Mino appeared in Mnet's rap competition program Show Me The Money 4. During his audition, he stated that he wanted to compete in the show without aid from his label. He competed under Zico and Paloalto's team, finishing in second place. Through the program, he released several solo or collaborative singles: "Fear", "Turtle Ship", "Moneyflow", "Okey Dokey", and "Victim + Poppin' Bottles". The single "Fear", a collaboration with label-mate senior Taeyang, topped 8 different charts upon its release and went on to become one of the best-selling singles of the year.

Mino's controversial lyrics on the July 10 episode of Show Me the Money 4 were criticized by some watchers and caught the attention of the Korean Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, who demanded an apology from the rapper, causing him to post an apology through WINNER's official Facebook page. The apology was not accepted by the association, which asked for a formal apology from Mino and the show, stating in their website that "Not only did the lyrics sexually humiliate all women of Korea, but it also defamed Korean women's health, as well as the 4000 obstetrics and gynecology doctors registered in our association." On July 14, the association stated through a press release that Mino, as well as his label, YG Entertainment, had both sent letters of apology and clips of his performance have since been deleted.

2016–present: Solo debut and MOBB

Mino made his official debut as a solo artist under YG Entertainment with the single "Body", released in September 2016. The track was co-written by Mino and Future Bounce.

He then collaborated with label-mate Bobby to form the sub-unit MOBB. They released a four-track single album titled The Mobb, with two title tracks "Full House" and "Hit Me" on September 9.

In January 2017, Mino joined the variety show New Journey to the West season 3 as one of the main cast members. In May 2017, Mino along with the cast members New Journey to the West begin to shoot the season 4 of the show.