#legion:welcome

haelin never knew stability. his birth parents abandoned he and his older brother before he’d learned to talk, and he suffered through most of his childhood as an outcast - though the one thing he always did know was music. he began composing at a young age, and both his “god-given” talent and his relentless drive for success and perfection led him to master the art of songwriting and lyricism. in late middle school, he slipped past the age barrier - lying about his birth date to be allowed to perform in underground clubs under the stage name “apostle”. his height and mature appearance made this easy - but the more popular he became, the more difficult it was to maintain a level head. he became arrogant - that is, until the humbling experience of being stabbed in a night club and his original label going bankrupt caused him to do some much needed introspection. the renaissance man eventually found his way to legion, where his many years of training allowed him to debut rather quickly as the leader of a freak of nature - a chance, where all members had originally planned to debut separately. despite his lack of stability - he knows damn well how to appreciate a miracle. 

his mother never told him he had a chameleon soul, but he did relate to that lana video. it’s not that cory didn’t have a personality of his own, but y’know, the negligent p*rents and dead br*ther kind of left him without any real role models to emulate. tragic backstory withstanding, he found companionship in books until high school, where he made his first friend. haneul made his own beats, so cory decided then that he’d make music, too. rebranding to cola, he chose rap because he was always good at setting up a punchline. his songs were for him and haneul, but then the music video they shot on their phones went viral, and cola had to decide whether to pursue the opportunity. he did, eventually getting signed, and although the heat he faced from other rappers and netizens only increased, he kept his head down and pushed through, like jean grey keeping herself safe under the sea, waiting for the phoenix to rise. wait- that analogy sucks, can he start over?

born park siyeon, bae (siyeon) honey started her modeling career at the age of fifteen under legion ent but at the turn of her eighteenth birthday, she decided that it was time for a revamp of her wholesome, little sister image. after being just a model for about three years, working for some high-end designers based in seoul and internationally, she wanted to not only continue with being a model but also put more work into her artistic side by signing as a trainee under the same label and work towards becoming an idol. while still striving to further her career in being model, it was decided upon that acting a few dramas would help her portfolio when she was sixteen, two years before she would sign as a trainee.

Choi YooNa, born in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea on September 8th 1997 into probably the most interesting situation one could think of. Her mother was a mistress of a man of the Shinsegae group, his wife an actress who died in a murder suicide. Yoona however, grew up knowing of this at all. As a matter of fact, her parents always pretended to be a real couple that decided to part ways while she was a child and she would spend time between the both of them rather equally. Her favorable looks had her in pageants as well as being a child actress. Her face was well known, up until she disappeared around the time she was ten and people wondered where she had gone. In reality, she found the truth out about her family and had gone into traumatic shock and unfortunately with the lack of mental health institutes in South Korea, all they could do was ship her off to Amsterdam. Upon her return, she found her sister and auditioned to be with Legion.

Having grown up in a hostile environment, Jangmi has learned from an early age that the best way to face adversity is to fight fire with fire. She’s wasted her life away, making music and being angry at the world– accepting her fate as a dying rose. The dying rose, however, finds herself reviving in a new garden, in the form of Empire, Inc. Now she finds herself making music with a purpose other than cursing out the rest of the world for leaving her in a harsh situation. Her music style and world view has matured and she continues to make music by herself and with others, although very modestly. She hopes to show to her fans that there are other ways to recuperate from sadness and tragedy than the ones she’s known growing up.

Eric was born to a single mother in Inglewood, California after his father decided to be with the mistress who’d gotten pregnant from their affair. Even knowing what she knew, his mother made it her job to never speak ill of Eric’s father, wanting him to form his opinion on his own. Weekends were spent with the man and his new family, Eric always getting treated horribly when he was there by his father, but his stepmother tried her best to make him feel as if he was apart of the family. This would stick with him forever, because he knew that deep down she was a good woman despite what she did to his family. He turned to music in middle school, noting Nas and Jay Z as some of his biggest influences. When he and his mother moved to Korea in high school, he eventually dropped out to focus on his rapping completely, which his mother was against, but once he made it into Legion she became supportive.

hip-hop soon became the daegu-born rapper’s favorite at quite a young age. though his admiration for the genre was tolerated in korea, australian kids didn’t see eye to eye with the beats and lyrics during youngsu’s two-year-long stay on the island. after returning to korea and settling down in seoul with his family, he decided to pursue his dream. youngsu regularly attended a few clubs for his early underground activitites - freestyle rap sessions, rap battles, friendly get-togethers. later on, choosing the alias ‘young ares,’ reflecting on the fact that he was often praised for coming up with witty lyrics, be it personal disses or social issues (therefore declaring war as ares would do), his mental health and his view on the world provided inspiration for his self-produced songs, generally dealing with depression, general and social anxiety, his family, and his miserable love life. soon, youngsu became a grown man and so did young ares. after joining empire inc., he changed his name to ΛRES but his music remained the same.

she didn’t even like barbies as a kid. her mother would buy them for her with what little money she could spare, but miju never played with them at all. they hardly ever left the box, stacked up on her dresser in the room she shared with her sister, prior to the both of them moving out and moving on to bigger, better opportunities. hwang miju was that girl in the class that always fought the boys and got just a little too close to the other girls - but beneath her paradoxical need to constantly prove that she doesn’t need to prove herself, she has a heart of gold. rose gold, she’d argue. her love for frills and pink came a little late, but it came hard. she wanted everything to be pretty in pink - but nothing about her tomboyish and strong-willed personality actually changed. when asked about her goals with her music, she almost always mentions how she wants to break the submissive and soft stereotypes to which women in asia are confined. to miju, femininity has nothing to do with softness, or complacence - but the embrace of one’s unique identity as a woman, whatever for her, it entails.