Lee Juno

The eldest member of Seo Taiji and Boys and a first-generation Korean b-boy famous for his power moves. After the group split he became a producer and launched the co-ed group Young Turks Club.

Born Lee Sang-woo in Anyang in 1967, he picked the name "Juno" because a popular solo singer already had the exact same name. He lost his father as a baby, grew up with a single mom and not much money, dropped out of high school, and danced his way forward. By the late '80s he was one of the most talked-about dancers in the country, counted among Korea's first b-boys, and worked as a backup dancer for stars like Insooni. There's even 1987 footage of a very young Juno doing the robot.

In 1991 Yang Hyun-suk, a younger dancer he knew from the backup scene, called with a pitch. A songwriter named Seo Taiji had come to him for dance lessons and wanted to debut as a trio. Yang introduced several dancers, but Seo never quite clicked with any of them, so the last call went to his senior, Juno. The final member to join ended up as the eldest of Seo Taiji and Boys, five years older than Seo and three older than Yang. Where Yang danced on groove, Juno brought floor-shredding breaking, and you can see the contrast right in the 1992 debut stages of Nan Arayo (I Know).

Seo wrote almost everything, but Juno does have one song to his name: "Neohuiga Somangi Doeeo," a solo track on the group's 1995 live album that he wrote and composed himself. Because of the pre-release censorship rules at the time, it's credited under his legal name, Lee Sang-woo. Fans always wondered about the dynamic inside the trio. The classic anecdote: on regional tours Seo and Yang shared a room while Juno bunked with the manager. Years later Juno explained he simply stepped aside because of the age gap and because the other two had such great chemistry. All three agree they never had a single fight in four years. The group ended with its 1996 retirement announcement.

Right after, Juno became a radio DJ on KBS 2FM, going head to head at 10 p.m. with Lee Moon-sae's legendary MBC show Starry Night. Seoul listeners stuck with Lee, but outside the capital Starry Night was hosted by local MCs, so Juno actually won there. He also snuck the group's TV-banned song "Sidaeyugam" onto the air twice.

His first move as a producer was a hit. In 1996 he built Young Turks Club into a chart act, which looked even better because Yang's first group, Keep Six, was flopping at the same time. Fun detail: two trainees at his company, Kim Jae-duck and Lee Jae-jin, were scouted away by the head of DSP and later debuted in SECHSKIES. After that, though, Young Turks Club cooled off, and neither the hip-hop crew Honey Family nor his 2000 solo album 6 mill Bionic Juno really landed. Meanwhile Yang's YG Entertainment was taking off with Jinusean and 1TYM. Around then Juno cameoed in the 2002 comedy Emergency Act 19 with a self-roast line: "I was one of the Boys in Seo Taiji and Boys, so when do I get to be a grown-up?"

The years after were rough. His company folded, he ended up with 4 billion won in debt and bad credit, and he said he'd paid it all off by 2009 through musicals and variety shows. Legal trouble followed. In 2014 he was accused of fraud for not repaying a 100 million won loan from an acquaintance, and in 2016 he was charged with groping women at a club. In 2017 a court sentenced him to 18 months in prison for fraud and indecent assault; on appeal in 2018 it was reduced to 14 months suspended for two years, plus 120 hours of community service and 10 years on the sex offender registry. His lawyer said around then that Yang Hyun-suk had paid off his debt. In 2022 he was fined 1 million won in a summary indictment for assaulting a bar owner.

In 2011 he made headlines by registering his marriage to Park Mi-ri, 23 years younger, before holding a wedding; they have a daughter and a son. In 2020 he became vice president of Berrystore, a platform that auctions celebrity belongings for charity, and in a YouTube interview he calmly described himself as "just an office worker now." These days he does TikTok lives. Whenever reunion talk comes up, Seo and Yang shut it down, and Juno is the only member who has hinted he'd do it if he could. Bonus trivia: in the Gyeongju Lee clan's family tree he's in the same generation as Faker.