Thanks to her genre-bending style, multilingual songwriting talents and punky onstage persona, CL, 30, served bridge the gap between K-pop and the American mainstream in the 2010s. In 2012, 2NE1 became the initially K-pop lady team to go on a entire world tour, like headlining arena dates in the U.S. She’d afterwards come to be a muse to designers this sort of as Jeremy Scott and collaborate with the likes of Diplo, Skrillex, Black Eyed Peas and Lil Yachty.
“CL is a single of the world’s most powerful superstars, with a numerous system of do the job that has saved us all seeking more and a fiercely unbiased spirit which is well matched to our personal,” Wendy Ong, Tap New music worldwide co-president, claimed in a statement. “As a fellow Asian female chief in the new music marketplace, I am very pleased and honored to welcome CL to Tap Music and glance forward to aiding her broaden her international fanbase.”
“Me and my team Pretty Cherry are thrilled to husband or wife up with Faucet,” CL added, referring to the creative workforce guiding eye-catching performances like her 2020 remote appearance on The Late Late Show with James Corden. “I am super fired up to share tips with Wendy Ong and seem ahead to pushing boundaries collectively.”
Launched in 2010 by co-CEOs Ben Mawson and Ed Millett, Faucet has places of work in London, Los Angeles, Berlin and Sydney — “True success is international achievements,” Mawson instructed Billboard past 12 months — and in recent years introduced publishing and recording divisions. “CL is a correct pioneer, not only a gifted artist producing some of today’s most fascinating music but she’s also a savvy businessperson,” Millet said in a statement. “I’m enthusiastic about her upcoming chapter listed here at Tap.”
The journey to CL’s debut album has been closely followed by enthusiasts in excess of the years. In 2014, she started doing the job with Scooter Braun on her solo vocation, with co-administration by YG, in a bid to capitalize on her world-wide attraction. But in the subsequent years, her musical output slowed to a in the vicinity of halt, and she remaining the SB Projects roster in 2018 — only to return in early 2020 as an unbiased artist right after parting methods with YG the prior yr.
In a January 2021 issue of Billboard, CL opened up about the powering-the-scenes alterations. “I never feel everyone was striving to hold me again. I assume it was the opposite. Anyone was psyched. But no one knew what to do,” she said. “It’s not a person matter. It’s nobody’s ‘fault,’ it is just whatsoever takes place, happens. And I figured out the finest way is to just seriously discover from it.”
Prior to ALPHA, CL (genuine name: Lee Chaelin) reintroduced herself with the six-song challenge In the Title of Love in late 2019. On ALPHA, she after yet again showcases a chameleonic skillset, freely mixing Korean and English and relocating involving rapping and singing in excess of tracks that selection from explosive hip-hop to reducing-edge electro-pop.
“It’s normally been CL and Chaelin, Korean and English,” CL told Billboard previously this week. “I’m multicultural, and I have always been symbolizing that. I assume it started off from who I am, and I am both of those [sides], so I merged the two and it turned one particular issue. The total information of ALPHA is CL and Chaelin getting equilibrium.”