Black Beat was a boy band that was active in the 2000s. They were signed to S.M. Entertainment and were originally planned to a be 7-member boy band. However, that idea was scratched. And instead became a group of five members. The members consisted of Lee So Min (이소민), Hwang Sang Hoon (황상훈), Jung Ji Hoon (정지훈) and Shim Jae-Won (심재원) who were both originally members of the short-lived boy band Eagle Five and Jang Jin Young (장진영). Before the formation of the group, each of the members were featured in one or a few of the songs acting as backup dancers, vocals or rappers for artists such as BoA, S.E.S. and Shinhwa. They unofficially debuted in 2000 at Lee Ji Hoon's (이지훈) Dream Concert for his 4th album Eternity Friend.
#2002 - The First Performance #001 (2002)
Their first and only album to date was released on November 3, 2002. The cover art features art from the manhwa by Woo Soo Yeon, Full House. Like S.M. Entertainment's other obscure groups, the album was considered a moderate success. However, during this time, the group won 2002 Rookie of the Year at MMF and Best New Group at Mnet Asian Music Awards. and they also received a medium size of fans who went as far to create fan sites and fan cafes for the group.
Label: S.M. Entertainment Sold On: CD & Cassette Genre: Funk/Soul, Pop Style: Kpop, Contemporary R&B
Between 2002 and 2006, Black Beat participated in SMTown's studio albums/compilations:
2002 Summer Vacation
2002 Winter Vacation
2003 Summer Vacation
2004 Summer Vacation
2006 Winter SMTown
Apparently, Black Beat was preparing to release their second album for 2005. Although, the way that the agency planned for the group to promote the group for their second album was not smooth. Additionally, the group had a rival, which was TVXQ who were also signed to S.M. Entertainment around the time that Black Beat was gaining success and had a larger fan following. All in all, their second album was shelved. To make things worse, S.M. created for Black Beat a fandom called SOULBLACK, which was extensively promoting the group's second album to the public and the members of this fandom were paying membership fees to stay in the fandom. Once the second album was shelved, SOULBLACK members were refunded their payments by S.M.
There has not been activity from the group since the release of 2006 Winter SMTown.
There have been rumors that TVXQ's song Rising Sun from their second album was originally supposed to be Black Beat's for their second album. There have been other songs that were rumored to be originally released by Black Beat for their second album: O-正.反.合 which TVXQ released on their third album and Super Junior's Thirst (A Man In Love).
As for the members individually since their inactivity, all of the members are still active.
Shim Jae Won is considered the most successful member out of the group. He still works for S.M. Entertainment as a well-known choreographer and performance director for the company. He has worked and directed many performances for S.M. groups such as f(x), EXO and Girls Generation.
Hwang Sang Hoon also currently works as a choreographer and performance director at S.M. He has choreographed and directed for both many solo artists and groups such as Taemin, EXO, Super Junior, SHINee and SR15B. He appeared as a judge for the Woo Han Challenge Idol Special which was a talent show for those interested in auditioning to S.M. Entertainment.
As of this post, Lee So Min opened his own Japanese ramen restaurant in August 2020 in Anyang, Gyeonggi-do. In 2010, him and Jang Jin Young collaborated and released a single under the name The Black.
Jang Jin Young stayed with S.M. as a vocal trainer until his contract expired, which is unknown when it exactly ended. Before The Black, he formed a duo with his friend Kim Sung Pil (김성필) in 2007 called By Jinsung (by 진성). They only released one EP. In 2013 he appeared as a judge alongside Shim Jae Won for the show K-pop Star. In 2017, he made a cameo appearance in Slam Dunk's season 2 as a vocal trainer alongside other well-known S.M. Entertainment veterans such as BADA and Stephanie and Kim Hee Chul. As of this post, he has his vocal training company called A-top Company who has trained many K-pop acts such as NCT, Red Velvet, SF9 and WJSN to name a few.
As for Jang Ji Hoon, he went back to his original work as a B-boy dancer. In 2011, he debuted under the name Kang Han (강한) in the mixed gender rap group WE which was produced by Kim Chang Ryul (김창렬). Currently, he has gone back to working as a B-boy dancer and is active on social media.
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