[Sportschosun reporter Baek Ji-eun] Where is Perry, the rapper and producer?
SBS's Unanswered Questions is taking up the disappearance of Perry, a rapper and producer affiliated with YG Entertainment, formerly known as YG.
Unanswered Questions announced on its official social media accounts on the 17th, "We are seeking information from anyone who knows about the current whereabouts of Perry, who is known to have gone missing after continuing his music activities in South Korea from the mid-1990s and being last seen in Los Angeles in 2010, or anyone who can contact his family."
Born in 1971, Perry is from Oakland, California. After being shot by a gang in his late teens and recovering, he moved to Guam, where relatives lived, and began working seriously as a DJ, rapper and dancer. He later joined Jinusean's debut album at the invitation of Sean, whom he had been close friends with since their days in Guam, and became one of YG's principal producers in its early years. He went on to handle music production for leading YG artists, including Jinusean, Perry, Lexy and BigBang. In effect, he was the person who shaped the identity of YG in its early days.
However, Perry's name disappeared from YG album credits after BigBang's Japanese album in 2011. Sean, who had been one of Perry's closest associates, also said that he had lost contact with Perry after Perry returned to the United States, making Perry's split from YG widely accepted as fact.
Yet, separately from his departure from YG, Perry could not be found anywhere. In 2011, Perry's nephew said that Perry had disappeared after being last seen in Los Angeles in 2010. The nephew said the family had reported Perry missing to the State Department but had still received no news. He also said that no one in Guam had seen Perry for years, making it highly unlikely that he had returned there. More than two years later, the nephew said the family still had no idea of Perry's last known location, so they could not file a missing-person report with the police. Although they submitted a report through another government agency, they received almost no help.
As a result, various theories emerged among online users. Song Baek-kyung of 1TYM also posted on Brunch last July: "I can roughly guess why he left YG, reading between the lines, but I cannot say it directly in my own words. Perry used to smoke heavily, visit clubs in Hongdae every weekend and drink until he was completely wasted. Around the time he was working on Lexy's debut album, he suddenly quit smoking and drinking and stopped contacting his acquaintances. When I asked whether he had changed his phone number and requested the new one, he said there was no need for me to know his number."
Baek Ji-eun, silk781220@sportschosun.com
This article has been translated by GripLabs Mingo AI.
