[TRANSLATIONS] G-Dragon and TOP on “Night After Night” Main Highlights!

The members of GD&TOP made an appearance on the January 10th episode of SBS’s “Night After Night“, and covered a variety of topics ranging from their pre-debut to working as Big Bang.

MC Tak Jae Hoon began by asking G-Dragon, “I heard that ‘Lie‘ was actually your solo track, but they decided to change it to Big Bang’s title song.  They said you got so jealous, you cried.”

G-Dragon answered, “I was honestly disappointed.  It took a long time to complete it, and then our CEO said that the song was for Big Bang. I was young at the time, so it hurt.  I’m not upset about it anymore.”

T.O.P added, “The song did well because we sang it.  All five of us created a synergy effect.  You can’t do anything about the past now, though.”

Daesung’s next comment put the studio in a fit of laughter, as he said, “‘Lie’ would’ve been buried if G-Dragon sang it by himself.”

G-Dragon also revealed his feelings on debuting as an idol group by stating, “I was about six years into my trainee life with Taeyang. When I heard that they were making an idol group, I was kind of disappointed.  My influence from the underground hip hop scene was strong at the time, so I wanted to debut as a hip hop artist.’”

While on the topic of their training, T.O.P revealed a story about their former trainee, B2ST’s Jang Hyun Seung. “At the time, the six of them would go eat samgyupsal after rehearsal, but it was always Daesung and Hyun Seung that would cook the meat for the hyungs.  But one day, Daesung and Hyun Seung began wondering why it was only just them that cooked the meat, and why Seungri didn’t help out. Both of them tried to come up with a plan to make him cook too, and Hyun Seung finally asked him, ‘Hey, cook some meat.’  Seungri replied, ‘I can’t cook meat.’  Daesung didn’t follow the plan and stayed quiet, leaving Hyun Seung to do all the asking.”

He continued, “Hyun Seung got mad the more he thought about it and retorted, ‘You think we’re cooking meat because we’re good at it?’  Seungri still replied, ‘I’m really not good at it.’  The situation didn’t end there, though.  They went to go buy vitamin drinks together and their emotions exploded.  They both came back later and Seungri opened the door, covered half his face, and said, ‘I didn’t get hit that much!’”

Eventually, G-Dragon and T.O.P took the role of ‘hyungs’ and reprimanded their behavior, including Daesung (who was just soundly sleeping at the time).

T.O.P also made a surprise confession about his original name, and revealed that CEO Yang had set his debut name to be ‘Mark.’  Imitating the CEO’s voice, T.O.P recounted the CEO’s words by stating, “There’s two rappers in Big Bang, right? Jiyong will be G-Dragon, and I’ve chosen ‘Mark’ for your name.  No special reason, my favorite guitarist’s name was Mark.  That’s the only name I can think of.”

T.O.P, who didn’t like the name, requested to have it changed, leading senior labelmate Se7en to name him T.O.P.  He continued, “At first, I was embarrassed of being called T.O.P when I was just a rookie.  Now, I think it’s easier to memorize.”

G-Dragon was later asked a sensitive question by MC Kim Jae Dong. The MC asked, “There’s some who think you’re overrated as an artist.  What do you think about that?”

G-Dragon replied, “It is true that I’m an overrated musician.  I’ve never told anyone that I was a genius or that I was good at music, but when I see articles saying that I was an overrated artist, I feel better.“ When further asked about his plagiarism controversy, he replied, “It sounds different because of the difference in thoughts.  It was an opportunity for me to ensure that I would avoid making the same mistakes again next time.”

He continued, “I knew that as a singer, my job was to show improved music instead of sitting down and writing my thoughts.  I just concentrated on my music promotions.  At the time, I didn’t even answer calls from my parent’s friends, and felt like I was sinning every time I looked at people.  It was a sort of depression.  The hateful replies left me wounded, and I began to wonder what I had done to make these people leave such hateful replies towards me. I can take criticism, but not comments that told me to ‘just commit suicide.’  But this is something I’ve always dreamed of, so I had to handle it.  I couldn’t be shaken up by it.  The members were a big help to me, and I realized that I just needed to dream bigger.”

When asked about the ‘roots’ of his music, G-Dragon replied, “The source of my music… I think it comes from habit.  CEO Yang would always make us compose a song once a week and submit it to him during our trainee days.  It’s become a habit now.  I listen to the experiences of other people.” When asked how many songs he had in the Copyright Association, he replied, “I have about 100.”

MC Tak Jae Hoon asked, “Have you ever broken a woman’s heart?“ G-Dragon replied, “I have, and I’ve also been hurt in return.  For the most part, I think I was hurt the most, but there’s no other special reason for break ups.  One time, I took a girl friend home to the wrong house.”

On the topic of T.O.P’s ‘rookie award’ for his movie, “Into the Fire,” T.O.P stated, “I was skeptical as to whether I’d receive an award while I had my hair bleached.  I was honestly very embarrassed.  It made me look as if I specifically bleached my hair for the event.  Kang Sooyeon looked at my hair and complimented it, but then she couldn’t hide her laughter and burst out of the room.”

Tak Jae Hoon asked whether he would return the award then, to which T.O.P replied, “I can’t do that, but right after winning the award, the first thing I thought was, ‘I’m so happy I won a award that you can only win once in your lifetime, but why when my hair is bleached white?!’”

G-Dragon finally expressed his feelings on working with T.O.P under a unit group, “Ever since T.O.P filmed for ‘Into the Fire,’ he doesn’t move around on stage that much.  Compared to him, I fly around everywhere.  It feels like he’s the uncle and I’m the nephew.”

T.O.P retorted, “G-Dragon told me to balance the center, like with Big Bang, so that he can fly above.  I thought that the concept he wanted this time was to ‘fly’.  The balance has to be just right, so I figured I’d stand center while he flies around.”

(source: akp)