In August, the final showcase of BIGHIT MUSIC’s hip-hop training program HIT IT BASE 2025 lit up Musinsa Garage in Hongdae. Banners bearing the names of 19 teenage hopefuls draped the venue, charging the space with anticipation. Four crews—”MckSon,” “HIB,” “Ganjigundan (GG)” and “Ujuheeom”—each built their own identity from the ground up, from team names to styling, and unleashed six weeks of preparation with the kind of fire that rivaled the summer heat. In the end, it was Ujuheeom who claimed the honor of “Best Stage,” decided in real time by the live audience vote. But the story didn’t end there—on September 5, the performances were reborn as music videos on the HYBE LABELS channel. From Ujuheeom’s endless potential to MckSon’s promise to rise after the storm, from Ganjigundan’s urgency to speak their truth to HIB’s vow to dedicate their youth to hip-hop, each lyric was a manifesto. For these teenagers, HIT IT BASE isn’t just a stage—it’s a place to discover how to turn passion into language, and language into identity.
HIT IT BASE itself has roots that stretch back 15 years. In 2010, Big Hit Entertainment (now BIGHIT MUSIC) launched HIT IT, an audition designed to recruit members for what was then described as “Big Hit’s hip-hop crew”—a process that would eventually bring BTS’s Suga into the fold. Today, the audition has been reimagined as a hip-hop education program for teenagers, pairing the same mission of discovering raw talent with a structured curriculum. Recast as a long-term talent development project, HIT IT BASE now embodies BIGHIT MUSIC’s educational philosophy and social values, offering free training to teenagers who aspire to become hip-hop artists. As Seohee Park of the T&D Business Department’s IMC Part, who oversaw HIT IT BASE 2025 alongside BIGHIT MUSIC’s Casting Part, explains, “This project fully reflects BIGHIT MUSIC’s philosophy of prioritizing passion for music. It’s about finding young talent, giving them the best opportunities within our reach, and opening doors to their future.” To that end, HIT IT BASE provides not only a curriculum built on the label’s expertise but also the full experience of performance and music video production—entirely free of charge. This ensures that teenagers can devote themselves fully to music without the weight of financial burden. BIGHIT MUSIC's Casting Part Leader Hyeseong Kim explained that the vision of HIT IT BASE is to “create a platform where anyone with passion and potential can be given a chance.” In line with this, the six-week curriculum is offered free of charge, underscoring BIGHIT MUSIC’s fundamental commitment of nurturing hip-hop talent with sincerity.
Any teenage boy can apply to HIT IT BASE, but each applicant must submit a short video that demonstrates his passion for music. As Hyeseong Kim explains, “Hip-hop is more than a genre of music—it’s a culture that embodies identity. That’s why we focus on how sincerely applicants express themselves through their music.” In other words, what matters most is not technical polish, but the passion behind it and the potential to turn personal stories into sound. Park adds: “We provide six weeks of training. So even if an applicant is interested in hip-hop but lacks practical experience, they can grow through the program. That’s why we’ve lowered the entry threshold and emphasized the idea of potential.” In practice, this means that raw skill is not the top criterion for selection. As a result, the participants in HIT IT BASE range from teenagers already experimenting with music to those rapping for the very first time. For Hyeseong Kim, that diversity is central: “Reading the feedback from participants who say they want to continue with hip-hop makes me feel that HIT IT BASE is fulfilling its purpose.” The program is designed to give teenagers room to grow—whether they are just discovering hip-hop or still searching for a path forward.
By lowering the entry barriers to encourage anyone to take part, HIT IT BASE also shifted its promotional strategy to draw more teenagers in. For example, the prize and runner-up benefits of HIT IT BASE 2024 included a collaboration with Dingo Music’s Rising Verse, a showcase featuring rookie Korean hip-hop artists. The idea was to give participants the chance to archive their music in the media. “In 2024, our focus was on lowering the hurdles around hip-hop and broadening the reach of HIT IT BASE,” explains Yeojin Kim of the T&D Business Department’s IMC Part, who oversaw the program that year. As Yeojin Kim notes, the project placed emphasis on offering opportunities for beginners to step forward, unlike traditional hip-hop competitions aimed at unearthing highly skilled rap stars. Now in its third year, the program has even gained traction among parents of teenagers. On online parent forums, some have described it as a “credible training program, given that it’s hosted by BIGHIT MUSIC.” For the organizers, this recognition marks a welcome development. “It’s a very positive phenomenon,” says Park, while Yeojin Kim adds, “We deliberately targeted not only teenagers but also parents in our advertising.” The hope, they stress, is that HIT IT BASE continues to grow its branding in a way that resonates not just with Korean teens, but also with the parents who are helping them shape their futures.
HIT IT BASE strives to foster an environment where participants can grow into artists who express themselves through hip-hop in constructive ways. “Because adolescence is a time when we hope young people will walk the right path, the purpose of HIT IT BASE is to give teenagers the chance to create music they can only make at that age,” adds Casting Part Leader Hyeseong Kim. The T&D Business Division’s IMC Part, for instance, provides pre-reviews and feedback so that teenage participants can explore their artistic identity within hip-hop responsibly. Meanwhile, BIGHIT MUSIC’s Casting Part carefully evaluates each participant’s abilities and artistic style before assigning them to one of the program’s trainers—working hip-hop artists Mckdaddy, BOO HYUNSEOK, CHOILB, and ODEE—at a ratio of four to five students per mentor. Trainers meet weekly with the organizers to refine teaching methods and fine-tune the curriculum. As Park explains, each trainer brings a distinct mentoring style: “BOO HYUNSEOK tends to encourage participants from behind so they feel free to express themselves. Mckdaddy focuses on nailing down the fundamentals. CHOILB spends a lot of time helping them put their own stories into words, while ODEE teaches vocalization, diction, and stage presence.” In this way, the HIT IT BASE curriculum is designed not only to let teenagers experience a healthy hip-hop culture, but also to help them discover their individuality and musical identity through the process of turning personal stories into music.
Recognizing that for artists, self-expression extends beyond music, HIT IT BASE 2024 introduced a styling curriculum for the first time. While participants then received one-on-one consultations with professional stylists to find looks that suited them individually, HIT IT BASE 2025 shifted the focus to teams, encouraging each crew to define a styling concept that highlighted their collective identity. “In the first session, we covered overall topics like color palettes and combinations,” recalls Park. “After that, the stylist recommended looks that matched each team’s vibe. Teams then chose their own concepts—sporty, geek chic, genderless—and even went shopping together. We created group chats with the stylist to exchange detailed feedback.” In this way, the styling curriculum not only gave participants the chance to consider how they wished to present themselves as artists, but also helped them develop a sense of community as teams. In line with that spirit, HIT IT BASE replaces the competitive one-winner format of traditional rap battles with team-based performances that emphasize cooperation. “Participants would play their beats or self-written songs for one another, trading feedback,” says Park. “When mapping out choreography, they’d suggest ways to highlight each other’s strengths. After the program, many told us the best part was gaining friends.” Yeojin Kim also notes how the teenagers grew as a community: “At first, some were shy and hesitant. But as they got closer, they began to voice themselves comfortably. By the final showcase, they stood onstage as one team, and I thought, that’s what makes them truly remarkable—not just as performers, but as people.” In the end, those who applied to HIT IT BASE for personal growth and career aspirations walked away with something more: 18 peers who share the same dream.
Over the course of six weeks, HIT IT BASE gives its participants more than just a taste of hip-hop: it provides the groundwork for future growth, helping each teenager uncover their musical identity while immersing themselves deeply in the craft. Casting Part Leader Hyeseong Kim says he feels the greatest pride when witnessing the clear growth of participants before and after the program: “When I see them find their own style by the end of HIT IT BASE, or release self-produced tracks on streaming platforms, or when returning participants submit new audition videos that show real progress—I feel that we’ve made a truly meaningful contribution.” In this way, HIT IT BASE becomes not a one-off hip-hop workshop but the true starting point of a journey toward the dream of becoming an artist. Yeojin Kim echoes this sentiment: “I hope participants never forget the sincerity they carried from the moment they applied to the program through to standing on stage. Even if they don’t end up performing, I’d like to see them become producers or writers who help lead the music industry. I hope the experience and sense of accomplishment they gained here will support them as they grow as individuals.” For Park, one lasting memory comes from the final day of HIT IT BASE 2025, during the music video shoot: “After filming wrapped, the participants all lined up in front of the director and the staff—including the hair and makeup team—and shouted in unison, ‘Salute to the director!’ before heading off in high spirits. That moment stuck with me. If the sincerity of everyone who worked on this project was truly felt by the participants, then I’m satisfied.”
Over the past decade, as the K-pop industry has grown, entertainment company auditions have become fiercely competitive gateways to an artist career. The methods of discovering new talent—whether through public or private auditions, street casting, or online platforms—have also multiplied. Yet HIT IT BASE stands apart. Rather than simply selecting talent and prescribing an artist profile, the program distinguishes itself by promoting a healthy hip-hop culture to teenagers and offering them long-term opportunities for growth. HIT IT BASE functions—borrowing Park’s analogy—as a “long-term audition that discovers talent by recognizing potential.” Unlike conventional auditions that conclude after one or two short rounds, HIT IT BASE is becoming BIGHIT MUSIC’s unique model for identifying future artists by evaluating not only skills but also growth potential. As Park describes it, the program has now reached “the stage of becoming a growth platform where teenagers can fill the stage with their own voices.” In this sense, HIT IT BASE is more than an audition—it is an ongoing project, renewed each year, to help teenagers realize their limitless dreams of sharing their stories with the world through hip-hop.
