DPR Live to take hiatus from DPR and release next album as Dabin

10 October, 2023

DPR Live

DPR Live has announced that he will take a hiatus from the DPR collective and release his next album under his real name, Hong Da-bin.

The rapper co-founded the Dream Perfect Regime (DPR) label with fellow members Ian, Cream and REM in 2014, and has released three EPs and one album, 2020’s ‘Is Anybody Out There?’, as part of the collective.

In an Instagram Live broadcast last night (October 9), Hong told fans he was taking a break from DPR and the DPR Live moniker. “I hit a point where I told Ian and Cream, ‘I can’t do these shows anymore, bro. I’m gonna break down, I’m tired. I know in my head this is all I want and all I wish for, but I need to live a little,’” he said.

“And that’s exactly what Ian told me: ‘Bro, live a little bro. Live man, like as ironic as it sounds, you’re fucking live. That’s why you made this goddamn name. Live, bro.’ I think what hit me the most and what I was very grateful for is, this is one of the things he said: ‘I got to live a little because you were there, Dabin. I think it’s only right that you live a little this time.’”

Hong continued to say that his conversation with Ian and Cream had helped him “muster up the courage to just go towards the direction where my heart directs and so this is where we’re at”. He added that he wasn’t sure how long it would be until he returned to DPR and the DPR Live name, but he is “ready to just be fucking honest, transparent as hell” in this next chapter.

“That’s why I started this,” he said. “That’s what I wanted Coming To You Live [his new company] to be about. And I know what I want DPR universe to be about – we’ve had endless conversations about that. But, for now, I need to live my life and that’s what it is. CTYL, new company, super excited.

“I have family members in this company. I have best friends, school friends from elementary that are in this company that are really helping me take this next step in my life, this next chapter. And I’m just hoping that you guys understand and support me, and I just didn’t want things to be misconstrued going forward. Because I want y’all to know where my heart’s at.”

Speaking to NME around the release of his 2021 EP ‘IITE COOL’, Hong highlighted again his desire to be “transparent” in his music. “Everything I wrote about was very honest,” he said. “Hence the name ‘Live’. I just really want to be transparent with my music. Sometimes as an artist you want to go really deep. Where, like the emotions you talked about, having three jobs, displaying my past with my father and school, those things are not a fun feeling.”

In other DPR news, Ian shared his latest EP ‘Dear Insanity…’ last week (October 6) after previewing it with the track ‘So I Danced’. According to an official description, ‘Dear Insanity…’ acts as a prequel to the singer’s last two releases, ‘Moodswings in This Order’ and ‘Moodswings In To Order’, which centre around a character called MITO.

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