If you’ve been in the K-Pop game for a number of years, surely you’ve felt unaccomplished compared to AB6IX’s Lee Daehwi. At just 20 years old, the young idol has already made a name for himself as a quintessential musical producer despite beginning his journey at a very young age. Even back in his time with WANNA ONE at the tender age of 16, Daehwi was already beginning his career as a songwriter. 

Daehwi became a fan favorite during his stint on Produce 101 Season 2, racking up over one million votes to take third place in the competition and earn himself a spot in the WANNA ONE lineup. The first song released that he’s credited on is the track “Good Day” by then-labelmate duo MXM, who would go on to eventually join along with him, Woojin, and trainee Woong to create the lineup for AB6IX. What is notable about this is that Daehwi wrote lyrics, composed, and arranged the song all at 16, which is an amazing feat considering what most of us are doing at the age of 16.

As 2018 rolled around, he took part in WANNA ONE’s album 1÷x=1 (Undivided) on the track “모래시계 (Sandglass),” contributing to the lyrics while HEIZE produced the song. He was also continually writing for MXM in that time, and contributed to an EP For Produce 48, the newest version of the Produce series. As WANNA ONE came to a close and AB6IX came to be, Daehwi took on a huge role in production of his group’s albums. Debut album B Complete has him credited on nearly every song on the album, but most notably the title track “Breathe.”

While many of his productions are contained within his label, in 2019 he branched out and wrote some music for previous bandmates Yoon Jisung and Park Jihoon. His most notable production outside of his group is for Produce 48 super group IZ*ONE, where he wrote and composed the song “Airplane” for the group.

On top of songwriting, Daehwi has a huge career as an MC, and most of 2020 saw him focusing on that as well as writing for AB6IX. He is only freshly 20, so it’ll be interesting to see how much more he grows and transforms his career beginning on such a strong path. We’re excited to see how Daehwi develops in the coming years!