The Legacy of BTOB’s Minhyuk

Photo: Cube Entertainment

As someone who joined the K-Pop wave during the early days of the Third Generation, it feels more and more each day we are losing the ancient texts. I imagine that fans that joined before me felt this even during Gen 3, but as K-Pop continues to expand globally and reaches even higher influence, a lot of the amazing artists that fought for their careers are getting forgotten by the masses for their talents and contributions to the prosperity of the Hallyu Wave. BTOB is one of the top groups that I feel has lost that notoriety. When people talk about Gen 3 boy groups, you’ll always hear mentions of BTS, EXO and GOT7, maybe even MONSTA X, but rarely is BTOB mentioned among the lot. Perhaps it’s because much of their discography revolves around ballads, but the members of BTOB are known for their artistic talent and quirky personalities, and not enough attention is paid to either or these characteristics these days. For this Artist Highlight, we’re going to focus on BTOB’s rapper Lee Minhyuk, an all-rounder artist with a storied past. 

Career Beginnings

Like many successful artists in the industry, Minhyuk’s journey began in the underground music scene under the moniker HUTA, which he would go on to use as well in his solo endeavors in the future. He worked alongside other artists that would later debut on the scene as well, namely ZICO and Park Kyung of Block B. 

With BTOB

BTOB debuted in April of 2012 with Eunkwang, Minhyuk, Changsub, Hyunsik, Peniel, Ilhoon and Sungjae. BTOB was and is still indeed a heavily vocal focused group, which lead to many of their releases being ballad focused. But despite that, the rapping talent in their lineup is nothing to scoff at, though admittedly early on Ilhoon took the main spotlight of that position. Their music oscillated between heavy vocal focused ballads and more upbeat pop tracks, but with either type of sound the group had mainstream success in Korea. At their peak around 2017 and 2018, they achieved the KMCA Platinum status on streaming, with 2.5 million streams on two of their title tracks. 

Minhyuk holds the position of lead rapper, lead dancer, vocalist, and visual. After Ilhoon departed from the group due to a drug scandal, he became the main rapper of the group along with Peniel. Ilhoon’s scandal did leave a mark on BTOB’s popularity, but it certainly didn’t cause the end of their mainstream success. A number of sub-units came out of the group during the required military service period, with Minhyuk participating in BTOB 4U formed in 2020 and most recently 90TAN in 2024.

Since completing their contract with Cube Entertainment in 2023, the members of BTOB established the BTOB Company sub-label under DOD Entertainment, with four of six members signing under it to cover all their solo activities. Today, any content you see under BTOB Company will feature Minhyuk and his fellow members Eunkwang, Hyunsik, and Peniel. 

HUTA

Minhyuk’s first appearance as HUTA came as a feature on Postmen’s 2015 track “I’m Okay.” He also released two more tracks in 2017, self-produced single “Purple Rain” featuring Cheeze and “Childlike.”

His official debut under HUTA came in 2019 with self-composed album HUTAZONE, which peaked at No. 3 on the Gaon Weekly Album chart upon release. His second album Boom was released in 2022 to similar reception. I personally find his solo work to really showcase his artistry in a way that was never very prevalent within BTOB, especially the title track “Boom.” He has a very strong and distinct rap tone with a fierce flow that is equally as smooth—the kind of tone I feel is missing in newer debut artists. On top of that he has a great vocal ability as well, which doesn’t get the chance to shine in his group full of insane vocal talent. 

His latest release came in July of this year in EP Hook. His all-rounder status is definitely solidified in his albums, with a myriad of different genres to explore in his self-composed work.

Minhyuk has also been known lately for his attention to his physique, as seen on a feature of Men’s Health Korea. It does feel like he’s the type of artist that sort of faded into the background early in his career despite his talents, so now solidly in his 30s, he’s having the chance to shine and showcase what he’s really all about on his own terms.