Joon Lee

Joon Lee
Joon Lee at the Solid fifth studio album, Into the light, launch party on March 21, 2018, in Seoul, South Korea
Born	Joon Lee (1972-03-23)March 23, 1972 (age 52) Seoul, South Korea
Other names	DJ Akshon DJ Action
Education	University of Southern California
Occupation(s)	Rapper, singer, entrepreneur
Years active	1993–1997, 2018–present
Musical career
Genres	R&B Hip hop
Instruments	Vocals Turntables
Website	solid.kr
Musical artist
Korean name
Hangul	이준
Revised Romanization	I Jun
McCune–Reischauer	Ri Chun
Signature

John Lee (born March 23, 1972),^[1][2] better known by his Korean name, Joon Lee (Korean: 이준), is a Korean American rapper, singer, songwriter, DJ, and most notably one-third of the South Korean R&B/hip-hop trio, Solid.^[3] He introduced turntablism to Korea in the mid '90s.^[4][5][6][7] He rose to fame and gained popularity in 1995 with the breakout hit "Holding Onto the End of the Night" (Korean: 이밤의 끝을 잡고), from Solid's second album The Magic of 8 Ball (1995).^[8]

Lee is regarded as part of the first generation of Korean rappers like the members of Uptown and Hyundo Lee.^[9] He became not only one of the most sought after rappers in the South Korean music industry of the '90s collaborating with renown artists including 015B (ko), Jinyoung Park, Roo'ra, and Uptown but also an inspiration to the next generation of rappers – Gary of Leessang, Jinpyo Kim and Flowsik to name a few.^[10][11] Lee, with two other members of Solid, was at the forefront of bringing the American hip-hop sound to South Korean audience and played a pivotal role establishing the genre during a time when ballad and dance music were prevalent.^[12][13][14]

Joon Lee was one of the first Korean Americans to become successful in the South Korean music industry, and opened the door for more Koreans from overseas to enter into the Korean entertainment industry; the industry began seeking talents from abroad proactively thereafter.^[15][16]

He has been synonymous with eight-ball cane from which he was inseparable during his performances of Solid; subsequently, the eight-ball quickly became the symbol of the group.^{[17][18][19][20]}

In addition to being a musician, he runs a real estate development company in California with about 30 employees.^[21][22]