JAY B

JAY B (임재범, Im Jae-beom; born January 6, 1994, Siheung, Gyeonggi Province) leads GOT7 and remains one of K-pop's more quietly compelling creative forces. He started b-boying in middle school under the name Defsoul, competing around Ilsan and Paju, before a JYP Entertainment scout found him at a 2009 b-boy competition. He placed first at the open audition alongside Jinyoung, beating out roughly 10,000 applicants, and deepened into composition after discovering D'Angelo during training at Konkuk University. After debuting as JJ Project in 2012 and then as GOT7's leader in 2014, Jaebeom built a parallel creative life around production, photography, and R&B writing. As Def., he released SOMO:FUME and Be Yourself through H1ghr Music, then returned from military service to issue Archive 1: Road Runner via Mauve Company in 2024. That stretch sharpened the side of his catalog that values atmosphere, arrangement, and emotional detail over easy idol shorthand. GOT7's post-JYP independence also reinforced his role as the member most willing to protect infrastructure as well as music. He helped reclaim the group's legacy channels before GOT7 returned with Winter Heptagon, distributed through Kakao Entertainment. In 2026, he opened a new chapter with 528Hz, using TR.EE and the Tape: Roots Seoul concerts to push his Def. authorship into a cleaner, founder-led solo era.