WOODZ

Cho Seung-youn (Korean: 조승연, born August 5, 1996), known professionally as Woodz (우즈; stylized in all caps), is a South Korean singer-songwriter, rapper, and record producer. He rose to fame as the main rapper of the South Korean-Chinese boy band Uniq, formed by Yuehua Entertainment in 2014, before co-founding the musical collectives M.O.L.A in 2015 and Drinkcolor in 2016. He co-founded his personal production team, Team HOW, in 2018. He is a former member of the South Korean boy group X1. Following an appearance on the fifth season of the South Korean rap competition show Show Me the Money, Woodz debuted as a solo artist under the stage name Luizy in July 2016, with the release of the collaborative hip-hop single "Recipe". He changed his stage name to Woodz in 2018 to accommodate shifts in musical direction. His releases as Woodz—including the singles "Pool", "Different", and "Meaningless"—delved into alternative R&B and featured heavier emphasis on vocals. In addition to his solo work, he has written and produced songs for artists in both his native South Korea and China, as well as for the shows The Unit: Idol Rebooting Project and Idol Producer. In 2019, Woodz participated in the South Korean survival show Produce X 101. Finishing in fifth place, he became a member of the show's project boy band, X1, which debuted under Swing Entertainment in August 2019. Following the group's disbandment on January 6, 2020, in the aftermath of the Mnet vote manipulation investigation, Woodz resumed his solo career by releasing his first EP Equal on June 29, 2020, with the lead single "Love Me Harder" (파랗게).