Do we like Taeyang?
Our score: 7 out of 10. Nothing harmful in his words since, a real record of giving, and one old racism row that he apologised for.
Taeyang is one of the three BIGBANG members still performing together, and this year is the group's 20th anniversary. YG Entertainment announced a 2026 world tour with G-Dragon, Taeyang and Daesung, plus Coachella appearances in April. Seungri left in 2019 and T.O.P left the lineup in 2023.
His big solo moment came in May with Quintessence, his first solo album in about nine years, released on his birthday. He told The Star he kept asking what new challenge he could take on after two decades. It reads like a bloke who's still working at it, not coasting on the old hits.
The mess is a 2016 Lunar New Year post made with a face-swap app. A version with Kanye West's face, tagged “Happy Monkey New Year”, drew accusations of racism. He deleted it and apologised, saying “it is totally my fault and I take responsibility”.
When the clip resurfaced on X in late August 2026, Koreaboo reported that international fans again called it racism. Some fans argued he'd already apologised and that dredging up a decade-old clip was a bit much. Where you land depends on whether you weigh the joke or the quick apology more, but it's a real stain either way.
On the wider harm check, we found nothing else. No anti-LGBTQ+ remarks, no conspiracy theories, no campaigning against any group turned up in the coverage we read. His bandmates have had trouble: G-Dragon's agency apologised in May 2026 after a shirt with a racial slur at a Macau show, and Seungri is accused of assault in a complaint reported in September. Neither report mentions Taeyang, so that's their business, not his.
The record is thinner than for some stars, because he rarely wades into politics. So this is a fairly confident yes, not a gushing one.