After signing a contract with the record label, they spent the first year cleaning the studio and fetching water bottles during dance practices for YG artists.
[5] The original plan for the two was to debut as the hip-hop duo GDYB, with Kwon choosing the stage name G-Dragon ("Ji" is pronounced like "G" and Yong is Korean for "dragon").
[6] Though they made several appearances both as a duo and as individuals on other artists' music,[7][8] the plan for their debut was scrapped and they were joined by four other trainees (T.O.P, Daesung, Seungri and Jang Hyun-seung) to form BigBang instead.
[5] Despite activities with their band, the duo continued to collaborate with one another outside of BigBang's materials, with G-Dragon participating as a writer and producer for Taeyang's first extended play Hot (2008),[nb 1] after which G-Dragon subsequently recorded a "Part Two" to the EP's lead single "Only Look at Me" (나만바라봐; Revised Romanization: Naman Barabwa).
[12] In 2015, the duo participated in the Infinite Challenge music festival, teaming up with ZE:A's Hwang Kwanghee for the single "Mapsosa", which peaked at number two on the Gaon Digital Chart[13] and sold 1.3 million copies by the end of the year, making it one of the best-selling songs of 2015.