After a stint in the two-year ballad group BoM from 2011 to 2013, he joined YG Entertainment, leading to his debut in 2014 with the boy band Winner, formed through Mnet survival program WIN: Who Is Next.
[2] It also became his first single to receive a platinum certification from the Korea Music Content Association (KMCA) after achieving sales of 2.5 million digital copies.
He auditioned and trained under Stardom Entertainment for several years before attaining a position in the line-up for the boy band, Block B alongside trainees Zico, U-Kwon, B-Bomb and Jaehyo.
However, due to not being of legal age at the time, his father consulted with the company on his behalf in terms of business regarding the contract and ultimately was unable to reach an agreement.
[8] Starting from scratch, Mino joined and trained under Y2Y Contents Company for nearly two years before making his debut on July 27, 2011, as a rapper under the stage name "Tagoon" in the ballad boy band BoM.
[9] While promoting with the group, despite writing five songs among their releases, the executive of the company did not register nor credit Mino's contributions for copyright and instead forged another person's name to receive royalties.
[12] Winner officially made their debut on August 17, 2014, with the studio album, 2014 S/S and the double A-side singles, "Empty" and "Color Ring".
Upon their debut, the quintet shot to instantaneous success with "Empty" topping all South Korean charts including Gaon, earning them the title "Monster Rookies".
In December 2014, Mino co-hosted the 2014 SBS Gayo Daejeon alongside South Korean actress, Song Ji-hyo and singers 2PM's Nichkhun, CNBLUE's Yonghwa, Infinite's L and B1A4's Baro.
[18] In April 2015, Mino appeared in the Mnet rap survival program Show Me the Money 4 as a member of "Team Zipal" competing under Zico and Paloalto.
[19][20] Through the program, Mino released numerous singles including Fear, Turtle Ship, Moneyflow, and Okey Dokey.
Through the MBC variety program, Infinite Challenge, Mino was cast for the show's "Hip hop & History Special" alongside Zico, Bewhy, Dok2, Gaeko and DinDin.
[26] Outside of music, in January 2017, Mino joined the cast of tvN variety program, New Journey to the West alongside Kyuhyun of Super Junior from season 2.5 onward.
Mino also made an appearance in the music video, which was later released on July 27, as well as on Seungri's live performance on MBC's Show!
Mino made his official solo debut on November 26, 2018, with his first studio album XX, and the lead single "Fiancé" (아낙네).
[33] On October 30, 2020, Mino released his second self-produced solo album Take, with the lead single "Run Away" which peaked at number 55 on the Gaon Digital Chart.
Those in attendance at the concert included Mino's Winner bandmates Jinwoo and Seunghoon, Twice's Jeongyeon, YG labelmates from Treasure and IKon, and Blackpink's Jennie.
[39] For rap, he fancied the husky and rough voices of rappers such as Dirty South, Young Jeezy and Ja Rule which was embodied in his earlier work.
[38] Citing his appearance on the fourth installment of Show Me the Money as a career turning point, from then on he changed his rap tone to something more natural and comfortable.
Hypebeast praised the exhibition's symbolism, and noted the way it portrayed a "burnout" culture where societies literally work themselves to death.
[50] Lotte Chilsung, the largest beverage manufacturers in South Korea launched new products dubbed the "Let's Be" Coffee in February 2019.
[citation needed] In September 2017, Mino, along with bandmate Lee Seung-hoon, was chosen as influencers most suited to being ambassadors of luxury brand Burberry appointed by previous creative officer Christopher Bailey as they exhibited a "Viktor Horsting & Rolf Snoeren-like approach to haute couture" and named as winning front row looks.
The package was only available to friends of Mino, and were seen worn by label mates Lisa of Blackpink and Donghyuk of iKon, Kwon twins of YG Hitech dance team, South Korean rapper and producer Code Kunst, and many others.
Mino increased attention on the brand alongside the awareness of Songzio among the younger generation with their collaboration 'Black Sunflower, Edition 93'.
[58][full citation needed] In September 2022, Mino launched his own brand, Sensorama, which has ring and necklace with diffuser as one of the products.