He promoted as Nacseo in the Japanese underground hip hop scene alongside the crews "Dope Squad" and "Undisputed".

[11] He featured in IU's song "Marshmallow" as well as Cho PD's "Expectations for K-Hip Hop" and Jung Seul-gi's "Outsiders".

The Korean Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and public broadcast channel KBS banned the songs "LOL" and "Did You or Did You Not" from minors.

Still, I do acknowledge that as a producer that creates songs meant for the public, it was a shortcoming of mine to not have paid more attention to the regulations.

[21][full citation needed] At the 2012 Mnet Asian Music Awards he participated in a hip hop collaboration called "Beats Rocks The World" with artists including Loco, Double K, Davichi, and Dynamic Duo.

Later, rapper Aphelia created a diss track called "Zicontrol", specifically speaking of his frustration with Zico's guaranteed popularity as an idol compared to the difficulty of being a hip hop artist alone.

[29][full citation needed] Dead'P [ko], in the track "Rap Game Control", also expressed frustration over idols portraying themselves as "hip hop" and the integration of mainstream K-pop culture into the underground hiphop scene.

On October 18, Zico and fellow Block B member P.O walked during Seoul Fashion Week for the brand Dominic's Way by designer Song Hye-myung (송혜명).

In November, Zico was featured in IZE magazine,[32] and publicly tweeted about how the intrusion of sasaeng fans into his life forced him to constantly change his phone number to avoid their communications.

[34][full citation needed] In late May 2014, following the Sewol Ferry Disaster, Zico attended the funeral of a fan who had died in the incident and dedicated a rap to her at Block B's 2014 Blockbuster Concert.

[46] He also performed at the Hiphopplaya Show Weekend, a Korean hip hop festival at the Itaewon Blue Square on October 31.

[47] Zico presented the 2014 Asia Song Festival along with Super Junior's Leeteuk and Girl's Day's Minah.

On November 7, Zico released his official solo debut single entitled "Tough Cookie" featuring the rapper Don Mills.

[1] He was criticized for wearing a jacket emblazoned with an American Confederate flag in the single's accompanying music video and the use of the homophobic slur "faggot" in the song's lyrics.

February 2015 also saw Zico join the cast of the female rap competition show Unpretty Rapstar for the second episode, as a producer.

[58] In May 2015, it was announced that Zico would be appear for the entire season of Show Me the Money 4 as a producer with Paloalto of Hi-Lite Records.

In mid-November 2016, Jellyfish Entertainment announced that Gugudan's Kim Se-jeong would release a song produced by Zico.

[citation needed] Later that month, it was announced that Zico, Crush, and Dean would collaborate on a single called "Bermuda Triangle", released November 28.

[71] In addition, Zico, Crush, and Dean performed at the 2016 Mnet Asian Music Awards on December 2,[72][unreliable source?]

[78] On April 4, it was announced that Zico would join Dean as one of the producing teams for the sixth season of Show Me the Money.

][82] The team's final contestant, Hangzoo from Rhythm Power, won the season, narrowly edging out the rapper Nucksal.

[85] It was announced on July 3, 2018, that Zico would be releasing a single album at the end of the month that would contain a song featuring the singer IU.

[86] Two days later Zico's first solo concert was announced, with two shows, August 11 and 12, at the SK Olympic Handball Gymnasium in Seoul, and an international tour planned for September and October.

[89] On August 13, concert promoter My Music Taste announced that Zico would be touring Europe from September 26 to October 2, visiting Madrid, London, Berlin, Warsaw, Amsterdam, and Moscow.

[90] On August 28 it was announced that Zico would also tour Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and New York City in the United States in late October.

[96][97] On March 2, 2019, it was announced that the mayor of Seoul, Park Won-soon, would appoint Zico as a goodwill representative for the city.

[110] On July 1, Zico released his third EP Random Box, with its title track "Summer Hate" featuring Rain.

[115][116] In May 2022, a few weeks after completing his public service, Zico announced his return to the SUMMER SONIC 2022 festival in Japan, six years after he last performed there.

[118] On July 27, 2022, Zico released his fourth EP Grown Ass Kid, with its title track "Freak".

[126] Zico is a devout Roman Catholic with his baptismal name "John the Apostle" tattooed on his chest, along with a portrait of his mother and below it the phrase "God save Paulus".