1300 drop debut album 'ILLSAMGONGGONG' feat. GIRIBOY, Kim Ximya, CHANGMO

Sydney-based Korean alternative hip-hop group 1300 dropped their self-titled debut album ILLSAMGONGGONG on July 16. It's their first proper full-length since signing with Universal Music Korea.

Thirteen tracks. A dense guest list. GIRIBOY appeared on pre-release single Headrock. Kim Ximya landed on wheres my money. CHANGMO and DKAY both show up on 100, which the group describes as a callback to street cypher energy. Grammy-nominated producer NEZ — whose work includes albums by A$AP Rocky and Schoolboy Q — contributed to WHISTLE.

The title track Fever comes with a music video shot entirely on iPhone, directed and edited by member Nerdie.

1300 framed the album as something hard-won. "In rapid growth, crossing continents, we had to constantly balance maintaining our individual lives," they said. The record, they added, "was born through necessary silence" — "both a question and answer we posed to ourselves about whether the value built together by five people scattering in different directions can endure the weight of life."

Clash wrote that "2026 will be their year and they have a debut album to prove it." Billboard, covering the Universal Music Korea deal, called them "artists reshaping the boundaries of Korean hip-hop."

1300 will take the stage at the One Universe Festival at Paradise City in Incheon on July 26.