Choi Dong-hoon (; born January 31, 1983), better known by the stage name Primary (), is a South Korean hip hop musician and record producer. Formerly an artist under Amoeba Culture, he established his own record label Paktory Company on April 22, 2020.

Primary has collaborated with various artists to produce the albums Back Again, Primary Score, Daily Apartment, Primary and the Messengers, and 2. He has also produced albums for other Korean hip hop artists, including Supreme Team's first album Supremier and Dynamic Duo's Kill, as well as several of MBLAQ's singles, including "I'm Back" and "Smokey Girl". He appeared in the MBC variety program Infinite Challenge in 2013.

Career Primary became active in the South Korean hip hop scene in 2004 with collaborations with Dynamic Duo and Garion. He also gained musical experience while attending Seoul Jazz Academy. In 2006, he debuted with an album named Daily Apartment in collaboration with Beenzino, under the name P' Skool. As part of the promotions for the album, Primary donned a cardboard box mask with a bird beak in order to be more memorable. The band is now inactive, but often play at live performances for Dynamic Duo and Supreme Team.

Primary and Dynamic Duo's Gaeko created a track for Quincy Jones's 2011 visit to Korea which Jones sung at a press conference and expressed his appreciation for. In 2011 Primary released the first part of the album Primary and The Messengers and continued to release the subsequent four parts through October 2012. The album in total includes collaborations with 23 separate artists. He successfully broke into the top ten on various Korean music charts with the album's track "? (Question Mark)" in November 2012. Primary performed a special stage with Dynamic Duo at the 2012 MBC Gayo Daejun.

On August 31 and September 1, 2013, Primary held a sold-out joint concert with Zion.T at the Lotte Art Center in Seoul. Primary also participated at the 2013 Infinite Challenge Song Festival, performing with Park Myeong-su and producing a song for Park Ji-yoon. The songs he made for the event, "I Got C" and "Mr. Lee". were later have found to have crossed the line from sampling into plagiarism in their use of Dutch artist Caro Emerald's songs "Liquid Lunch" and "One Day". Primary later officially credited Caro Emerald's composing group Grandmono for the songs. All of the proceeds from the song "I Got C" were later donated. Primary later produced the song "Without You" for Infinite H.

On March 24, 2020, Amoeba Culture announced that their exclusive contract with Primary had been terminated.

On April 22, 2020, he established his own record label Paktory Company.

Discography

Studio albums Title Album details Peak chart positions Sales KOR Primary and the Messengers LP charting: 2 charting: Primary and the Messengers LPReleased: October 31, 2012 Label: Amoeba Culture, CJ E&M Formats: CD, digital download 3KOR: 27,584Cumulative sales of Primary and the Messengers LP:

2Released: August 2, 2015 Label: Amoeba Culture, LOEN Entertainment Formats: CD, digital download 7KOR: 3,323

Extended plays Title Album details Peak chart positions KOR Lucky You!Collaborative album with Oh Hyuk Released: March 24, 2015 Label: Amoeba Culture, Loen Entertainment Formats: CD, digital download — Shininryu()Released: August 4, 2017 Label: Amoeba Culture, Loen Entertainment Formats: CD, digital download — PopReleased: August 30, 2017 Label: Amoeba Culture, Loen Entertainment Formats: CD, digital download 40 Do Worry Be HappyCollaborative album with Anda Released: April 3, 2018 Label: Amoeba Culture Formats: CD, digital download — BoxtapeInstrumental album Released: September 28, 2020 Label: Paktory Company, YG Plus Formats: CD, digital download —

Singles Title Year Peak chart positions Sales Album KOR "Magic Glass" () 2011 79KOR: 153,894Cumulative sale of "Magic Glass": Primary And The Messengers "Johnny" () 2012 39KOR: 2,024,195Cumulative sales of "Johnny": "Meet" () 74KOR: 57,159 Primary and the Messengers "See Through" () 20KOR: 1,862,670Cumulative sales of "See Through": "Clean Entrance" () 20KOR: 796,128Cumulative sales of "Clean Entrance": "?" () 3KOR: 2,378,184Cumulative sales of "?": "Bawling" 2015 39KOR: 57,298Cumulative sales of "Bawling": Lucky You! "See You" () 7KOR: 490,629Cumulative sales of "See You": 2 "Mannequin" () 11KOR: 216,611Cumulative sales of "Mannequin": "Don't Be Shy" () 10KOR: 491,184Cumulative sales of "Don't Be Shy": "Hello" () 33KOR: 109,466 "~42" 2017 44KOR: 92,674 Shininryu "Right?" 27 KOR: 105,072Cumulative sales of "Right?":

Pop "Dressroom" 2018 — rowspan="5" Do worry Be happy "woozoo" () 2019 — rowspan="2" "When I Fall in Love" — "Cloud" 2020 —Boxtape "Bless You" — Paktory Playlist 2020"—" denotes releases that did not chart.

Other charted songs Title Year Peak chart positions Sales Album KOR "Love" 2012 75KOR: 95,934Cumulative sales "Love": Primary and the Messengers "Mine Tonight" 86KOR: 42,047 "Poison" () 17KOR: 715,965Cumulative sale of "Poison": "Congratulations" () 40KOR: 340,983Cumulative sales of "Congratulations": "I'm Back" 55KOR: 221,348Cumulative sales of "I'm Back": "Maebong Station Line 3" (3호선 매봉역) 61KOR: 243,346Cumulative sales of "Maebong Station Line 3": "Playboy's Diary" 67KOR: 112,051Cumulative sales of "Playboy's Diary": "2 Weeks" (2주일) 83KOR: 65,243 "Happy Ending" 84KOR: 94,033Cumulative sales of "Happy Ending": "High End Girl" () 96KOR: 56,264 "Say It" () —KOR: 45,846 "Away" () —KOR: 41,862 "eTunnel" 2015 80KOR: 23,463Cumulative sales of "eTunnel": Lucky You! "Gondry" () — KOR: 18,115Cumulative sales of "Gondry": "Island" — KOR: 15,725Cumulative sales of "Island": "U" 32KOR: 158,700Cumulative sales of "U": 2 "Established Head" () 37KOR: 128,207 "Her" () 49KOR: 95,031Cumulative sales of "Her": "Mileage" () 45KOR: 114,263Cumulative sales of "Mileage": "Rubber" () 23KOR: 152,644 "Just Like U" 73KOR: 35,209 "Paranoia" () —KOR: 26,747 "Gold Finger" () —KOR: 20,136 "Drama" () 2017 29KOR: 56,977 Pop "Took" () 61KOR: 35,602 "Pick Up" () 81KOR: 30,977 "Hush" () 99KOR: 24,686 "Diet" () —KOR: 20,641"—" denotes releases that did not chart.

Filmography

Television series

D.P (Netflix, 2021) Weak Hero Class (Wavve/Netflix, 2021-2025) Black Knight (Netflix, 2023) A Shop for Killers (Disney+, 2024) Unmasked (Disney+, 2025) The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call (Netflix, 2025) Newtopia (Coupang Play, 2025) Doctor X: Mafia in White (SBSTV, 2026)

Notes

References