Cho PD

Cho Joong-hoon (Korean: 조중훈; born January 27, 1976), better known by his stage name Cho PD, is a South Korean record producer, rapper, and the founder of record label Stardom Entertainment. Producing his own music for himself and his crew Stardom (his company's eponym), he rose to prominence through the internet then debuted in 1998. Later, he also would support other artists like Psy, Verbal Jint and a young Dok2 earlier in their careers. After twelve years, he briefly "retired" from music in 2010. However, he came out of retirement in 2011 with his two studio albums, State of the Art and Art of Business. On November 23, 2018, Cho was found guilty of fraud by the Seoul Central District Court. The sentence concerned Cho withholding undisclosed assets worth ₩270,000,000 (approx. $238,116 USD) in July 2015 when he signed a contract to transfer the assets of Stardom Entertainment to a new unnamed company. These undisclosed funds were derived from Topp Dogg's 2015 concert tour of Japan. Cho was given a two-year prison sentence, suspended for 3 years. Since his sentencing, he made an attempt to reinvent his branding. In May 2019, he launched ChoCo Entertainment, which specializes in powering virtual AI-based K-pop idols. In 2023, he announced the launch of a new K-Pop group called ChoCo that will have various sub-units including: ChoCo1, ChoCo2, and ChoCo1&2.