ROCKY : ASTRO’s main dancer is also a talented rapper and singer

Solène 25 February 2021 3 min read

On February 25, we are celebrating PARK MINHYUK’s birthday, an artist better known as ROCKY from ASTRO.

ROCKY is known to be a dancer, a singer, an actor, a rapper, a composer, a lyricist, a choregrapher and an MC. He started dancing at the age of 5 in Jinju and he never stopped. He is quiet but can be really loud with his co-members. His stage name, ROCKY, comes from his body full of muscles and his personality because he is a reliable person just like a rock.

He is ASTRO‘s member who spent the most years as a trainee just after MOON BIN and they even call themselves “the ancestors”. ROCKY joined Fantagio when he was in middle school after one audition to the musical “Billy Elliot”. He was able to show his talents as a dancer and started to learn about acting, singing and rapping. He quickly joined the company’s project ITEEN and he was called the “triple threat” thanks to his skills as a dancer, singer and rapper. During his trainee days, ROCKY participated in many projects to show his skills and filmed the video under in which he had to perform a choreo he created himself but as if there were three different dancers in one video.

In 2015, after performing for weeks on Lotte World’ stage with the other trainees, ROCKY was the first one to be introduced as a member of Fantagio’s new boy group. Before their debuts, ASTRO‘s members participated in the “Meet U project” to meet their fans in Korea and they filmed the mini web-drama “To Be Continued” in which they could show their skills as for example in this dance scene by ROCKY.

On February 23, a few days before his birthday, ROCKY debuted as a member of ASTRO with title-song “Hide and Seek”. Since that day, the group made many comebacks and tried several concepts over the years from cute, to sexy and cool. ROCKY also created choreographies for a few ASTRO‘ songs such as “Morning Call” and “All Night”.

ROCKY is known for being a rapper and a dancer, but less people know that he is a good singer and many were surprised by this side of him that could lead him to be a main vocal. His singing voice was shown to a larger audience for the first time for a cover of “Replay” by SHINee during a special episode of MCountdown. His high notes that were easily sang surprised a lot of people who knew him as a rapper and this song cover is still ASTRO‘s most famous cover with 6 millions views.

Moreover, ROCKY had several solo activities when being active as a member of ASTRO. He proved he was a skilled dancer in many dance styles through several shows such as “Hit the stage” or “Dance War”. In this dance competition show, male k-pop artists had to do covers while wearing masks in order to be judged for their dance skills only and forget about each of the artists’ popularity. A lot of people were amazed by ROCKY‘s dancing skills and he always received the best mark by choreographers and pro dancers during the competition. Each of the male artists from this show were able to do a special stage together for the MMA and you can find ROCKY‘s fancam under.

ROCKY also developped new talents as a music composer and lyricist and he even created songs for his group. He shares some of his work, creations, guide versions and song covers on his SOUNDCLOUD account as for example the guide version of “When the wind blows” by ASTRO.