Lyrical Epik High

Early life, Tablo was born in Seoul, South Korea on July 22, 1980. His family relocated several times to Indonesia, Switzerland and Hong Kong^[3] for his father's career until Tablo was six, when his family returned to South Korea.^[4] His family again moved to Canada when he was eight. Tablo attended St. George's^[5] until he was expelled due to trouble in 9th grade.^[3] Tablo again returned to Seoul and spent three years in Seoul International School.^[4]In 2002, Tablo graduated Stanford University with a bachelors degree in English Literature.^[6][7] Tablo started to play the piano when he was six, and switched to violin, which he played for 10 years.^[1] his music teacher, who is a pupil of Isaac Stern, used to lecture Tablo saying "Music is communism, but you're playing democracy". However, he ceased to play violin as he was dismissed from the orchestra after suddenly playing the soundtrack of Jurassic Park while the orchestra was playing Brandenburg Concerto No.3 in a concert.^[1] In 1997, when he was in high school, Tablo wrote the lyrics to Kim Gun Mo's song Rainy Chiristmas, as Kim offered Tablo after reading his poem.^[3]

During early life, Tablo suffered from bouts of depression, the origins of which are unknown. Through these times of hardship, hip hop music served as an outlet for him and after his interest sparked later in life, Tablo decided to make hip hop the focus of his career. Tablo's father was adamant that he not embark on such a course, fearing that his son would endure the same hardships that he had suffered in his own youth. Tensions arose in the family and as a result of these, Tablo frequently tried to escape and leave home. Eventually, he accepted his father's wishes and began to forget about music, ostensibly asking a friend to live out his own wishes to be making hip hop music. This same friend died of cancer sometime afterward, thus serving as an impetus for Tablo to re-enter the music industry at the behest of his dying friend.^[8] While he was in the university, Tablo associated with an underground hip hop group 4n Objectz for three years.^[3]