T.O.P Says His 10-Year Absence Was 'Time I Found Myself', and a New Album Is Almost Ready

T.O.P's September cover for Highsnobiety Japan, shot in collaboration with Gucci, landed on September 1st with something most fans weren't expecting: a candid, reflective interview in which he reframed his near decade-long absence not as a period of loss, but of discovery. Styled in all-black with wet-look hair, he looks composed and deliberate in the editorial images, which feels fitting for what he had to say.

"It was actually the time I found myself," he told the magazine of the years he spent away from the industry. "If that time hadn't existed, I think I might not have been able to stand back up like this while working on music again."

A new chapter, on his own terms

T.O.P, born Choi Seung-hyun, formerly of BIGBANG, stepped back from public life following a marijuana conviction in 2017, for which he received a ten-month prison sentence suspended for two years. The years that followed were largely quiet, and his return has been gradual and clearly intentional.

When asked to describe himself in a single word, he chose student. "Whether I'm taking in a beautiful landscape in nature or meeting people, I always try to learn something good from it," he said. "I think it's a mindset of growing through constant study."

That sense of deliberate growth carries into how he spoke about reconnecting with his fanbase, TOPSX. "When we met again, I held back a lot of tears," he said. "Because of that time apart, I came to understand just how precious it is to reunite. It had been ten years, so I wanted to show a version of myself that was more grounded, a little different."

Tour dates and album news

Right now, T.O.P is meeting fans through his brand tour, T.O.P PRE-STUDIO 2026, which kicked off in Hong Kong on August 15th before moving to Taipei. The Taipei stop sold out entirely, prompting an additional show to be added. He's set to continue the tour across Asia.

On the music front, the news is genuinely exciting for fans who've been waiting. "The first step is meeting fans directly through the tour and communicating with them," he said. "There's a lot being prepared. The album is in a state where it can be released at any time. I don't think it'll be far off."

He also offered a sense of what to expect thematically. His debut solo album, ANOTHER DIMENSION (다중관점), was autobiographical in nature. The follow-up will shift its focus outward. "If the first album was my own autobiographical story, the second will be about the people in the world as I see them," he said. "There will be some fairly bold expressions, and some new forms of expression we haven't seen before. You can look forward to it."

For a musician who spent years largely out of the spotlight, it's striking how settled he sounds, not in a way that's closed off, but in the way someone sounds when they've actually worked something out.