South Korean boy band Stray Kids, often known as SKZ, was created by JYP Entertainment through the 2017 reality series of the same name (Korean: ; RR: Seuteurei Kijeu). Bang Chan, Lee Know, Changbin, Hyunjin, Han, Felix, Seungmin, and I.N. are the other members of the group. Woojin, one of the original nine members, left the group in October 2019 for unspecified personal reasons.
In January 2018, Stray Kids released their pre-debut extended play (EP), Mixtape. On March 25, they made their formal debut with the EP I Am Not, which was followed by two additional EPs in the I Am series, I Am Who and I Am You. 2019 saw the release of their Clé trilogy EPs, Clé: Levanter, Clé: Yellow Wood, and Clé: Miroh. Go Live, the group’s debut studio album was released in 2020 and was certified platinum by the Korea Music Content Association (KMCA). Via Epic Records Japan, Stray Kids also made their Japanese debut that year with the compilation album SKZ2020.
The Stray Kids’ second studio album Noeasy broke the million-sales barrier in 2021. The trio released the EPs Oddinary and Maxident, which marked their first performances at the top of the US Billboard 200 and the UK Albums Chart, after signing with Republic Records for promotions in the US in 2022. The KMCA certified Maxident as having sold three million albums, making them only the second group in Korean history to do so. By October 2022, albums by Stray Kids that were released in both Japan and Korea had amassed over 10 million sales.
