Dok2: "Filipino blood runs in my body, and I feel down when I cannot go to the sea"

Rapper Dok2, whose real name is Lee Joon-kyung, explained why he had been away from Korea.

Dok2 said he had not visited Korea since December 2018. At the time, he said, he had become so famous that he could no longer handle the attention and was struggling to the point that he could not even eat properly. As the public's gaze increasingly turned toward him, he said he was uncomfortable with having become a celebrity, and that was why he went to the United States.

He said, "The reason I came here was literally because I was sick. I had mental health problems, and psychiatrists advised me to retire. They told me I would not be able to work in that condition." In describing his time in the United States, Dok2 said he had been advised to step away from his career because of his health.

Dok2 also said his condition had already been poor in 2017, to the point that he would vomit backstage. He added, "My MBTI is INTJ. Whenever I take the test, the 'I' always comes out at 100 percent, and I heard that when someone is extremely introverted, they become extroverted in order to hide that side of themselves."

He said the excessive energy he spent trying not to show his own shortcomings had affected his mental health. Dok2 also spoke about his Filipino ancestry, saying, "Unlike most people, my relatives and I feel down when we cannot go to the sea."

Dok2 founded the independent label 808 Hi Recordings with his girlfriend Lee Ha-i, and in March they released their collaborative single "You & Me."