K-Pop History Part 15: The Secret SoundCloud Story of Stray Kids' 3RACHA

Before Stray Kids were even a debuted group, three trainees were secretly uploading their own songs to SoundCloud without telling their company. That's the origin story of 3RACHA, and it's honestly one of the wildest self-made stories in K-pop.

With Stray Kids' surreal "THIS & THAT" trailer taking over timelines this week (we've got the full breakdown in a separate post today), I wanted to go back and cover how Bang Chan, Changbin, and Han actually got here — because the story of 3RACHA is a big part of why Stray Kids sound the way they do.

Three trainees, one MIDI class

Back in 2016, Bang Chan, Changbin, and Han were just JYP trainees who happened to bond over MIDI classes at the company's training center. Nothing unusual there — except the three of them started making music together on the side, entirely for themselves.

The SoundCloud era nobody at JYP knew about

Here's the part that still gets me: 3RACHA uploaded their own tracks to SoundCloud without the company's knowledge. Their first mixtape dropped January 18, 2017, and by April they'd put out a full mixtape EP called J:/2017/mixtape, followed by biweekly mixtape drops pairing one original track with one cover. That's the kind of grinding, unglamorous work ethic most trainees don't get to show, and it happened almost entirely under the radar.

The stage names behind the sound

Each member carved out a specific role early on. Bang Chan built beats late at night under the name CB97. Changbin wrote verses as SpearB. Han handled lyrics and composition as J.One. That division of labor — Changbin and Han locking in on verses, Bang Chan shaping the hooks and melodies — became the actual production engine behind Stray Kids once the group debuted.

From SoundCloud to Stray Kids

3RACHA debuted as part of Stray Kids on March 25, 2018, and immediately became the group's in-house producer unit. Since then, they've handled the vast majority of the group's songwriting, composition, and production — which is genuinely rare for an idol group operating at this scale. Most groups lean on outside writers. Stray Kids built their identity on doing it themselves.

The tracks that prove the point

If you want receipts, go back and listen to how much of Stray Kids' catalog carries a CB97, SpearB, or J.One writing credit — it's most of it, across every era, not just a handful of b-sides. Songs like "God's Menu," "Thunderous," and their more experimental mixtape-era tracks all run through 3RACHA in some form, and that consistency is exactly why the unit gets brought up in almost every serious conversation about which idols are actually shaping their own sound versus performing someone else's.

🇰🇷 Korea vs 🌍 Global reaction

Korean fans and industry watchers have long treated 3RACHA as proof that idol groups can be genuine artists, not just performers — there's real respect in Korean music circles for a self-producing unit that's stayed this consistent for eight years. It's part of why Stray Kids get taken seriously in conversations about K-pop's more "credible" acts.

Globally, STAY has turned 3RACHA into something close to a running fandom joke and genuine point of pride at the same time — the phrase "3RACHA never misses" shows up constantly in comment sections whenever a new Stray Kids track drops. International fans newer to the group are often shocked to learn just how much of the catalog three members are directly responsible for, and that discovery moment is a rite of passage for new STAY.

Why it matters

This history matters right now because it's the lens through which to watch the new "RUN IT" era and the upcoming THIS & THAT album. When 3RACHA is credited on a track, it's not a formality — it's the same three guys who used to sneak mixtapes onto SoundCloud, still writing the songs that define the group's sound eight years later.

Jamie's Take 💬

What gets me about the 3RACHA story isn't even the talent, it's the timing. These guys were doing this before anyone knew Stray Kids would exist, with zero guarantee any of it would ever be heard beyond a tiny SoundCloud audience. That's a very different energy than a produced-for-you idol narrative, and I think it's exactly why STAY defends this group so fiercely. You can't fake eight years of actually writing your own catalog.

FAQ

Q: Who are the members of 3RACHA?
A: Bang Chan (CB97), Changbin (SpearB), and Han (J.One) — three of Stray Kids' eight members.

Q: When did 3RACHA start making music together?
A: They began bonding over MIDI classes as JYP trainees in 2016 and uploaded their first mixtape to SoundCloud in January 2017, before Stray Kids even debuted.

Q: Does 3RACHA still produce for Stray Kids today?
A: Yes — they remain in charge of the majority of the group's songwriting, composition, and production, including the material for the new THIS & THAT era.

Q: Do the other Stray Kids members contribute to production too?
A: Yes — over the years, members like Seungmin, I.N, and others have picked up writing credits as well, but 3RACHA remains the core producing engine behind most title tracks.

How this shaped the rest of K-pop

3RACHA's rise mattered beyond just Stray Kids. Their success helped normalize the idea that idols could be credited, respected songwriters and producers rather than just performers delivering someone else's material. You can trace a direct line from 3RACHA's early SoundCloud grind to the way companies now market other idols' writing and producing credits as a selling point, not a footnote. It changed how "self-produced" gets used as a marketing term across the industry, and it raised the bar for what fans expect to see in liner notes.

It's also worth remembering how unusual their path was structurally. Most future producer-idols get identified and trained for that role early by their company. 3RACHA built their reputation sideways, on their own time, using free tools and a SoundCloud account, before their label had any real stake in it. That grassroots origin is part of why the story still resonates with STAY the way it does — it wasn't handed to them.

Key Details

Unit: 3RACHA (Bang Chan, Changbin, Han)
Formed: 2016, as JYP trainees
First release: Mixtape, January 18, 2017 (SoundCloud/YouTube)
Stray Kids debut: March 25, 2018
Role: Primary songwriters/producers for Stray Kids' discography

Related: Stray Kids Unveils Surreal "THIS & THAT" Comeback Trailer | Stray Kids' RUN IT World Tour: Full Dates and Cities | K-Pop History Part 14: The Viral Remix Era