Yeonjun has spent the past week turning the countdown to his second solo record into an event of its own. The Tomorrow X Together member pulled back the curtain on NO LABELS: PART 02 at the start of July, sharing a complete tracklist, a run of concept photos, and a first look at the choreography before the mini album lands on July 10 at 1 p.m. KST. For a project that only had a title and a release month a few weeks earlier, the reveal filled in almost every blank at once.
The centerpiece is the lead single "Ice Cream," a funk rock track built on vintage drums, a driving bassline, and looping guitar riffs. Yeonjun uses ice cream as a metaphor for a relationship, tracing the push and pull between attraction and restraint and the way something sweet can turn overwhelming when it is rushed. The song sits at the head of a six-track set that also includes "Vanilla," "Baby Wassup?," "No More Disco," "Fxxking Star," and "Long Way Long Ride," with production credits that reach across BIGHIT MUSIC's core team.
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Even the packaging leans into the theme. The tracklist was styled to look like a printed receipt from an ice cream truck, a small detail that framed the whole rollout and gave fans an easy image to rally around. Each song carries its own beat in a loose narrative: "Vanilla" opens with the jolt of unfamiliar feelings, "Baby Wassup?" captures the nervous energy of staying cool around a crush, "No More Disco" follows two strangers connecting on a dance floor, "Fxxking Star" leans into Yeonjun's rap over themes of admiration and ambition, and "Long Way Long Ride" closes on a note of perseverance.
Why It Matters
This is the moment that turns a promising side project into a genuine solo career. Yeonjun made history last November when NO LABELS: PART 01 became the first solo EP by a Tomorrow X Together member, moving more than 600,000 copies in its first week and putting him on the Billboard 200 as a solo act. PART 02 is the follow-up that tests whether that debut was a one-off or the start of something durable.
It also says a lot about how the biggest fourth-generation groups are managing their members' individual ambitions. Rather than pausing the group to let a soloist breathe, BIGHIT is threading Yeonjun's release through a summer that still has room for Tomorrow X Together as a unit. The spread of genres on the record, from funk rock to R&B to alternative hip-hop, is a deliberate argument that he can carry a project on range alone, without leaning on the group's established sound.
For the wider K-pop market, a well-timed solo drop in the middle of a crowded July calendar is a real test of pull. Yeonjun is releasing into a month stacked with comebacks, and the size of "Ice Cream's" first-week numbers will be read as a signal of how much of his audience follows him as an artist in his own right rather than only as one-fifth of a group.
The Reaction
MOA, the group's fanbase, met the rollout with the kind of coordinated enthusiasm that has come to define Tomorrow X Together comebacks. The receipt-style tracklist and the ice cream truck imagery spread quickly online, and the choreography preview drew particular attention because Yeonjun helped create the movements himself, a detail fans took as proof of how personal the project is.
The visual campaign gave the fandom plenty to dissect. Beginning in mid-June, Yeonjun introduced the era through a cinematic short titled "Choi Yeonjun" and three separate concept photo collections, each framing a different side of him, from raw stage presence to the emotional weight behind "Ice Cream" to a softer, candid look at the performer off the clock. The staggered reveals kept conversation running for weeks rather than a single news cycle.
That steady drumbeat of teasers has done its job of keeping the release near the top of fan feeds during a busy stretch. The interest is less about a single viral moment than about a fandom that has learned to treat each new photo set and preview clip as a chapter, building anticipation toward the full picture on July 10.
What's Next
The final stretch is tightly scheduled. An album preview arrived on July 3, to be followed by the "Ice Cream" music video teaser and then the full album and video premiere on July 10. After release, attention turns to the first-week sales and chart performance that will measure PART 02 against the high bar PART 01 set.
Yeonjun's summer does not end there. He is set to perform as a solo artist at KCON LA 2026 on August 15, giving the new material an early live showcase in front of an international audience, before reuniting with Tomorrow X Together as the festival's headliner the following day. The back-to-back billing neatly captures the balancing act at the heart of this era: a soloist and a group member on the same stage, one day apart.
Beyond the immediate rollout, PART 02 sets up a longer question about where Yeonjun's solo path leads. Two mini albums in less than a year suggest a deliberate build rather than a detour, and the response to this release will shape how much space BIGHIT carves out for his individual work going forward.
Closing Thoughts
What makes NO LABELS: PART 02 interesting is not just the music but the confidence of the framing. The title itself, a refusal to be pinned to a single description, doubles as a mission statement for an artist who wants to be heard as more than a category. The playful ice cream concept keeps the tone light, but the range of the tracklist makes a serious case.
Solo releases from group members have become one of the defining habits of this K-pop generation, a way for artists to stretch without stepping away from the acts that made them. Yeonjun's second chapter is a clear example of how that model can work when the timing, the concept, and the catalog all line up. Whether "Ice Cream" becomes a signature solo hit or simply another strong entry, the release reinforces the sense that his solo story is only getting started.
한글 요약
투모로우바이투게더(TXT)의 연준이 두 번째 솔로 미니앨범 'NO LABELS: PART 02'를 7월 10일 오후 1시(KST) 발매합니다. 타이틀곡은 펑크 록 트랙 '아이스크림(Ice Cream)'으로, 아이스크림을 관계의 은유로 삼아 끌림과 절제 사이의 밀고 당김을 그립니다. 앨범은 '바닐라', '아이스크림', '베이비 왓섭?', '노 모어 디스코', '퍼킹 스타', '롱 웨이 롱 라이드' 등 총 6곡으로 구성됐고, 트랙리스트는 아이스크림 트럭 영수증 모양으로 디자인돼 콘셉트를 강조했습니다.
이번 앨범은 지난해 11월 첫 솔로 EP 'PART 01'로 TXT 멤버 최초 솔로 데뷔이자 빌보드 200에 진입했던 연준의 후속작입니다. 발매 첫 주 60만 장 이상을 판 전작의 성과를 이어갈 수 있을지가 관전 포인트입니다. 펑크 록부터 R&B, 얼터너티브 힙합까지 폭넓은 장르를 담아 그룹의 색에 기대지 않고 솔로 아티스트로서의 범위를 증명하려는 시도가 엿보입니다.
6월 중순 시네마틱 영상 '최연준'과 세 가지 콘셉트 포토로 시작된 비주얼 롤아웃, 연준이 직접 참여한 안무 프리뷰가 팬덤 MOA의 높은 호응을 얻었습니다. 7월 3일 앨범 프리뷰에 이어 '아이스크림' 뮤직비디오 티저, 10일 정식 발매가 예정돼 있습니다. 연준은 8월 15일 KCON LA 2026에서 솔로 무대를, 다음 날에는 TXT 헤드라이너로 무대에 오릅니다.