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EL CAPITXN Releases Debut Album WHO KILLED EL?
Rosa Gulliver of TINYGMUSIC | November 06, 2026
EL CAPITXN releases his debut full-length album, WHO KILLED EL? The global artist and producer is recognised for having brought the distinctive identities of artists, including BTS, SUGA, Jung Kook and IU, to life through music. Now, EL CAPITXN turns to his own story, bringing his songwriting and production to a twelve-track project spanning rock, orchestral music, gospel, classical music and pop. The album explores the loss of his former singing voice, the life he built as a producer and his determination to keep taking the stage with his own music.
The album brings EL’s personal story to life through collaborators chosen for their individuality. Focus track “Sing This Song For Me” features Jagwar Twin and The Social Reject Choir, with Jagwar Twin’s distinctive expression and the song’s dramatic development central to EL’s vision. He describes choosing the album’s singers much as a director might cast actors, valuing the individual phrasing and rough edges that give each voice its character. Additional collaborators include Bohnes, Rence, Muni Norodom, Cautious Clay, Samuel Harness and J.
EL’s unique sensibility is carried across all aspects of his artistry. His dark, cinematic imagery and theatrical presence form a visual language rooted in the emotional intensity of his music. He imagines how a song will look and feel in performance while producing it, treating sound, style and presence as parts of the full story.
“For the first time, I’ve brought together my story in one album: from starting out as a singer to losing my singing voice and building a life as a producer,” EL CAPITXN shares. “It holds both my longing for what I’ve lost and my desire to keep taking the stage with my own music.”
On “Damage,” featuring Jeris Johnson, EL revisits the anger and hurt that his success as a producer could not erase. The song returns to the experience of being told to find another path when his sense of who he was had collapsed. He describes questioning whether the people watching his transformation understood him or were drawn to the story of his adversity.
“Don’t Say Love,” featuring Los Angeles band BEAUTY SCHOOL DROPOUT, explores the fear of being left that drives someone to push love away. EL sought the band’s rough, emotional expression to convey that conflict. Released October 23, the single also captures the frustration of having something urgent to express and feeling unable to do so.
Born Jang Yi-jeong, EL debuted as HISTORY’s main vocalist in 2013 and featured on IU’s “Friday” that same year. After losing his singing voice, he redirected his work into songwriting and production, building a catalogue that includes Agust D’s “Daechwita,” BTS’ “Telepathy,” IU’s “eight” featuring SUGA and PSY’s “That That.” As the founder of VENDORS PRODUCTION, he has continued developing his own music alongside his work with other artists. Those experiences now inform a project in which he determines the story, the sound and the way it reaches an audience.
“I didn’t want to become an artist who moves beautifully inside a system that someone else already built,” EL told Forbes. He describes working through VENDORS and collaborating with EMPIRE as a way to retain creative decision-making while bringing his music to a global audience.
WHO KILLED EL? follows the release of “Breaking Through,” featuring TOMORROW X TOGETHER’s Taehyun and Jeremy Zucker, and his first global tour. His own shows have taken him across Europe, North America and South America, with stops including London, Los Angeles and São Paulo, bringing the project to audiences ahead of the album’s arrival.
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