Square One is Japanese dance and hip-hop group M-Flo's sixth original studio album, released on March 12, 2012. It was the group's first studio album in five years, after Cosmicolor (2007).

In the time between the release of Cosmicolor and Square One, M-Flo released two greatest hits albums, Award Supernova: Loves Best (2008) and MF10: 10th Anniversary Best (2009) and two outside collaborations compilation albums, M-Flo Inside: Works Best III (2009) and M-Flo Inside: Works Best IV (2010). DJ Taku Takahashi in 2010 launched his second record label, TCY Recording, featuring a collection of unsigned dance musicians. He also produced the soundtrack for the Gainax animated series Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt in 2010, featuring the dance musicians of his newly formed label. The Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt soundtrack was very successful, becoming the third most sold anime soundtrack in 2011 with 30,000 copies sold.

Rapper Verbal directed his first music video in 2010, with MINMI's "Patto Hana Saku." He launched his solo career in 2010 and 2011, with the album Visionair, featuring collaborations with Namie Amuro, Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj. Takahashi also debuted with a solo project, under the name The Suitboys, releasing a non-stop DJ mix CD After 5 Vol. 1 in March 2012.

Taku Takahashi created a dance music web radio station called block.fm, featuring Japanese and overseas DJs as radio hosts, including Verbal. The radio station began airing on November 11, 2011.

The album was announced as a third stage in M-Flo's career, featuring Lisa as the group's vocalist between 1998 and 2002, and their "loves" era between 2003 and 2008, which featured billed guest vocalists on most of their recordings. For this third stage, M-Flo saw this as a return to their roots, which was the reasoning for the album title, Square One. The album was produced without concerns for what the industry or their management were concerned about, which was similar to how M-Flo had pursued their career when they debuted.

Square One took a lot of time to create compared to their previous albums, because Verbal and Taku Takahashi needed to get used to each other's styles and ideas again. Verbal believed that Square One showed off both of the work in their solo careers strongly.

The songs were written and produced by M-Flo members Taku Takahashi and Verbal. Eight songs were written in collaboration with fellow Rhythm Zone artist Cream's vocalist, Minami (including the song "All I Want Is You"), as well as two songs featuring lyrics by Cream's rapper Staxx T. The song "Don't Stop Me Now" featured lyrics former Hi-Standard vocalist Akihiro Namba, and FLJ music magazine producer Toshiya Ohno.

While the songs feature guest vocalists similar to their loves albums, the artists names were not announced. Verbal explained the reasoning behind this was that people attach a certain value and preconception to the name of an artist, and would pay more attention to the music itself if the names were not announced.