The Rap Star [EN]: Chapter 9

The Rap Star – Episode 9 (9/309)

< Intro. Just One Life (End) >

Shin Ha-yeon, who had been wiping away tears, grabbed the microphone.

“I know that not only the patients but also their families and friends are fighting illnesses. And perhaps everyone in this world is battling their own secret disease that they can’t reveal to others.”

Ha-yeon’s words deeply resonated with Sang-hyun.

A secret disease that one cannot reveal.

“But like my mother said, life is only once, and our fragrance is too sweet for us to be discouraged. I hope everyone achieves Remission [a decrease in the severity of disease or its symptoms] for that fragrance and beauty. Thank you for listening to my song.”

Ha-yeon bowed and disappeared backstage, and the audience applauded enthusiastically. However, Sang-hyun did not applaud.

His heart was racing.

‘Perhaps everyone in this world is battling their own secret disease that they can’t reveal to others.’

That’s right. He is fighting an illness. He is fighting a disease that he cannot reveal to anyone.

-To bet on uncertainty, I know the answer too well.

The cause of the disease I have. I am afraid of the future becoming uncertain, and I got sick because I believe I know a certain future.

Is my conviction true?

Is it not wrong?

Am I crazy?

-Are you dreaming of becoming a tycoon again in another life? To fall again?

And if my conviction is correct, am I living the same life as in the past again?

Is the only thing that has changed is that I am making money faster, more comfortably, and more of it than in the past?

Do I have to play with numbers again in an empty office with bloodshot eyes?

With even larger sums of money this time?

-She says, ‘It’s my life, and it’s only once.’

What was Ha-yeon’s mother thinking as she knew about her illness, fought it, and faced the end of her life?

Was she anxious because she didn’t know when she would close her eyes?

With what heart did she ignore the doctor’s confirmed three-month terminal diagnosis?

Sang-hyun suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to sing a song.

A song that no one knows yet.

A song that hasn’t even been released.

He arrived on the hospital rooftop in his patient gown. He could hear the intro that no one else could hear.

The muffled feeling when earphones are firmly plugged in.

The feeling of hearing a sound even though no sound is actually heard. Sang-hyun recalled the intro.

just one life, to live reality show

The title track of Qalip’s 3rd album released in 2007.

Just One Life.

Qalip, the producer of the underground hip-hop label , which was formed in March 2004 with the release of the album and led the revival of Korean underground hip-hop in earnest.

2005 1st album , 2006 2nd album , and 2007 3rd album .

The title track of the album and the song that gained Qalip his first public popularity. A big hit that even created a kind of prejudice that ‘Qalip’s musical sensibility is like this.’

A song that pioneered a barren market and inspired countless aspiring rappers.

In 2007, it was a song that Sang-hyun, who went to college in Seoul, listened to while comforting himself whenever he felt lonely, poor, and burdened by responsibility.

It was the first album he bought, saving money on food, and it was a song he listened to whenever he had a hard time while graduating from college and working.

Just One Life.

Sang-hyun could recall the sound as if he had heard this song just yesterday, as if he had heard it a few hours or minutes ago, or as if he was listening to it now.

Because it was a song that was with him in his memories of youth.

“just one life, to live reality show.”

Sang-hyun’s mouth finally opened.

His calm voice echoed on the hospital rooftop, breaking the silence. Sang-hyun was already building up the sound with various instruments in his head.

just one life, everyone has only one life,

Why are you only making excuses with a jewel in your arms?

The gap between freedom and subjugation, the end of life and

A deep sense of despair that becomes commonplace

Living in Korea, many oppressions become commonplace.

Students who wake up at dawn and go to school without eating breakfast.

Compulsory night self-study until 10 p.m.

A climate where you are only treated like a human being if you go to college.

Numerous kinds of artists who are treated as strangers.

Office workers who are forced to work overtime and attend *hoesik* [company dinners].

Fathers who are isolated because they work more due to their children’s expensive education costs, and the more they work, the less time they spend with their children.

My appearance gradually disappears over time

What am I weighing on the scales of time?

Change the gaze of the person looking at me

Into a smile, I want to smile before I die

Everyone wants to succeed.

But successful people often say this: Looking back, the moment of striving for success was better than achieving success.

You may regret it.

You may regret using your knowledge of the future and reducing past trials and errors to reach success faster.

It may be an act of throwing away a huge fortune.

I’m still a child who reacts to childishness

But I can’t laugh unless I walk the path I’ve chosen

I’m thirty years old.

The pulley of life, hold on tight to one side of the line

But Sang-hyun realized.

What he needs is uncertainty. Shin Ha-yeon’s mother overcame the doctor’s terminal diagnosis because she threw herself into uncertainty.

Because she lived every day to the fullest. Because there was something she wanted to do.

Because this is Just one life.

Life is only once for everyone

That’s why I entrust myself to my dreams

What is the entity that scares me?

Heating up the empty hospital rooftop with his voice, Sang-hyun made a decision.

To rush into uncertainty.

It wasn’t just to overcome mental pain.

That’s right.

This was what he wanted to do.

From the moment he rejected Jun-hyung’s offer for realistic reasons, or perhaps from the moment he was sitting in an empty office playing with numbers and listening to music, it was a dream he couldn’t let go of.

Sang-hyun’s abilities are more focused on finance than music.

He has enjoyed and consumed music for a very long time, but he has never studied it professionally, and there has never been a moment when he became a musician.

But now it doesn’t matter at all.

Now, on the contrary, the ignorance that has come to him is even more welcome.

I hope for a bright smile before death and

The ending scene of the page of my life that I wrote

I want to fall asleep, convinced that ‘It was a good life.’

Because this is Just one, Just one life.

Life is only once for everyone

The voice that Oh Yeon-joo received emotional sharing with echoed on the hospital rooftop.

It was a slightly dry voice, and a weak voice.

But the emotions that filled it.

It was a voice that strongly resonated with the heart of ‘someone’ who was eavesdropping on his song on the rooftop, although Sang-hyun didn’t know it.

‘I’m going to make music.’

I am confident that I will never regret it. Sang-hyun vowed. To live this life doing what I truly want to do.

‘I’m going to make music.’

The thought became a vow.

Sang-hyun’s determination was left as 인 [cause/reason].

Fortunately, I was given the opportunity to live life twice.

Wouldn’t it be an insult to the opportunity to live both lives in the same way?

Qalip sang a hymn for hope in one life, so what am I so afraid of in my second life?

just one life, to live reality show

Now, Sang-hyun is not living his second life, but is running in a different way for the once-in-a-lifetime life once again.

And that made him so happy.

June 10, 2005.