The Rap Star [EN]: Chapter 47

< Verse 6. Fuck Tha Show Biz >

“Yeah. The issue is that show business interview with those 888 Crew guys. I saw it too, and first of all, those young punks have no manners, do they?”

“But does their lack of manners have anything to do with us? They’re from Gwangju, so we probably won’t ever see them, right?”

“The annoying thing is that this became a big issue among the band players first. If you look at the interview, it’s not that the 888 Crew is ignoring the bands, but it gives off the impression that the rappers are ignoring the bands.”

“So the 888 Crew’s interview is like they’re representing all the rappers?”

“Exactly.”

Bae Sang-wook clicked his tongue. He always hated seeing rappers acting tough and pretending to be gangster hip-hop, especially for someone like him who truly loved the scene and had dedicated his life to it.

“Is the interview on the community forum?”

“Someone typed out the whole thing.”

“Hmm, I’ll have to check it out when I get home. But aren’t you supposed to be practicing?”

“That’s why I came. And practice time is at eight o’clock anyway, right? It’s seven o’clock now.”

His colleague shook his head.

Bae Sang-wook was known as a rapper who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth because his family was incredibly wealthy, but his diligence made it impossible to dismiss him as just a rich kid.

The members of Stars Record, led by Bae Sang-wook, gathered in the practice room one by one, and soon the performance practice began.

Bae Sang-wook finished practice, had a drink with a representative from Club Homie, and completely forgot about the 888 Crew issue until he arrived back at his studio apartment.

What reminded him of the 888 Crew was the pack of ’88 Cigarettes’ on his desk.

Bae Sang-wook was a non-smoker, but his colleagues often left behind cigarettes when they visited his studio apartment.

‘Right, it was about the 888 Crew, wasn’t it?’

He was tired, but curiosity suddenly struck him, and he turned on his computer.

Communication club bulletin boards such as Hitel and Nownuri were declining in popularity, and now the main online community for Korean hip-hop was ‘HipHopLE.’ It was a site where almost all Korean hip-hop musicians and fans hung out.

As soon as he entered the hip-hop bulletin board, he saw the number ‘888’ everywhere.

The recommended posts, which were pinned like announcements for a week if they received a certain number of upvotes, were all related to 888.

“Wow, it’s a real mess?”

Bae Sang-wook clicked on the most recommended post, surprised by the much stronger reaction than he had expected.

-Things that Korean hip-hop should not forget when adopting American hip-hop.

It was a grand title. The paragraphs were neatly divided, and it seemed to have been written with great care.

As expected, when he checked the author’s name, it was written by one of the few recognized hip-hop critics in Korea.

***

Title: Things that Korean hip-hop should not forget when adopting American hip-hop.

The author came across the interview of the 888 Crew, who are currently a hot topic, this morning.

Before mentioning the content of the interview, I would like to commend the fact that hip-hop crews have been created in Gwangju, which has been considered a barren land for hip-hop culture (although there may have been crews that we didn’t know about in the past).

In terms of expanding the base of the Korean underground hip-hop scene, where players from Hongdae, Busan, and Daegu were all there was, there is considerable anticipation for the music that Gwangju players will show. I’m already looking forward to the work that will showcase the unique flavor of the Gwangju area.

So it’s even more disappointing that they started their music career with a controversy.

(Omitted)

Then, can Korean rappers truly capture the emotions of American rappers, the originators of hip-hop? I would argue that it’s impossible.

We don’t live in the ghetto, and we don’t suffer unfair treatment or beatings from the police. We’ve never faced a gun pointed at us by rival gangsters like Nas did.

Sleep is not synonymous with death for us. Korean rappers generally don’t smoke marijuana, and they don’t have the same sense of resistance to systemic racism.

Is it possible to ignore these cultural factors and simply borrow the ‘SWAG’ of American hip-hop?

The reason why rappers often boast about material possessions is largely due to the pride that they have achieved success solely through their music, despite being Black people who face discrimination and limited opportunities.

So for them, ‘Get that money’ is cool in itself, and it’s swag. It’s a way of life, and it’s the only way to achieve self-realization by overcoming racism. So they can be respected for saying, ‘Everything but the way I make money can go fuck themselves!’ That’s the essence of swag.

This is ‘cultural basis.’

The word ‘basis’ is very important in culture and art. Just like the basis of the Renaissance era was humanism, which challenged the God-centered worldview.

Then, I would like to pose a question here.

Does the 888 Crew have a basis? A basis for considering band music an inferior genre to rap music.

Let’s rephrase this question.

Have they proven their musical ability?

Of course, it should be understood that even if you prove your musicality, you don’t have the right to criticize band music.

(Omitted)

In fact, I’m uncomfortable with the 888 Crew issue.

If the Korean hip-hop scene wasn’t so abnormally insular? If ‘online community’ and ‘underground hip-hop scene’ weren’t practically synonymous? If there were more positive stories? I wonder if this incident would even be worth all this attention.

Also, I regret ‘bassLee’s’ post, ‘This is why hip-hop gets a bad rap,’ which first brought up the 888 Crew’s interview on the bulletin board.

bassLee is committing the error of generalization in the post, equating ‘the rudeness of the 888 Crew’ with ‘the behavior of all hip-hoppers.’ This error stems from the assumption that readers who saw the 888 Crew’s interview will think, ‘Korean hip-hoppers are all like that.’

Of course, that’s possible. Just like Koreans often associate rappers with 90s West Coast gangster rappers (as I mentioned in a previous article, I believe this is entirely due to the portrayal in Hollywood movies).

But this is just a possibility. It cannot be the basis for claiming that the 888 Crew members have ruined the image of Korean hip-hop. It’s fine to criticize the 888 Crew, but you should refrain from insults that border on personal attacks.

Currently, the 888 Crew’s Cyworld [a popular South Korean social networking site] bulletin board is receiving more than 2 pages of posts every day. 70% of them are critical posts written from the perspective of band players, and 20% are critical posts written from the perspective of hip-hop players.

And the 888 Crew is organizing these posts through a bulletin board called ‘Feedback Bulletin Board.’ I will criticize the 888 Crew’s interview, but I view this response favorably.

Because the rappers who did the show business interview are still minors who haven’t reached full mental maturity.

(Omitted)

***

“This *hyung* [older brother or male friend], he really likes to talk.”

Bae Sang-wook thought while reading the dense column of more than 10 pages. Now he was even more intrigued.

‘What the hell did these guys say in the interview?’

He immediately looked for the full interview.

Bae Sang-wook, who had felt some sympathy for them after reading the column and learning that they were minors, frowned as soon as he read the full interview.

‘This is a bit much.’

In particular, he was angered by their proud declaration that they had only been making music for 3 months and that they had written their performance songs in a day or two.

The implication of homosexual themes was also distasteful.

The image of the crying female student even raised suspicions of manipulation.

‘I see why my colleagues were so angry.’

Bae Sang-wook genuinely wanted the Korean hip-hop scene to grow.

His father was the chairman of a construction company that ranked among the top ten in Korea, yet he was dedicating himself to Korean hip-hop, even forgoing his inheritance.

However, after dedicating himself to the scene for more than five years, he realized that while it was difficult to improve the culture’s image, it was incredibly easy to damage it.

‘If you spill a bucket of shit, you need a hundred buckets of clean water to clean it up.’

From his perspective, the 888 Crew’s interview was pure shit.

It was shit that they had dumped in a magazine with a large subscriber base.

Bae Sang-wook read the posts on the bulletin board for a long time.

It had only been three days since the issue became a hot topic, but already more than 5 pages of posts on the bulletin board were primarily about the 888 Crew.

Except for a few posts with the sentiment of ‘Hip-hop is a culture of disrespect anyway, so what’s wrong with this?’, most of them were sharpening their knives for criticism.

After reading the posts for a long time, the clock was already approaching 3:30 AM.

‘Tsk, these guys won’t be able to perform in Hongdae [a district in Seoul known for its indie music and club scene].’

Familiar IDs were visible among the critical comments – the IDs of the rappers who were the mainstays of the Hongdae scene.

Bae Sang-wook shook his head and tried to close the Explorer window. At that moment, he saw a post with 0 views that had just been uploaded.

-888 Crew’s explanation song? Uploaded.

‘Explanation song?’

Intrigued, he clicked on the post and saw an internet address and a short message.

-888 Crew’s explanation song? Diss song? Anyway, a song was uploaded to the club. Wow, but this is fucking awesome? Who are these guys? And if the content of this rap is true, Show Biz should get fucked a little?

Anyway, N.W.A… I can’t hate it.

Bae Sang-wook’s eyes were drawn to the unfamiliar term ‘explanation song’ and the familiar acronym ‘N.W.A’ [a seminal American hip-hop group].

He immediately clicked on the linked address.

He was connected to a Cyworld club with the 888 Crew logo, and he easily found the song.

“Oh…?”

Fuck tha show biz.

The moment he saw the song title, he felt a sense of anticipation. Because he recognized the familiar notation ‘tha’ and the reference to N.W.A, he could imagine the song’s vibe.

A homage to Fuck tha police.

-Click

Because it was dawn, the sound of the mouse click was very loud.

Bae Sang-wook connected the monitoring headset instead of the earphones and played the music.

“Huh?”

A very familiar beat began to play. It was the beat of the original song.

No, not only the beat, but the beginning of the song was the same as the original.

The song that ranked 425th in Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, and whose title had become a slogan, transformed into other genres such as design, logo, and graffiti countless times.

N.W.A’s Fuck Tha Police is about rappers becoming prosecutors and judges in the N.W.A court and judging the police.

MC REN introduces the prosecutors and judges in the intro and announces the opening of the court.

Sang-hyun’s Fuck Tha Show Biz replicated MC REN’s intro. As MC REN’s voice listed the names of the prosecutors ‘M.C.Ren, Ice Cube, and Eazy muthafuckin E.’ the beat cut off and silence filled the room.

Soon the silence was broken, and Sang-hyun’s rap exploded with the beat.

Bae Sang-wook was greatly shocked by listening to the rap.

No, beyond shock, he sensed the ‘Next Stage’ that transcended the current era.

‘A high school student made this?’

Beat editing, free and creative references, lyrics, rap, rhyme. There was nothing to criticize.

Then Bae Sang-wook felt a strange sensation instead.

Revolution starts with novelty. In order to lead the next generation, you have to leave the past behind. That’s why it’s unfamiliar and criticized, like Picasso’s work.

Usually, the works of visionaries shine in later generations, like Vincent van Gogh’s did.

But this kid’s rap wasn’t like that. There was definitely something that transcended Korean hip-hop in 2005, but it didn’t feel repulsive at all.

‘I want to see it on stage.’

Bae Sang-wook felt a surge of desire. What would it be like to see the actual live performance? Was he just a studio MC?

He was caught up in 고민 [worry/agonizing] all night, contemplating the lineup of Club Homie scheduled for the end of the month.

***

< Verse 6. Fuck Tha Show Biz > End

ⓒ