The Rap Star [EN]: Chapter 53

The festival kicked off with a pre-party on the 12th.

The competition runs for three days, from Saturday the 13th to Monday the 15th (Liberation Day holiday). L&S has prepared a total of 6 songs for the competition.

Two songs on the 13th. Two songs on the 14th. Two songs on the 15th.

Today, the first day of the competition, the 13th, a total of 25 teams are participating.

Of these, 11 teams will be eliminated, and 14 teams will be selected to advance to the round of 14 on the 14th.

On the morning of the 14th, 7 teams will be selected from the round of 14, and one team will be added as a wild card at the discretion of the judges.

And then the quarter-finals on the evening of the 14th.

Only the 4 teams that win this quarter-final can advance to the final day of the competition, where all eyes will be on them.

In addition, the winning team and the runner-up team will receive prize money and the opportunity to perform a congratulatory performance that will grace the finale of the closing ceremony.

“L&S! Please stand by in the hallway!”

Cha In-hyeon jumped up from his seat at the assistant director’s words.

“Why aren’t Min-sik hyung [older brother/male friend] and In-su hyung [older brother/male friend] here yet?”

Just then, Bang Min-sik and Hwang In-su were seen running over in a hurry.

“Ah, damn it, I need to pee.”

“Why do you drink so much water? Are you a hippo, hyung [older brother/male friend]?”

“Ugh.”

“L&S! If you don’t stand by now, you’ll be disqualified!”

“We’re going!”

Sang-hyeon smiled as he watched the L&S members bustling about. ‘They’re so clumsy like that, but they turn into cool hyungs [older brothers/male friends] as soon as they get on stage.’

‘Today, my role is not the main character, but the support.’

Sang-hyeon waited, determined to give his best support. His heart was pounding.

Wow!

The sound of applause was heard in the distance. The competition must be over. ‘It’s finally our turn.’ Bang Min-sik, who was taking a deep breath, quickly gathered the members’ hands.

“Guys, we absolutely can’t get eliminated in the first preliminary round. Got it? We’re kind of hot in the band scene right now.”

“That ‘hot’ isn’t because we’re good, is it? Is it because of the show business interview?”

“Anyway, we’re hot! And aren’t we good? We deserve to be hot enough!”

As Min-sik said, L&S was currently gaining recognition.

It was because of the show business interview involving the famous band ‘Under Kid’ and ‘888 Crew’, the center of the trouble.

In addition, Min-sik’s first album, which he called ‘high-pitched voice cure’ and received good reviews from critics, was being re-examined by some reviewers as a Korean interpretation of ‘Grunge & Neo-Soul & Country’.

“Let’s go! L&S! Local Spirit!”

Bang Min-sik shouted first, and Yong-jun, Hwang In-su, and Cha In-hyeon echoed.

“Let’s go! L&S! Long Sex!”

“You crazy bastards!”

The assistant director, who had been listening blankly, took the sound of a chuckle as BGM [background music], and the L&S members except for Sang-hyeon went on stage.

Since it is the first preliminary round with 25 teams participating, each team is given only 5 minutes.

They had to play two songs in 5 minutes, which was implicitly a request for ‘arrangement’.

In this case, the standard arrangement was to connect the outro of the first song and the intro of the second song, but since L&S had a rapper named Sang-hyeon, they planned a rather interesting attempt.

Today, Sang-hyeon’s role is to connect the first song and the second song. His role is to do a rap that catches the attention of the audience and immediately pass the point to L&S.

‘In the first day’s competition, you’re responsible for the interval of the song that’s easy to get boring. The rest is up to the hyungs [older brothers/male friends].’

Sang-hyeon didn’t want to participate in all six competition songs with rap. This was because L&S has its own unique sensibility that Sang-hyeon respects, and they have their own music.

‘Oh? Those guys are…’

Holding the microphone and waiting to jump out at any moment, Sang-hyeon spotted the band ‘Golden Finger’ passing by in the distance. He also saw Lee Gyeong-min’s slick face, who was interfering with him in everything.

‘Those guys are participating too.’

The moment his competitive spirit flared up, L&S’s song began.

L&S was more famous than Sang-hyeon or Min-sik thought.

It was a pity that the recognition was not obtained through pure musical achievements, but in any case, the name value gives a lot.

“Those are the guys, right? The ones who interviewed with 888?”

“Show business?”

“F*ck the show business!”

The band players who had finished the competition or were waiting began to talk about L&S.

“But is that lyrics all true?”

“Even if it’s not all of it, if the show business is silent, isn’t the main fact correct?”

“Well. I think the show business doesn’t feel it’s worth dealing with and is silent? Anyway, magazine sales have increased thanks to the noise.”

“There’s a lot of criticism pouring in to the point where they don’t feel it’s worth dealing with? There are a few articles on the internet too.”

“It’s just a story that only bands or hip-hop scenes know. Would a large company care about that?”

“Since when has show business been a big company?”

“It was incorporated into an affiliate last year.”

“Ah, but I think there are more hip-hop fans than I thought. I didn’t know there were so many hip-hop fans in Korea.”

Among the band players, there were still many teams that foolishly looked at L&S and arrogantly looked at the 888 Crew. Of course, there were many teams that didn’t.

However, there was something that the two different groups felt in common. That is, the culture of hip-hop is emerging in Korea.

According to rumors, a rap section will be newly established in the competition section of next year’s World D. F. (abbreviation for World Wide Indie Music Festival).

“But Under Kid hyungs [older brothers/male friends] are on the band competition judging panel. Which side are those hyungs [older brothers/male friends] on?”

“They may hate 888, but I don’t think they hate L&S? Have you ever seen those hyungs [older brothers/male friends] act stingy to band players?”

“But when you think about it, the Under Kid hyungs’ [older brothers/male friends] interview being criticized has nothing to do with L&S or 888 kids. The magazine decided it.”

“No. The 888 guys deliberately made the interview stimulating and issue-making to do noise marketing.”

“That’s what I’m saying.”

“Hey, it’s starting.”

“Let’s see how well they do.”

Hwang In-su, taking a deep breath, began drumming.

The band players, audience, and judges began to focus on L&S’s stage.

The two songs that L&S will sing today were songs with their unique sensibility. The first song was ‘Bungeoppang’ [fish-shaped bread], and the second song was ‘Drawing’.

Both songs were especially liked by Sang-hyeon.

‘Bungeoppang [fish-shaped bread]. And if it’s Drawing, we’ll pass the first round without any problems.’

Sang-hyeon remembered L&S’s performance at Ilgok Hospital for the first time.

A flamboyant high note and an unmatching vocal tone.

The vocal range that doesn’t go up unless you scream.

Because of that prejudice at the time, it was also true that he initially had doubts about L&S’s musicality. But working together changed his mind a lot.

Certainly, L&S’s music came out at the wrong time. If it had come out only about 5 years later, it would have been music that could have taken a popular trend.

L&S smelled similar to musicians such as ‘Sister’s Barbershop’, ‘Gray’, and ‘Lucid Fall’, who value expressiveness and development.

However, in 2005, band music tended to develop songs in a similar structure, regardless of mainstream or underground.

A method of starting quietly with an introduction, then the song rises and bursts into a high note at the climax.

This method really didn’t suit L&S.

Therefore, L&S made every effort to harmonize popularity and musicality, and today was finally the time to be evaluated.

-I like the head. You like the tail.

Cha In-hyeon’s soft voice, riding on a microphone full of reverb, began to fill the stage.

Bungeoppang [fish-shaped bread] is a song composed by Yong-jun and Cha In-hyeon, with lyrics and arrangement by Miju. Miju decided on the lyrics, the concept of the song, and the direction of the song, which was about a couple bickering while eating bungeoppang [fish-shaped bread] in the middle of winter.

It was a medium-tempo, cheerful song with easy and fun chorus, ‘Please give me bungeoppang [fish-shaped bread], sir.’

-Please give me bungeoppang [fish-shaped bread], sir.

When singing the chorus, Bang Min-sik sang the chorus together in falsetto, creating a rich harmony.

The song was short, but the response was very good.

It was much better than the solemn and long songs made by the bands that came out earlier, saying, ‘Let’s show our playing skills!’

Many audience members sang along to the part ‘Please give me bungeoppang [fish-shaped bread], sir,’ even though it was the first time they had heard the song, and the judges nodded their heads.

The song ended as the last chorus ended.

‘Huh? Is it over already?’

The judges expressed their doubts. It wasn’t necessarily a request for arrangement, but wouldn’t there be a lack of time to sing two songs in a row while maintaining the introduction, development, turn, and conclusion?

At that moment, on the empty stage where no sound could be heard.

“Yo-!”

A slightly nervous and sharp voice appeared.

The eyes of the audience who were doing other things at the sudden sound were focused at once.

A completely unexpected appearance. The lingering feeling of the medium-tempo love song flew away at once, and unfamiliar curiosity poured onto the stage.

“What is it?”

“Isn’t that the friend? Palpalpal [888]?”

There were also those who recognized Sang-hyeon, who suddenly appeared.

There were friendly eyes and hostile eyes, but what they had in common was that they focused on Sang-hyeon’s rap.

“Shout out L&S!”

At the same time as Sang-hyeon’s sharp voice expressed respect for L&S, the electric bass began to play heavily.

Bass & Rap.

The bizarre combination had the power to make even the judges focus.

The song prepared for the Jeonju World D. F. borrowed the method from when Sejong Musical Instrument Store first played Walk this way.

This was not rapping on the form of a finished song.

It was a method in which the sound was stacked one by one in the order of bass-drum-keyboard-guitar, and the accompaniment was completed.

And the moment the accompaniment was completed, Sang-hyeon’s role was to pass the audience’s concentration to Cha In-hyeon and leave immediately.

The Precision Bass, the beginning of the electric bass and characterized by a warm yet strong sound, began to run with Sang-hyeon’s rap.

The audience doesn’t know who we are.

Nurungji [scorched rice] attached to the bottom of Independent.

I rested enough and rested again. Mukeunji [well-fermented kimchi].

Now the drum will come in, the beat is doomchit.

As perfect delivery was achieved through the extremely enlarged microphone, a small cheer erupted from the audience.

Sang-hyeon had put more effort into this song than the rap. It is a lyric dribble that makes the audience prick up their ears and concentrate, saying, ‘What is that guy saying?’

Therefore, the most important thing is lyrics that can focus everyone’s attention and its delivery.

Like the lyrics, Hwang In-su’s drums came up roughly on the bass.

Disappearing in four-four time

A cypher with myself who has no manners.

This guy between artistic self-doubt and arrogance

I can’t stand it and keep catching the microphone.

What the fight between hesitation and I brought was imagination

The keyboard that will appear shortly is our commander

A big cheer erupted from the audience at the rhyme using the vowel ‘ㅏ’ [ah]. Sang-hyeon didn’t like excessive rhymes that broke the sentence structure like this. But now, he has to induce interest somehow.

The sound of a bouncing electronic keyboard came in between the drums and bass that were making a strong sound.

L&S and Eight, Eight, Eight

What I saw was the scene’s Mayday (distress signal)

I’ll show you rap metal, book everything in advance

I’ll engrave my name on the Indie Music Festival

Lastly, Bang Min-sik’s guitar.

The last part was to rap the chorus of L&S’s ‘Drawing’ that followed.

I’ll draw my dreams like a painter. Drawing.

The colors of the paint are diverse. Drawing.

I’ll draw my dreams like a painter. Drawing.

The colors of the paint are diverse. Drawing.

At the same time as Sang-hyeon’s rap ended, the drums, bass, guitar, and keyboard, which had been reducing the volume for the rap, burst into flames.

-Wow!

Even those who were not very interested reacted to the feeling of the performance that suddenly burst.

Amid the cheers, Cha In-hyeon, Bang Min-sik, and Shin Ha-yeon started the chorus at the same time.

Painter-like I’ll draw-dreams. Dra-wing-

The R&B-based melody and strong electric beat created a unique harmony. The audience, who had been momentarily stunned by the unprecedented song development method, began to like it.

Sang-hyeon quickly exited the stage and smiled.

He perfectly cleared the 22 seconds given to him. It’s time to leave the rest to the hyungs [older brothers/male friends].

L&S’s subsequent performance was chosen by the judges as the best performance out of 25 teams, and they advanced to the round of 14 without difficulty.

***

end

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