The Rap Star [EN]: Chapter 73

< Verse 12. Gwangju UP! >

“Are you talking about the Gwangju Tigers baseball team? What’s this about?”

-Ah, we have a proposal for Lee Sang-hyun. Would you happen to have some time now?

“What proposal?”

-It’s a bit long to explain over the phone. If you have time, I’d like to come to where you are.

Sang-hyun pondered for a moment. Usually, proposals that can’t be made over the phone and require a face-to-face meeting are related to sales, taking advantage of the fact that it’s hard to refuse a smiling face.

But no matter how he thought about it, there was no way the Gwangju Tigers would be selling him something, right? Unless they were scammers.

“I’m at the Hyundai Department Store right now. Can you come here?”

-You mean near Gwangju Station? I’ll be right there. About fifteen minutes.

“Call me when you’re nearby. I’m buying something.”

-Okay. I’ll be there soon.

Sang-hyun couldn’t resist his curiosity and decided to meet with Deputy Manager Go Won-guk.

‘What’s the Gwangju Tigers up to?’

A little later, as Sang-hyun was choosing a gift and waiting for it to be wrapped, he received another call from Deputy Manager Go Won-guk.

“I’m coming down now.”

Sang-hyun met Go Won-guk at a traditional rice cake cafe in front of the Hyundai Department Store.

Go Won-guk had a friendly and youthful appearance, but at the same time, his wrinkled dress shirt and the not-so-clean shirt cuffs gave off a bachelor vibe.

Sang-hyun started listening to the story while drinking the coffee Go Won-guk bought. Sang-hyun’s expression gradually changed to one of interest.

“So, you’re saying you want to buy the rights to Gwangju UP?”

“I don’t know if you know this, but the word ‘rights’ isn’t an exact legal term under copyright law. So, what I mean is…”

“Ah, I understand everything you’re saying, Deputy Manager Go Won-guk. The Gwangju Tigers want to use Gwangju UP as a cheer song and are requesting exclusive rights, including for derivative works like arrangements, right?”

“Ah, that’s right.”

Go Won-guk said with a friendly smile.

‘This isn’t just a feeler…?’

Seeing the excessive politeness shown by Go Won-guk, Sang-hyun could sense the desperation of the Gwangju Tigers’ PR team. It was obvious that Go Won-guk was desperate.

“If I agree to your company’s proposal, how will things proceed? Does the Gwangju Tigers only get the rights to use it?”

“That’s right. Of course, Lee Sang-hyun will remain the copyright holder. To put it simply, we’ll be entrusted to register it with the Korea Music Copyright Association [a non-profit organization that manages the copyrights of musical works in South Korea] first. And then, through KBOP [Korea Professional Baseball Organization], KBO’s [Korea Baseball Organization’s] marketing subsidiary…”

“Wait a minute. You’re going to register it with the Korea Music Copyright Association?”

“Yes. That’s how we can use it through KBOP.”

Sang-hyun asked Go Won-guk about this and that. He honestly asked about the profits, and he also honestly asked about the method of paying royalties and the number of uses.

Copyright fees for baseball cheer songs have been set since 2001. According to the revised Copyright Act in July 2000, royalties could be collected for music used in professional sports facilities.

And the amount isn’t fixed but is calculated by applying a rate of 0.2% to the admission revenue.

“Then, would it be okay for our club to carry out the copyright registration?”

Go Won-guk asked after talking for a while. Sang-hyun took a sip of his coffee and said,

“No. I don’t think I can register the copyright.”

“Yes? Why is that?”

Go Won-guk, who had been talking for a while, was startled. But Sang-hyun gently expressed his refusal.

Sang-hyun was definitely planning to register the sound source of Gwangju UP.

But not yet.

The timing of the sound source registration would be after listening to Shinonishi Nari’s Osaka UP. After confirming that Gwangju UP and Osaka UP were definitely different songs.

‘New York Shit’ or ‘Chicago Bang.’ It’s a common cliché to put a corresponding phrase after the name of the city, so I didn’t think the idea was stolen.

‘Let’s be sure.’

In fact, Sang-hyun was going to register the sound source as soon as Gwangju UP received a good response because he didn’t make Gwangju UP after listening to Osaka UP in the first place.

But now, Sang-hyun had an obsession with respecting future copyrights. Because of what happened with Cha In-hyun, he didn’t want to leave even a speck of dust on his own integrity.

‘If I use someone else’s song, thinking it’s a coincidence or a mistake, I’m no different from Cha In-hyun. It’s my mistake that Cha In-hyun was able to steal a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and it’s a coincidence that Cha In-hyun was on the roof.’

Besides, it’s the era of illegal music downloads anyway—an era where you could download music from sites like Soribada or Pruna [early Korean peer-to-peer file sharing services] without any compensation. So there was no rush at all.

Sang-hyun’s respect for copyright was also a sign of respect for musicians and hip-hop music, but more than that, it was a desire to protect his own identity.

Art, and music, is accumulated over time and experience, no matter what anyone says. The results of his efforts, along with the life he has experienced, solidify on the surface of the talent, like fossils.

It is natural that the fossil contains the musician’s personality, character, values, direction of effort, and so on.

But what if you steal all the hit songs you remember and make a living as a musician?

You definitely can’t succeed.

And that was actually killing the possibility of a rapper named Lee Sang-hyun.

Eminem’s music and Kanye West’s music are completely different, even though they are the same form of rap. Especially in rap, the rapper’s unique sensibility and lyrics have a profound effect.

If I had regressed a few years earlier and sang Eminem’s “Lose Yourself,” would that song have been successful? Could it have held the top spot on the Billboard chart for 12 weeks?

Absolutely not.

“Lose Yourself” is a song that gained explosive popularity when Eminem, who was discriminated against as a white man among blacks, the owners of hip-hop, made a rap about the movie ‘8Mile’, which had a similar story.

Of course, the song was good, but it wasn’t just because the song was good that it became the longest-reigning hip-hop single on the Billboard chart.

“Lose Yourself” was a song that contained the lingering feeling of Eminem’s life and the back story of the lyrics that summarized the contents of the movie.

But what if I ignore all these restrictions and steal all the hit songs I vaguely remember?

I wouldn’t succeed, but even if one or two songs did succeed, I wouldn’t be able to have a proper music career after that. The unique identity of the musician Lee Sang-hyun would disappear.

And then I’d probably struggle to remember the old songs, begging for them.

While doing business, Sang-hyun realized how easily human morality is violated. It’s only difficult once, but once you do it, the vigilance of morality disappears, and only greed remains.

It may be an excessive worry, but Sang-hyun thought that if that happened, the life of the musician ‘Lee Sang-hyun’ would be over.

‘Well, I don’t remember that many songs properly anyway.’

Sang-hyun doesn’t completely memorize many foreign songs. If you go to songs that you vaguely remember the phrases, there will be a little more, but when you think about what the beat was, you can’t think of anything at all.

In fact, how many people remember the accompaniment of a song and the instruments used in it?

When it comes to domestic songs, there were some songs that I memorized, but it was even more difficult to steal and succeed than foreign songs.

As you know, the Korean market is not simply determined by the ‘quality of the song.’ Rather, things outside of music, such as promotion and fandom, are more important. Also, there are not many songs in Korea where ‘rap solo songs’ have been explosively successful.

And rather than selling his pride and stealing songs, Sang-hyun wanted to make a better song. He was confident that he could make it.

That’s why Sang-hyun decided that it wasn’t time to register Gwangju UP as a sound source yet.

“Is there something you don’t like? Or something you want to ask for…?”

“It’s not like that.”

“Is the royalty too low?”

Go Won-guk asked.

“It’s not just because of that.”

As Go said, the royalty was also very low, much lower than I thought.

After listening to the story, the cheer song royalty paid by KBOP to the Korea Music Copyright Association in 2004 was about 50 million won [approximately $40,000 USD based on current exchange rates].

Considering the number of clubs and the number of players in each club, the profit that would fall to Sang-hyun, who owns one song, would be less than one million won a year [approximately $800 USD based on current exchange rates].

One million won is not a small amount of money, but it is far from enough compared to his beliefs.

‘It’s a bit of a shame.’

It wasn’t the money that was a shame, but the opportunity was a bit of a shame. And I was sorry for Deputy Manager Go Won-guk, who was anxious after hearing my refusal.

“I’m sorry. I’ll get up first.”

The meeting with Go Won-guk ended like that.

Sang-hyun thought that this was the end of the story about Gwangju UP. But the Gwangju Tigers’ front office was more persistent than he thought.

No, to be exact, Ahn Cheol-seung, the head of the Gwangju Tigers’ PR team, was incredibly persistent.

“Yo! Sang-hyun.”

Ahn Cheol-seung started going to work at the main gate of Unsan High School from the next day. On the first day, he made the mistake of waiting at 10 o’clock when night self-study ended, but from the next day, it was exactly 4 o’clock.

Sang-hyun was embarrassed by the unexpected persistence.

“You came again today?”

“Student Jun-hyung isn’t here today?”

“He had something to do and left first.”

Ahn Cheol-seung was in a hurry.

On July 31st, the mid-season trade period finally ended. Now, Han Gwang-soo was officially changing into the Gwangju Tigers uniform and was about to make his debut.

He would have debuted a long time ago if he hadn’t been placed on the injured list for 4 weeks due to a thigh injury immediately after the trade.

Judging from the fact that he was slowly participating in practice games, the PR team had to make a decision on Han Gwang-soo’s cheer song within ten days.

“Isn’t it hot? Get in quickly. I’ll take you home.”

“It’s a little less hot now, isn’t it?”

“It’s still hot if you walk.”

Ahn Cheol-seung, as an experienced team leader, didn’t put specific pressure on Sang-hyun. Instead, he would just wait at the main gate of Unsan High School every day and take Sang-hyun and Jun-hyung home.

I refused, but I couldn’t get my words across.

Once, when I said it was okay and passed by, Team Leader Ahn Cheol-seung was slowly following me in his car. Sang-hyun laughed in disbelief.

‘He’s really devoted.’

It was true that I was becoming fond of the devotion that a team leader-level figure was showing to a high school student.

Isn’t this attitude proof that he really liked my song?

Sang-hyun didn’t know the behind-the-scenes story that Han Gwang-soo had rejected all the cheer songs he had suggested as alternatives.

Sang-hyun got into Ahn Cheol-seung’s car.

“Do you like coffee?”

“I sometimes drink it when it’s hot.”

“These days, kids go to cafes and drink coffee, right? This isn’t New York; Koreans are still at coffee shops, right?”

“Have you been to New York?”

“Of course not.”

Team Leader Ahn Cheol-seung and Sang-hyun were now having a fairly friendly conversation.

In fact, Sang-hyun had been thinking about Team Leader Ahn Cheol-seung for several days. And finally, the worry was over. I was going to finish it now, in a very interesting direction.

“Team Leader, would you like to have a cup of coffee today?”

< Verse 12. Gwangju UP! > End

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