The Rap Star [EN]: Chapter 105

The 888 Crew members and Sanghyun were bewildered. The official bootleg sales figures were far beyond their wildest expectations.

“Sold out of the first edition in just two hours?”

The 888 Crew weren’t fools, nor were they naive.

They knew the anticipation and support hip-hop fans had for them. They were also aware of the buzz they’d generated.

That’s why they boldly released 2,000 copies for the first edition, confident they could sell them all.

‘Probably sold out within a month,’ they’d thought.

However, they never imagined a month could turn into two hours.

And even that two hours was extended because the server lagged; the actual sell-out time was likely less than thirty minutes.

Several factors contributed to the 888 Crew’s official bootleg’s success.

First, and most obviously, was the anticipation for their music. The 888 Crew made a name for themselves with the “Fuck the Show Biz” controversy, proved their skills to hip-hop fans through their Club Homie performances, and then immediately released *Bootleg 0.5* for free, creating the ‘888 Kids’ [a dedicated fanbase].

Melodic rap from “Move.”

Trap sounds in “Eight, Eight, Eight.”

Local Gwangju swagger in “Gwangju Up.”

Edgy lyrics in “Fuck the Show Biz.”

Hip-hop fans who encountered the jam-packed tracks of *Bootleg 0.5* naturally developed the perception that ‘888’s music is a bit different.’ Moreover, if a free mixtape was this good, what about an official bootleg?

This was the biggest reason why hip-hop fans crashed Triple Eight’s website.

The second reason was marketing.

Sanghyun had poured everything into his music and was passionately enjoying it. But that didn’t mean his business sense had disappeared.

Without even realizing it, he was incorporating marketing elements into the 888 Crew.

The pinnacle of these marketing elements was the domestic brand Triple Eight and the 888 X 888 T-shirts.

Sanghyun initially only thought of providing T-shirts to fans out of a sense of obligation. The 888 Crew was receiving too many inquiries about them.

Currently, Sanghyun’s HiphopLE [a Korean hip-hop community website] account had an overwhelming number of unread messages. Most were ‘I want to join the 888 Crew’ and ‘I want to buy a T-shirt.’

However, the 888 T-shirts combined with area codes were intended only for rappers representing those areas, a decision already made.

Teams that interacted with the 888 Crew would get them.

Teams that didn’t wouldn’t.

It was a distinction unrelated to skill, but Sanghyun calculated that if this distinction spread, the 888 Crew would naturally stand at the center of the hip-hop scene.

So, he decided to provide fans with T-shirts with a different design.

The T-shirts provided to musicians had letters ‘hidden’ within the basic phrase 888 X 888. For example, the phrase 051 X RAP [051 is the area code for Busan] was hidden within the white letters of 888 X 888.

However, the T-shirts provided to fans only had the phrase 051 X RAP written on them. In addition, musicians were gifted New Era caps with the same printing as the T-shirts.

It was a minor difference, but he thought it would prevent the original plan from going awry.

Hip-hop fans who heard about the official bootleg release thought they might get a T-shirt for the cheap price of 9,000 won [approximately $7 USD].

The current price of 888 X 888 T-shirts sold at Triple Eight was 25,000 won [approximately $20 USD]. Even with a simple calculation, winning the event meant getting both an album and a T-shirt for 9,000 won.

The result of combining these marketing elements with anticipation for the music was the sell-out of the first edition.

The last reason was the 888 Crew’s broad fan base with ‘purchasing power.’

The 888 Crew was still underground.

It’s difficult to clearly define overground and underground, but the fact was that far more people didn’t know the 888 Crew than those who did.

But interestingly, among those who knew the 888 Crew, many had purchasing power and the willingness to buy.

First, there were musicians and aspiring rappers.

To musicians, the 888 Crew was a team ahead of the curve. At the same time, they were a team that operated differently. Therefore, musicians had only two options.

‘Try to run the same way as them, or find a different way from them.’

But no matter which they chose, they had to know 888 Crew’s music well.

Another group was the major record labels and agency officials who were secretly very interested in the 888 Crew.

The A&R [Artists and Repertoire] teams of agencies that plan music businesses and records are very interested in the music of musicians they intend to scout. This is because they need to scout them to generate revenue.

And they don’t buy albums in units of one or two. Since album purchase costs are processed as business expenses, they basically buy about thirty or forty copies.

The 888 Crew had no idea, but some purchasing managers of several agency A&R teams were being scolded.

“You can’t even buy one album? Are your hands just for show? Can’t you click? Don’t you know how to use a mouse!”

While being reprimanded by their superiors.

In addition to this, people who got to know the 888 Crew through the Gwangju Tigers [a professional baseball team], band players, and broadcasting officials from Hip-Hop the Vibe were all interested in the 888 Crew’s official bootleg.

Due to the explosive response to the official bootleg, the 888 Crew once again began to digest a busy schedule, just when they were about to finish all the scheduled performances and have some free time.

“How many more albums should we print?”

“Hmm…”

Junhyung pondered Kim Hwan’s question. Everyone had their own thoughts, but it was right for the leader to speak first.

After a long deliberation, Junhyung said boldly.

“Four thousand. Let’s print four thousand more.”

“What? Four thousand? Isn’t that too many?”

“I don’t know. My head tells me to print about two thousand, but I feel like we need to print 4,000.”

If they printed and sold 4,000 more copies, the 888 Crew’s official bootleg would sell a total of 6,000 copies.

Starz Records’ second album *Starz*, released at the end of last year, sold a total of 13,000 copies. This was recorded as the best-selling album in the history of Korean hip-hop, a record that stood until 2005.

Starz’s sales were tallied over ten months, and one day, when sales exceeded 10,000, Bae Ga posted a message on his mini-homepage [a popular social media platform in the early 2000s].

-This is platinum in the Korean underground hip-hop scene.

Bae Ga’s statement became quite an issue among hip-hop fans.

There is a system called ‘album sales certification’ in the music market. It’s used in many countries, and most follow the grades used by the American RIAA [Recording Industry Association of America], which are Gold, Platinum, and Diamond.

In the United States, Silver means 100,000 copies, Gold means 500,000 copies, Platinum means 1 million copies, and Diamond means 10 million copies of albums sold.

If you sold 2 million copies, it was called Double Platinum, and if you sold 3 million copies, it was called Triple Platinum.

In the UK, Silver was 60,000 copies, Gold was 100,000 copies, and Platinum was 300,000 copies. In Japan, a country close to Korea, there was no Silver grade, Gold was 100,000 copies, Platinum was 250,000 copies, and Diamond was 1 million copies.

Looking at these grades, you can feel the difference in market size. Platinum sales in the UK and Japan weren’t even Gold in the United States.

So, what about Korea?

Korea didn’t implement an album sales certification system itself. This was partly due to the small size of the market, but the biggest reason was that the influence of large agencies on the market was so great that it was impossible to objectively tally album sales.

The rumors among fans that when they bought A Group’s album, B Group’s album sales went up weren’t entirely unfounded.

Even in the 90s and early 2000s, when album sales were active, 150,000 copies were usually considered Platinum. However, as time passed, MP3s appeared, and illegal music sharing sites such as Soribada [a Korean file-sharing service] appeared, the album market died, and recently, 50,000 or 60,000 copies were called Platinum.

So, Bae Ga defined 10,000 copies as Platinum in the underground hip-hop market, which is narrower than the Korean album market.

Based on that, the 6,000 copies that Junhyung was aiming for could be seen as Gold.

“What do you all think?”

“I think it’s right to print about two thousand more copies and then add more before it’s completely sold out, depending on the trend. People’s desires come and go. There may be people who wanted our official bootleg when it was released, but their desires will fade over time, right?”

Hayun’s words made sense.

Now, all the crew members’ eyes were on one person: Sanghyun, who was unofficially responsible for the business aspects of the 888 Crew.

Sanghyun, under the unspoken pressure of the crew members, slowly opened his mouth.

“Ten thousand.”

“What?”

“Let’s fill ten thousand. Let’s print eight thousand more.”

The members were stunned by Sanghyun’s scale.

“Then we have to package eight thousand copies…?”

“Huh? No. For the first edition, we had time, so we did it as a cottage industry to maximize the profit margin, but if we print eight thousand copies, we have to hire people. We also need to find someone to manage the website in the short term.”

Currently, if the 888 Crew sells one 9,000 won album, they make 8,000 won [approximately $6.50 USD], not considering labor costs.

Originally, it cost 1 million won [approximately $800 USD] to entrust the production of 1,000 albums to a company when the sound source was completely prepared, or 1,000 won per album.

However, because the 888 Crew’s album case and album cover were made of high-quality materials, it cost 1,000 won per album even though it was made as a cottage industry.

“And it would be better to change the album case, cover, and CD for the reprint. If a company is producing it, we can’t use high-quality materials like now.”

“Wouldn’t that cause complaints from fans?”

“It could, or it might not. But if the quality of the first edition and the reprint are exactly the same, people who went to great lengths to buy the first edition may not feel any merit.”

Then, when buying the next album, they will become relaxed rather than excited. The members who guessed Sanghyun’s intentions cursed him as a sly guy.

At that time, Woominho, who had a lot of worries, said.

“But now is not the time to talk about album quality. Can we digest all eight thousand copies?”

“I don’t know, that’s…”

“Then wouldn’t it be right to mix Junhyung and Hayun’s opinions? First, release three thousand copies and then watch the trend to add more.”

However, Sanghyun shook his head.

“The official bootleg is just a passing point for us. Now we have a goal to make a better album than the official bootleg. So, I’m not going to put in the effort to keep worrying about the official bootleg, checking sales, ordering production, and worrying about shipping. Print eight thousand copies, find someone to take charge of the official bootleg, and freely fight with the official bootleg.”

“Let’s beat the *janmangseureoun* [endearing yet mischievous] official bootleg kid?”

“That’s right.”

“크……” [sound of awe]

“Starz Records *hyungs* [older brothers/respected figures] also achieved platinum. What can’t we do?”

In Sanghyun’s memory, it took three years for an album to break the 10,000 mark after Starz Records’ second album *Starz*. It was supposed to come out in 2007.

But now that history is gone. Many things have changed due to the appearance of the 888 Crew.

Sanghyun completely accepted the changed flow with the official bootleg as an opportunity. He completely abandoned the vague idea that ‘the flow of hip-hop was about this much at this time.’

That’s why Sanghyun believed that the official bootleg could break 10,000 copies. Although he didn’t express it, he was also predicting the possibility of more than that.

Now I could be sure.

The emergence of the 888 Crew has advanced the history of Korean hip-hop by more than a year.

< Verse 15. Flow (End) – End of Volume 4 > End

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