The Rap Star [EN]: Chapter 124

Verse 18. Hip-Hop the Vibe

The day of the college entrance exam, November 17th, dawned.

The 888 Crew members, including Sanghyun, gathered at the studio early in the morning to review their performance song for Hip-Hop the Vibe. Before they knew it, 4 PM was fast approaching, and the members headed to Hayeon’s exam location, timing their arrival with the end of the test.

“Ugh, it’s disgustingly cold.”

“I know, right?”

“It’s amazing how it’s like this every year during the exam.”

The weather today was true to the saying ‘exam freeze,’ [a Korean expression referring to the sudden cold weather on the day of important exams] bitterly cold.

The crew members, who had taken out their thick parkas for the first time this year, spent time laughing, chatting, and joking around at the entrance of the exam site. It was the usual pleasant scene whenever the 888 Crew gathered, but there was something slightly different from usual.

It was the group of female students clinging to them.

“Are you Lee Sanghyun?”

“Y-you?”

Sangmi made a gagging face.

Somehow, they had found out and gathered; female fans wanting to give Sanghyun gifts had appeared at the exam site.

The group of female students couldn’t shout because they were in front of the exam site, but they showed their fan love by taking pictures, getting autographs, and touching Sanghyun as if he were a sacred object.

Sanghyun was overwhelmed by the aggressive physical attention from fans, which he was experiencing for the first time.

“No way… my oppa [term used by younger women to refer to older brothers or male friends/idols] is a celebrity!”

At that sight, Sangmi covered her eyes as if she had seen something she shouldn’t have.

After the storm passed, Kim Hwan said in amazement,

“Is the power of one public broadcast appearance really this great? It aired yesterday, and we’re already getting a barrage of gifts?”

“Exactly. It aired at 7 PM yesterday, so it hasn’t even been 24 hours,” Minji replied, wagging her index finger.

“It’s because you did well. Sanghyun, you were totally awesome yesterday. Some of my friends were asking about you, you know?”

“Still, this is too fast. Wow, if we go on Hip-Hop the Vibe tomorrow, will we become famous too?”

“Well… oppa is… well….”

Seeing Minji’s hesitation, Inhyuk started pressing her about what it meant.

Sanghyun felt half embarrassed and half grateful for the unexpected shower of gifts. Fortunately, there were no burdensome or expensive gifts.

Just then, the bell rang, signaling the end of the college entrance exam.

Soon after, students with various expressions began to emerge from the exam site. Of course, Hayeon was among them.

Sangmi, who especially adored Hayeon, was the first to run up and grab Hayeon’s hand.

“Unnie! [term used by younger women to refer to older sisters or female friends/idols] You worked so hard!”

“You went through a lot. Are you tired?”

“Hayeon, you did great.”

The members offered words of comfort one by one.

“Did you do well? Do you think you’ll get a good score?”

Joonhyung’s tactless question, squeezing through the crowd, earned him a poke in the side from Oh Minji. However, the parka was too thick, so her fingernails didn’t reach. It seemed she needed a ‘Mountain Split with Iron Claws’ [reference to a martial arts technique or a humorous exaggeration of a fingernail attack].

Hayeon smiled and replied,

“The questions were so beautiful that I didn’t want to deface them. I just stared at them blankly.”

“We stared blankly without Hayeon.”

Sanghyun, who looked at Inhyuk with a pathetic gaze for his corny joke, asked Hayeon,

“Now that the exam is over, what do you want to do?”

“Are you showing off that your solo song preparation is perfect? What else would I do? Of course, I have to go practice. Filming is the day after tomorrow.”

“Still, now that the exam is over, let’s at least have a meal…”

“Let’s order food at the practice room!”

Hayeon, full of energy, pushed Sanghyun’s back.

Seeing that, Joonhyung and Inhyuk laughed and followed behind.

“I want braised pork in gravy!”

“I want sweet and sour pork!”

“I’ll pay today!”

Everyone looked puzzled at Sangmi’s sudden words. Then, Sangmi made a V sign with her hand and said,

“My oppa’s Popular Music appearance fee came in today. A whopping four hundred thousand won!”

“Ooh!”

The atmosphere quickly heated up.

And so, the 888 Crew members arrived at the studio and began to eat, make music, and stay up all night.

When the L&S members, who had brought a cake to celebrate Hayeon’s hard work on the exam, joined in, the studio was soon filled with ‘good people.’

***

-Anyone watch Hip-Hop the Vibe yesterday?

-Wow, it was really fun. The rappers’ battle of wits was fun, and the rapping was fun too.

-But is Codename always in such a disregarded position? I felt a bit sorry for them.

-Sorry my ass. They’re like that because of what they’ve done. Codename’s rudeness is super famous among celebrities, you know.

-That’s why they fought with the 888 Crew.

-I thought Stars Records was really cool. They said they’ve always been at the forefront of the Korean underground hip-hop scene, which had nothing before.

-Did you guys know? Bae Gah is the heir to Bae Sung Construction. His father is Chairman Bae Yeonho.

-Huh? Really?

-Do you believe that? Of course, it’s a lie.

-No, it’s true. Bae Gah said somewhere that his father told him to sign a waiver of inheritance if he was going to keep rapping. But Bae Gah coolly gave up the inheritance and became independent. Just because he wanted to rap.

-Wow, that’s really cool.

Hip-Hop the Vibe 2, which started its first broadcast on Friday, November 18th, made a refreshing start with satisfactory ratings.

PD [Production Director] Heo Taejin, who arrived at the broadcasting station the earliest and checked the ratings, couldn’t stop smiling.

The release of Triple Eight, the conflict between the 888 Crew and Codename, and the unexpected number one hit of ‘If Today Passes’.

The first episode of Hip-Hop the Vibe, which started with these three issues, recorded a whopping 2% viewership.

The 2% record was the highest viewership that KMnet, which was launched three months ago, had recorded so far, and it was also one of the highest records among all cable channels.

To people familiar with public broadcasting viewership metrics, a 2% viewership might seem like the viewership of a failed program. However, the standards for accepting viewership ratings were different for public broadcasting and cable.

Cable channel awareness, number of channels, viewership survey sample size, margin of error.

Considering the above items, cable viewership ratings could be converted to public broadcasting viewership ratings, and the method was usually to multiply by 7-10.

KMnet was a relatively large cable broadcasting station, so they usually multiplied by 7 to compare with public broadcasting viewership ratings.

In other words, converting a 2% viewership to public broadcasting would result in a converted viewership of 14%.

‘Fourteen percent!’

From morning, the number 14 was spinning around in PD Heo Taejin’s head. And the final number that the number 14 spun around and completed was 888.

The 888 Crew was truly a treasure.

Peak viewership per minute, search index immediately after the broadcast, issues on the viewer bulletin board.

There was nothing that the 888 Crew hadn’t taken a part in.

-My sister watched Hip-Hop the Vibe because the 888 Crew leader is so cool, and Lee Sanghyun is cool. He’s two years younger than me.

-Lee Sanghyun isn’t the leader. Shin Joonhyung is the leader.

-I thought Park Inhyuk was the leader because of his antics.

-Ah, Park Inhyuk, lol.

-Park Inhyuk is so funny, lol.

-Hip-Hop the Vibration, lol.

-I didn’t see it from the beginning, what is Hip-Hop the Vibration?

-It’s nothing much, Park Inhyuk seemed like he was going to sneeze during the interview. He made an eh- eh- sound, but failed to sneeze and made a strange eh-eh-eh sound. But Park Inhyuk suddenly became serious, looked at the camera, and said, ‘Hip-Hop the Vibration Coming Soon’ lol lol lol.

-Ah, it’s funnier if you see it in person. You’ll burst out laughing, lol.

-The writer’s expression is even funnier, lol.

Sanghyun, who captivated everyone with his rap and provoked Codename.

Inhyuk, who is mischievous and playful but cool on stage.

Joonhyung, the leader who embraces everyone.

Sangmi, like a cute younger sister.

Hayeon, who showed a feminine appearance and solid rap.

Kim Hwan, with the image of a church oppa [a respectful term for an older male friend or brother figure, often used in church settings].

Woo Minho, who is somewhat clumsy but becomes cold when dealing with sound.

Oh Minji, the nagging mother of the crew.

The 888 Crew members were individuals with distinct personalities, and those personalities gave viewers a great sense of liking. With a wide selection of 8 people, there was bound to be at least one character that they liked.

Of course, there were also people who disliked all 8 members of the 888 Crew, and there were also people who preferred Stars Records or other teams. Naturally, people’s preferences for people were bound to vary.

However, the evaluation of the music was almost unilateral.

Codename and Bounce Rhyme did not cause any musical buzz at all, and Stars Records and the 888 Crew took all the attention.

And if you look at it coldly, the attention was more focused on the 888 Crew than on Stars Records. After all, Stars Records lacked external musical buzz, and because it was a team with a long history, the fresh taste was lacking.

Among these 888 Crews, the song that received the most attention was, of course, ‘Crouching Writer’.

A 5-minute video that suddenly appeared around the time the Homi and Mudeung Stadium performance introducing the 888 Crew ended. ‘Crouching Writer’ decorated the end of the trailer.

100 bars of rap that started gently and softly as if saying, ‘Would you like to listen to this song once?’ ‘Crouching Writer’ clearly imprinted the names of 888 Crew and Lee Sanghyun on many hip-hop fans and even more general viewers.

-Where can I listen to the original song of ‘Crouching Writer’? It’s not on Soribada or Pruna [Korean music streaming/download services, Pruna being a now-defunct P2P file sharing program].

-Let’s pay and listen a little. Don’t listen to songs made with hard work for free.

-No, it’s not even on music sites?

-If you go to Hiphopplaya, the 888 Crew website, or hip-hop-related power blogger sites, there is a player. Downloads are not allowed. If you want to own it, buy the CD. It’s only nine thousand won.

-Triple Eight is out of stock for the second time. But it’s amazing that 888 Crew songs don’t seem to appear on illegal music sharing sites. Even if there is no official music source on music sites, doesn’t it usually appear quickly?

-If you search hip-hop cafes well, there are some. If you look for music extracted from CDs, there are some.

-But is that live? How can a person rap for 5 minutes without resting even once?

-It’s live. It’s live, so they sent it to the Korea Record Institute.

-But Shin Joonhyung helped from behind. If it’s going to be a real record, shouldn’t there be no such help?

-No, but apart from that, isn’t the rap fun? I was really immersed in the subtitles as if my eyeballs were falling out.

-Think only of the lyrics like a mother!

-So cool.

-Food poisoning like side dishes that have gone bad in the summer.

-Food poisoning? What does that mean?

-Um… it’s stale. This is expressed by analogy. This is called a punchline in hip-hop.

-That ‘1 times 0 and 100 times 0’, Lee Sanghyun did in ‘If Today Passes’. I thought that was cooler.

-Huh? Indie Kid’s ‘If Today Passes’ was featured by Lee Sanghyun? It says 56 on the album?

-56 is Lee Sanghyun.

-Indie Kid and Lee Sanghyun were on Popular Music on Wednesday. That was so cool.

-Is Lee Sanghyun from Oryukdo? The octopus there is amazing.

PD Heo Taejin was having two concerns while watching the positive reactions related to the 888 Crew.

First of all, he was worried about what would happen if the 888 Crew made a big mistake and couldn’t go to the finals. Musicians sometimes forget very familiar lyrics as if possessed by a ghost, or mess up the beat.

The other was the concern that if the 888 Crew and Stars Records overwhelmed the other teams too much, there might be no tension from the viewers’ point of view.

“PD Heo. The 888 Crew arrived about ten minutes ago.”

“Really? All 8 of them came okay, right?”

“Yes. They’re still energetic.”

“Then, all we need is the Bounce Rhyme edition, right?”

“Codename Dread said he’s going to be about thirty minutes late due to a personal schedule. He’ll be arriving soon.”

“First, conduct basic interviews with the people who have arrived, such as their impressions of the first broadcast and their attitude towards today’s competition. Oh, you know that the rehearsal is done with the camera fully set up, right? Tell the other teams not to talk about the song.”

PD Heo Taejin gave various instructions to the junior FD [Floor Director] and then checked today’s scenario for the last time.

The paper that PD Heo Taejin was holding had the names of 4 teams written on it, and the names of 2 of the teams were circled. The circled teams were the 888 Crew and Stars Records.

‘Which team will fall first? Codename? Bounce Rhyme?’

As almost all the staff thought, Heo Taejin was also predicting that the eliminated team in the 2nd round competition would be one of Codename and Bounce Rhyme.

“Ugh, that bastard Choi Daehan is being a pain in the ass until the day of the competition.”

Around that time, Dread, who had finished all the preparations to break everyone’s expectations, was entering the broadcasting station.

End of

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