The Rap Star [EN]: Chapter 151

The 888 Crew, having won the right to choose the order, naturally selected to perform second. With the voting taking place after both teams’ performances, it was needless to say that performing last was advantageous.

Moreover, they had a secret weapon [a surprise element or special guest], so they also desired to make a grand finale to the performance.

On the stage, where the heat of the unexpected freestyle battle hadn’t cooled down, PD [Production Director] Heo Tae-jin began to enthusiastically encourage the audience.

“All together! Hip-hop!”

The Vibe!

The audience shouted in unison. Perhaps because of the larger-than-usual audience, the venue echoed loudly.

However, PD Heo Tae-jin, as if the cheering wasn’t loud enough, shouted even louder.

“Hip-hop!”

The Vibe!

“Hip-hop!”

The! Vibe!

The audience’s enthusiastic response was captured on camera without filtering, and PD Heo Tae-jin, having completed his mission, went down below the stage.

“Good job.”

“Ugh, this kind of thing isn’t really my thing. Writer Kim, make sure to ask Park In-hyuk again when the filming is over. Got it?”

The writer smiled and nodded.

As PD Heo Tae-jin left, the members of Stars Record appeared on the stage.

Bae Sang-wook, Woo Yeon-woo, Oh Myung-jin, Yeom Hyun-pil, and Kim Yu-hwa.

The audience’s passionate cheers were conveyed to the five veterans who silently took center stage. Soon, starlight-like lighting poured down onto the wide main stage of KM Music Box, instead of the usual special stage.

At the same time, a heavy drum and heavy bass flowed out.

When the heavy snare, with a thumping feel somewhere between ‘doong-doong’ and ‘doo-doo,’ came on, the Stars Record members, who had been standing motionless, began to bounce intensely as if they were headbanging.

Stars Record VS 888 Crew.

The final match that had been predicted since the lineup for episode 1 of Hip-hop The Vibe 2 was revealed.

Until now, Stars Record and 888 Crew had fought a total of 4 indirect battles.

First, in Hommie Vol.1, 888 Crew, armed with the ‘Fuck the Show Business’ issue and the freshness of rookies, had won a judges’ decision against Stars Record.

In ‘Round 1’ and ‘Round 3’s Guerrilla Concert’ of Hip-hop The Vibe 2, Stars Record had won a judges’ decision by acquiring more votes.

In the main performance of Round 3, a tie resulted, but Sang-hyun defeated Bae-ga, taking the victory. However, even this was close to a judges’ decision when considered as a crew-versus-crew battle.

‘Even the album sales, an extra match, are similar.’

Bae-ga thought that this was the first direct fight against 888 Crew. And of course, he intended to win.

He had lost to Sang-hyun once, but that was by no means a defeat for Stars Record.

A strange violin sample began to seep in between the heavy drums. String instruments have the power to calm people down, but they can also produce vastly different effects depending on how they are used. And now, it was working with the heavy drums to make the audience’s hearts beat faster.

The musician who powerfully opened the performance was the unique female vocalist, Kim Yu-hwa.

Against the backdrop of the rappers’ intense bouncing, Kim Yu-hwa appeared and grabbed the microphone.

The school bell rings, ding-dong-ding-

Let’s gather quickly-

The teacher is waiting for us-

Kim Yu-hwa’s song began to play, and the audience began to make expressions as if to say, ‘What is she doing?’ This was because Kim Yu-hwa, who seemed like she would pour out a song with a soulful voice at any moment, was singing ‘The School Bell Rings.’

However, of course, ‘The School Bell Rings’ was not the main course.

The first song of Stars Record, opening the 4th round final battle, was ‘Early Dismissal,’ sung by Bae Sang-wook, Oh Myung-jin, and Kim Yu-hwa. ‘Early Dismissal’ was a song that would be included in their 3rd album with the unanimous consent of the team members, even though it hadn’t been created long ago.

Often, rappers use the word ‘CLASS’ when expressing high-level rapping. And they also give the word ‘class’ a double meaning of ‘수업(class)’ [Korean word for ‘lesson’ or ‘class’] as well.

Stars Record went one step further and added the meaning of ‘a curse word with a similar pronunciation’ to the pronunciation of ‘Early Dismissal.’

This song was made after listening to Sang-hyun’s ‘Get that money, Welcome to school,’ which had received a standing ovation.

In the end, I make money and spend it

Very rapper-like, Wa$$up

You can’t buy class with money

But you can enter school

In fact, ‘Get that money, Welcome to school’ became a hot topic not so much among the audience, but rather among rappers and those who place great value on lyrics.

There was a site in Korea called Genius Player. Genius Player was a site created as a role model for the American Genius.com, and its purpose was intellectual play, such as solving reasoning problems or difficult Sudoku puzzles.

There was a different kind of intellectual play on these Genius.com and Genius Player sites, and that was lyric interpretation.

It was fun to interpret the lyrics of Bob Dylan’s songs containing political and religious messages, or Led Zeppelin’s ‘Stairway to Heaven,’ which was said to have been written while communicating with God. Popular songs were also interpreted, but in Korea, there were not many songs to interpret other than resistance songs from the 80s or a few underground art rock bands.

The song that has been causing the biggest issue on this Genius Player recently was ‘Get that money Welcome to school.’

The point was how Lee Sang-hyun set the relationship between money and music.

It’s not that I’m neglecting rap

(I’m always working hard on rap)

It’s just that other things are quite urgent right now

(But there are things that have greater value than rap)

I’m working to avoid rapping for the studio, equipment installments

(Material value takes precedence for music productivity)

The music I make by making music in debt looks commercial to me

(If money is the goal, the music becomes commercial)

I’ll make money and protect my purity, this is my mutual agreement with my ideals

(Material affluence is a prerequisite for musical purity. Lee Sang-hyun’s dream is to be a rapper, but he prioritizes the value of money over music through mutual agreement with his ideals)

This opinion was an interpretation that explained Sang-hyun’s worldview with the proposition ‘money > music.’

Of course, there were opposing interpretations as well. It was an interpretation that, as Sang-hyun originally intended, money was merely a tool for music for Lee Sang-hyun.

Regardless of whether the interpretation was good or bad, the buzz around ‘Get that money’ on Genius Player gave rappers a fresh shock.

The shock that twisting sentences using complex and difficult words is not everything, and that easy words can sufficiently form various meanings.

‘Early Dismissal’ was a song made by accepting this shock as it was.

It was also a song in which Stars Record’s 6-year insistence that everything in music must be completed within music was broken by 888 World.

Kim Yu-hwa sang the intro’s ‘The School Bell Rings’ slowly and plainly twice.

However, it wasn’t just repeated. If you have good ears, you could hear the familiar melody of ‘The School Bell Rings’ playing behind the drums and violin.

Furthermore, if you have knowledge of sampling techniques, you could realize that this melody was not a complete melody. The beat that Woo Yeon-woo made was a beat that used ‘sol-sol-la-la-sol-sol-mi’ played on a synthesizer piano as the main sample.

Finally, ‘sol-sol-la-la-sol-sol-mi (The School Bell Rings),’ which no one who attended elementary school in Korea could not know, began to properly reveal its presence.

What was placed on top of that was a sudden, powerful hook.

Just all get early dismissal-!

Just all get early dismissal-!

Don’t tarnish Rap Class

Just all get early dismissal-!

Sang-hyun, who was drinking water, almost choked and spat out the water. This was because ‘get early dismissal’ sounded like a curse word for a moment.

PD Heo Tae-jin, perhaps keeping that point in mind, had the refrain lyrics ‘Just all get early dismissal’ moving dynamically on the screen.

Just all get early dismissal-!

Just all get early dismissal-!

Don’t tarnish Rap Class

Just all get early dismissal-!

Oh Myung-jin, the only one in Stars Record who uses a heavy low tone, shouted the refrain as if he was screaming. After that, Kim Yu-hwa made a sound close to Ye-He, building a backing sound.

Heavy drums, synthesizer sampling.

A screaming low tone, a groovy vocal.

The four sources with strong personalities began to harmonize when they met the maestro, Woo Yeon-woo.

It was a hook close to perfection.

The interesting thing was that the music of Stars Record had the scent of 888 Crew. This was because 888 Crew and Stars Record shared many parts while going through Hip-hop The Vibe.

The rapper who opened the start of the verse was Stars Record’s eternal leader, Bae Sang-wook.

That girl likes me,

When I play with her alone

We stay up all night with our eyes open

We talked about owls

Bae Sang-wook began rapping calmly as if recalling the past. It was as if he was reminiscing about a past lover. However, some of the audience who caught Bae Sang-wook’s lyrics were thinking that the content of the refrain and the verse did not match.

‘Is it a love song? The feeling of the refrain wasn’t a sentimental song?’

Sang-hyun’s thoughts were similar to those of the audience. However, as the rap progressed, he felt that ‘she’ mentioned in the song was referring to ‘hip-hop.’

It wasn’t just because today’s theme was hip-hop.

The vibe that Bae-ga’s rap conveyed was like that.

The affection for hip-hop that he had protected since 1999, when he had nothing, while tasting numerous frustrations and failures.

Bae-ga’s rap had that taste.

Our theme is All that

Rap instead of Jazz, Rap

Go back to the 80s

Graduate of old school

Old school hip-hop from the 80s that always fascinated Bae-ga.

The only topic we talked about all night was one.

But as time goes by, she and

Lies that come between me

Presidents with expensive salaries

Try to buy her with bait, dizziness

But as time went by, the essence of old school hip-hop became blurred. Gimmicks [tricks for sales promotion] by rappers who had low self-esteem about music and just wanted to become famous continued, and capital that did not respect hip-hop intervened.

That’s why Bae-ga started rapping.

I broke up with her and went to Nu School

But I still Choose You

To the new school

Sitting in the classroom, her

I said to the smile, I’ll save you

And then New School hip-hop started.

In the ‘newly entered school,’ she was still there as she was.

He couldn’t do anything about the degeneration of old school, but now he was a rapper who had a big influence on Korean hip-hop.

I’ll save you.

Be the underground

Inheriting the values of the underground.

So Bae-ga was shouting. Those who ruined real hip-hop, get out of this school,

Just all get early dismissal-!

Just all get early dismissal-!

Don’t tarnish Rap Class

Just all get early dismissal-!

Sang-hyun was startled and came to his senses the moment Oh Myung-jin’s refrain came out. It was because he was too deeply immersed in Bae-ga’s rap.

Bae-ga’s rap, which flowed like a novel or an epic poem, had something that attracted people.

‘Bae-ga hyung’s rap is…….’

End

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