The Rap Star [EN]: Chapter 156

Verse 24. 2006

Finally, the six-week filming of Hip Hop the Vibe 2, Episode 1, came to an end.

For PD [Production Director] Heo Tae-jin and the broadcasting staff, the immense success of Episode 1 translated into pressure for Episode 2, but the musicians, having completed their mission, were simply thrilled and without a worry.

“PD, you said we’re having a company dinner tonight!”

Park In-hyuk shouted after finishing his last interview, and PD Heo Tae-jin chuckled, waving his corporate card.

With all the scheduled filming wrapped up, the cast and staff headed to the dinner venue. As PD Heo Tae-jin had promised, the menu was beef. Just not Korean beef (Hanwoo).

“Ah, PD! Australian beef!”

“Australian beef is better anyway. The cows are more active, you know?”

Having accepted the situation, Jun-hyung and In-hyuk resolved to focus on quantity over quality, devouring the meat at an alarming rate.

“Auntie! Five more servings, please!”

Following suit, Yeom Hyun-pil from Stars Records and Yong-joon from L&S joined the scoring spree, completing the miraculous Fantastic Four. The four relentlessly exploited goalkeeper PD Heo Tae-jin, racking up an incredible record.

“Wow, In-hyuk is so skinny, but how can he eat so much? Where does all that meat go?”

“Hehe, there’s a wild dragon living inside me. But the dragon is still not satisfied.”

“Hyung [older brother/male friend], are you going to eat more? Ugh, I can’t eat anymore.”

“I still need the Philosopher’s Stone!”

Soon after, the egg yolk from the cold noodles became Park In-hyuk’s prize.

The boisterous and joyful dinner wasn’t just for 888 Crew, Stars Records, Caliph, and L&S. Code Name, who had been eliminated in the second round, and Bounce Rhyme, who had been eliminated in the third round, joined midway.

To be precise, only Dread from Code Name and Dolphin from Bounce Rhyme participated. The other members of the teams were too busy to make time, and only the leaders of each team took the time to greet the PD.

“What, isn’t that the rude jerk we saw at the Mudeung Stadium?”

Miju, who was grilling beef for Ha-yeon and Sang-mi, belatedly spotted Dread and frowned.

Miju’s voice was quite loud, and Dread’s gaze turned towards her. Miju, holding the scissors she had been using to cut the meat, glared at Dread with a ‘What! What!’ look, but Dread simply bowed his head slightly.

It was a small movement, but it looked like an apology to anyone who saw it. And quite a polite one at that.

“What? Isn’t that person not supposed to have that kind of image?”

Miju tilted her head with a puzzled expression. Seeing this, Sang-mi whispered to Miju that Code Name was annoying, but Dread seemed like a decent person.

“Oh, our Sang-mi. Are you saying that because Dread is handsome? He does look a bit like a gigolo, though!”

Miju playfully tickled Sang-mi’s side. Sang-mi screamed that it wasn’t like that, letting out breathless laughter.

Sang-hyun, who was watching the scene, smiled faintly. It seemed that wherever Miju was, there was always laughter.

“Sang-hyun, did you look into the Oh Kyung Entertainment matter?”

Dolphin, who had drunk a glass of soju [Korean distilled rice liquor], asked Sang-hyun.

“Ah, thanks to hyung, I found out a bit. It turns out there’s a separate target, and I’m just bait to lure out the target.”

“Really? Who’s the target… No, I don’t need to know.”

“I think I was able to handle it easily thanks to what hyung told me.”

“That’s a relief then.”

Sang-hyun filled Dolphin’s empty glass, and Dolphin, glancing at PD Heo Tae-jin, quietly held out his soju glass. Sang-hyun smiled and took a drink from Dolphin’s glass.

‘Now that Hip Hop the Vibe is over, I’ll probably get a threatening call from Team Leader Hong Kyung-soo soon, right?’

While Sang-hyun was lost in thought, Woo Yeon-woo and Bae Sang-wook suddenly appeared and tattled to PD Heo Tae-jin about Sang-hyun’s misdeeds.

“PD! Sang-hyun drank alcohol! This guy has a moral problem, so shouldn’t we strip 888 Crew of their winner status?”

“Lee Sang-hyun!”

“This is cider! I have a habit of drinking cider from a soju glass!”

Small laughter erupted. Sang-hyun threw away his complicated thoughts and began to enjoy the dinner.

The dinner atmosphere couldn’t have been better.

888 Crew and Stars Records, of course, and even L&S and Dolphin moved around, sharing stories. Caliph, who was shy around new people, was soon chatting happily.

Even Dread, who had an awkward relationship with 888 Crew and L&S, exchanged a few words after a few rounds of drinks.

“Hey, were you apologizing to us earlier?”

Miju, as always, asked Dread directly, and Dread nodded, looking slightly embarrassed.

Miju asked why he didn’t apologize to the male members, and Dread replied that he didn’t even get to hit anyone and just got beat up.

Among the staff who had only heard rumors about the fight between 888 Crew and Code Name, the ‘Dread is a weakling’ theory began to circulate. The voices of the writers saying, ‘Oh my, he must be a weakling,’ reached Dread’s ears as well.

“No, it’s not that I’m a weakling! They attacked first!”

Sang-hyun ignored the flailing Dread and recalled the fight scene with Code Name. It was true that Rookie got cocky and got hit by three people at the same time, and after that, Dread only got hit after uttering a few curses.

“What, now that I think about it, he was a weakling?”

With Sang-hyun’s words, the Dread is a weakling theory became official.

The enjoyable time flowed by, and the end of the dinner began to appear.

PD Heo Tae-jin and the staff, who had to endure the hellish editing schedule, left first, followed by Dolphin and Dread, who had schedules the next day.

Among those who remained, those who had drunk too much or were exhausted from the long filming could not overcome their fatigue and began to doze off.

As time passed, only Baega and Sang-hyun were still in their right minds.

“Sang-hyun, congratulations on winning, even though it’s late.”

“It feels strange to be congratulated by the opposing team that we fought so hard against, doesn’t it?”

Sang-hyun smiled awkwardly at Baega, and Baega smiled and drank his beer.

“Now you have to fight with the entire Korean hip-hop scene as your audience. When are you coming up to Hongdae [area in Seoul known for its indie music scene]?”

“Jun-hyung and I have to graduate first. We have to get our high school diplomas.”

“Are you not going to be able to come up then because of Sang-mi again?”

“No. Sang-mi is going to Seoul Arts High School, so that won’t happen.”

“Really? That’s good. You’re talking about the cartooning side, right?”

“Yes.”

Sang-hyun carefully stroked Sang-mi’s hair as she slept on his lap. Baega, who had been watching the scene quietly, opened his mouth.

“Sang-hyun, I’ve seen so many teams. Not just hip-hop, but bands, dance, and so on. But do you know what the common denominator of long-lasting teams is?”

“I don’t know?”

“First, they taste success. The size of that success is different, but they experience success anyway. Then comes a crisis. There are many kinds of crises. Teamwork falters, or the team struggles to maintain itself due to financial problems… And the last thing is overcoming that crisis. That’s how a team lasts a long time.”

Sang-hyun immediately understood what Baega was trying to tell him. In fact, it was something he had been thinking about for a long time.

There is a situation that system developers are most anxious about in the early stages of development. It wasn’t that the system didn’t work, or that there were many errors or bugs.

They were most anxious about situations where no errors appeared.

Except for the show business incident when they were completely buried in the underground, 888 Crew had never had a single crisis. Baega was worried about that.

“Small crises are repeated, and they are solved with difficulty, which is the fate of most teams. As the size of the crisis gradually increases, the size of the pie also gradually increases. But 888 Crew has grown too big without even a small crisis. I’m worried about whether they will have the strength to withstand a big crisis that is suddenly too difficult to handle.”

Now, 888 Crew is one of the teams that immediately comes to mind when you think of ‘Korean hip-hop.’ And perhaps they are in the highest position among those teams.

Baega sincerely, sincerely wanted 888 Crew and Stars Records to last forever.

“Still, I can’t imagine 888 Crew wavering musically or in terms of teamwork.”

“Is that so?”

Sang-hyun smiled at Baega’s words.

“By the way, it was really cool to use Caliph as a feature today. In terms of experience, Caliph is your senior, but you still brought a talented friend to the surface.”

“Caliph hyung would have risen to the top on his own anyway.”

“Is that so? Anyway, see you at the Homi performance soon.”

With Baega’s warm touch on Sang-hyun’s shoulder, the enjoyable dinner came to an end.

***

December of 2005 flew by like an arrow.

While Jun-hyung was making a collaboration song with the leaders of each team to be inserted into Hip Hop the Vibe and filming a music video, the other 888 Crew members only picked and chose performances that looked interesting to do.

Soon after, Ha-yeon’s college entrance exam scores came out, and Sang-mi’s last middle school final exam ended. The two began to prepare for entrance exams in earnest.

Sang-mi had already received an offer from an arts high school, so there were no major problems, but in Ha-yeon’s case, it was not easy to challenge a ‘music college’ with ‘hip-hop.’ However, Sang-hyun didn’t think that any decent music college would reject Ha-yeon if she passed the ear training test.

After a long period of deliberation, In-hyuk gave up his position as the host of Hip Hop the Vibe. PD Heo Tae-jin called In-hyuk twice to persuade him to reconsider, but in the end, it didn’t work out. It seemed that In-hyuk was struggling to balance 888 Crew and his studies.

In-hyuk’s attire when going to the studio was gradually changing to a ‘pretending to go to the library’ look. He seemed to be studying quite hard in his spare time, but basically, In-hyuk’s passion and attitude towards music had not changed.

Sang-hyun had a feeling that In-hyuk would eventually choose music if he overcame his current transition period.

888 Crew participated in the jam that took place every Wednesday at Sejong Music Store with L&S for the first time in a long time. Sang-hyun remembered that the first time he performed Run This Town was also at a Wednesday jam.

When L&S and 888 Crew appeared, the listeners who were watching the jam on a weekday afternoon went wild. The jam, which had started in a friendly atmosphere, was stopped because too many fans gathered, somehow knowing about it. The performance hall of Sejong Music Store had a limit of 70 people, but more than 150 spectators rushed in.

“It’s a bit of a shame to just leave like this…”

At Miju’s words, L&S and 888 Crew borrowed amplifiers from Sejong Music Store and did an impromptu busking performance. The location was the parking lot behind Sejong Music Store.

“There are a lot of commercial buildings here. We’re only going to do quiet songs, so you can promise not to shout too loudly, right?”

“Yes!”

“Your answer is too loud right now…”

The sound equipment was placed inside President Hong’s garage, and the audience watched from the parking lot. The sound delivery was better than expected, and the atmosphere was charming.

L&S and 888 Crew presented a stage filled with quiet songs for the first time in a long time. They sang covers as they came to mind, and the band’s jam and rap freestyle were mixed together.

The person who liked the article ‘Leading Figure of Korean Garage Music’ with the parking lot performance photos the most the next day was President Hong of Sejong Music Store. This was because the sign ‘Sejong Music Store’ was clearly visible in the photo in the article.

The last episode of Hip Hop the Vibe’s Episode 1 was broadcast, and at the same time, a group song was released. The reaction to the group song was so hot that the broadcasting station signed a contract with the agency and distributor and became the main body of the promotion push.

After much deliberation, 888 Crew entrusted ‘Daydream, Move It, Why Coming’ to them. They wanted to experience the actual Korean music market, and they were also moved by PD Heo Tae-jin’s earnest request.

End

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