The Rap Star [EN]: Chapter 169

***

-Okyeong Group’s new affiliate, Okyeong Media. Okyeong Media’s first acquisition is Lee Sang-hyun from 888 Crew!

-What results will the combination of underground hip-hop and major capital bring?

-Hong Kyung-soo, Manager of Okyeong Media, ‘The remarkable development of hip-hop culture in recent years is just the beginning. I am confident that hip-hop will dominate the Korean mainstream music market within 10 years.’

-Is Lee Sang-hyun’s recruitment the beginning? What about the other 888 Crew members?

-Music critic Lim Young-ho, ‘The significance of Lee Sang-hyun’s next work is indescribably great. The direction of whether underground hip-hop will be swallowed by capital or whether underground hip-hop can cleverly use capital depends on his work.’

-What kind of company is Okyeong Media, which separated from Okyeong Entertainment’s media content department?

The 888 Crew members gathered in the studio and checked the internet articles together. Perhaps because there were no significant entertainment issues recently, the entertainment section was plastered with the words Okyeong Media, 888 Crew, and Lee Sang-hyun.

“It’s artificial.”

Everyone nodded at Kim Hwan’s words. From the articles that came out all at once to the comments, there was a smell of artificiality.

“Hmm…….”

Sang-hyun shut down the computer. All the 888 Crew members were watching Sang-hyun. But no one asked, ‘Did you really sign a contract?’

They all believed it. That it couldn’t be true.

“I’m busy to death because of the concert, but strange things are happening.”

“But why did Okyeong Media do this? Isn’t this spreading false information?”

Everyone nodded at Park In-hyuk’s words.

Sang-hyun thought for a moment and then slowly opened his mouth. Everyone’s eyes were fixed on Sang-hyun’s mouth.

“Chicken? Pizza?”

“What?”

“What do you mean, what? We didn’t even properly celebrate Sang-mi’s graduation, so let’s eat first. Sang-mi, what do you want to eat?”

The expressions of the crew members brightened noticeably at Sang-hyun’s nonchalant question.

The crew members felt frustrated because they felt like something big had happened, but they couldn’t figure out the exact situation. But Sang-hyun, the person involved, seemed unfazed.

In their experience, Sang-hyun was almost always right when he made a decision.

“I want to eat jokbal (pig’s trotters)?”

“Then let’s order bossam (boiled pork belly).”

“I said jokbal?”

“It’s just a difference in how you eat it, the taste is the same.”

“What kind of nonsense is that? Apologize to jokbal right now.”

At Sang-mi’s words, Sang-hyun grabbed Sang-mi’s feet and apologized. Sang-mi grabbed Sang-hyun’s hair and pulled it. After arguing for a while, they finally decided to order a jokbal and bossam set.

While Sang-mi was making the order, Sang-hyun quietly went to the living room and called Manager Oh Yeon-joo.

-The phone you have dialed is turned off…….

However, Manager Oh Yeon-joo did not answer the phone.

He immediately called lawyer Lim, who Manager Oh Yeon-joo had connected him with, but he received a reply from the secretary that he was in court and couldn’t answer, and that he would be able to call back in about 2 hours.

Sang-hyun sat on the sofa in the living room for a while and sorted out his thoughts.

He remained silent to the reporters’ questions at the graduation ceremony. He could have denied it right away, but if he did, there was a high probability that things would proceed in the direction Okyeong Media wanted.

Perhaps if Sang-hyun’s explanation came out, Okyeong Media would present some evidence, and then Sang-hyun would have to explain that evidence again.

If this happened a few times, the ‘truth debate’ would disappear and only ‘noise’ would remain. Even if he won the truth debate, it meant that a negative image would be attached to the name 888 Crew.

So, he didn’t want to move rashly until he knew all the circumstances and what cards Okyeong Media was holding. After that, he would have to pay them back in one shot.

‘What on earth is Okyeong Media thinking? Do they think that if they push hard, I’ll be scared because I have something to hide? Or is this also part of an arrow aimed at Manager Oh Yeon-joo? It’s too exposed to the public to see it as part of internal politics?’

Sang-hyun pondered the current situation.

He felt unpleasantness and absurdity after confirming Okyeong Media’s recruitment announcement. But he didn’t feel any difficulty in dealing with it or anxiety about the future.

Because there was no reason to.

He couldn’t know the details, but Okyeong Media’s aim was obvious.

‘Trainee contract. That’s all there is.’

A trainee contract falsely created to establish a relationship with Manager Oh Yeon-joo. It was clear that they were trying to bring that up. But this was a trick that wouldn’t work for Sang-hyun.

The obligations in the contract only arise from legitimate transactions.

In other words, if equivalent value corresponding to the obligation is not exchanged, the obligation does not arise either.

For example, when renting a house, there is an exchange of equivalent value between ‘rent – right of residence’, and in an employment contract, there is an exchange of equivalent value between ‘wage – labor’.

However, when it comes to entertainment contracts, the equivalent value being traded becomes a bit more complicated.

Usually, entertainment contracts consist of two types.

The first was the trainee contract that the public commonly thinks of. The trainee contract was a form of contract that exchanged ‘future value’ and ‘opportunity to become a celebrity’ for equivalent value.

By signing a trainee contract, entertainment trainees could be affiliated with a company and receive opportunities and means to become celebrities.

Opportunities to receive vocal training, beauty care, learn to dance, etc. Even large agencies teach everything from posture correction to English pronunciation for pop songs.

Entertainment companies provided these opportunities and secured the rights to the value after the trainees succeeded through contracts. It was a kind of investment concept.

The company starts to recover the investment costs from the moment the trainee becomes a famous celebrity, so even very famous idols often do not receive settlement payments in the early stages of their debut.

The affiliated singer becomes a debtor until all the expenses incurred up to the debut, album production costs after the debut, music video production costs, promotion costs, etc. are repaid. Until the break-even point is reached.

This is where the issue of slave contracts with companies often arises. This is because the cost of creating a famous celebrity from the company’s point of view and the cost from the celebrity’s point of view are different.

So, the slave contract issue has different victims in each case. In some cases, the company is the victim, and in some cases, the singer is the victim. Of course, the singer is much more often the victim.

Another case occurs when the singer does not become famous enough. If they have gained some recognition but not enough to exceed the break-even point, or if they barely exceed it, the company will naturally try to extend the contract.

However, the singer will naturally try to move to another company. This is because if they move to another company, they can make a much better contract because there is no ‘debt’.

It is an inevitable problem in the Korean entertainment system, but it is also a system that is too late to reverse. It usually costs 1 billion to 1.5 billion won to raise one celebrity, and it is difficult for the company to bear all of that.

Like this, a trainee contract was a contract in which intangible assets such as opportunities and future value were exchanged, not direct money between the company and the trainee.

The second contract was a contract in which direct money was exchanged. This was like thinking about the contract when singers move agencies.

In other words, the singer receives a ‘contract fee’ from the agency, and the company promises to ‘distribute activity revenue’. The company actively supports the singer’s activities because their share increases as the activity revenue increases.

In the United States, where the concept of trainees is weak, contract fees are also offered to trainees, and Okyeong Media was such a company.

Okyeong Media was famous for treating trainees like singers from ordinary companies, and provided reasonable contract fees even when signing trainee contracts. This contract fee varied greatly depending on the potential quantified by the A&R [Artists and Repertoire] team, and the hierarchy of trainees within the company was determined by the amount of the contract fee.

So, even if you are a 3-year trainee, if your contract fee is 10 million won, your ranking is lower than a trainee who just entered with a contract fee of 50 million won. It was a very ruthless system.

Like this, the two types of contracts had different values being exchanged. But the important thing is that something, whether monetary or non-monetary, is traded between the company and the singer (trainee).

This is why Sang-hyun was not afraid of Okyeong Media’s announcement at all and was confident.

He didn’t receive anything for writing the trainee contract. He didn’t receive any help from the company, let alone a contract fee. He didn’t even know where Okyeong Media was located.

So, on paper, Sang-hyun passed the trainee contract but gave up the rights of a trainee without receiving a contract fee.

‘We call a contract that demands only rights without legitimate compensation a fraud.’

In fact, if he didn’t know the ways of the world, he might have fallen for Okyeong Media’s trick. Anyway, he had a false relationship with Manager Oh Yeon-joo. Because it was easier to actually belong to Okyeong Media in order to change the lie into truth for fear of the world’s great attention.

If Okyeong Media’s announcement was really an arrow aimed at him, there was a very high probability that it was a form of threat.

But Sang-hyun had never done anything wrong. The reason he accepted Manager Oh Yeon-joo’s offer was to get a powerless high school student to receive legitimate compensation and fair punishment from a large company. Regarding the incident of his parents’ death.

Since Okyeong Group was responsible for the accident, it was unlikely, but even if Okyeong Media revealed all the facts, Sang-hyun was confident.

And if Manager Oh Yeon-joo had handled the matter well as she said, there was no evidence that he ‘had never auditioned for a trainee’. So, Okyeong Media had no means to reveal the truth.

‘It’s complicated. It’s complicated.’

Sang-hyun carefully reviewed the last possibility and gained confidence. In the end, he came to the same conclusion as the conclusion he had reached with Manager Oh Yeon-joo.

This was a chicken race [a contest where the participants act recklessly to prove their bravery].

A game where the side that gets scared and makes a fuss first becomes disadvantaged.

‘But why do I feel so uneasy and anxious?’

Is it because the large company’s actions seem too overbearing? Just recklessly?

‘No. This is not a company-wide action, but a personal act by Team Leader Hong Kyung-soo’s line. You shouldn’t see the other party as a large company. Their target is not a 38-year-old businessman, but a 19-year-old high school student.’

When Sang-hyun finished organizing his thoughts, the doorbell rang. He had been thinking so deeply that it was already time for the delivery to arrive.

“Yes! I’m coming!”

The 888 Crew members celebrated Sang-mi’s graduation party with a more relaxed mind and spurred on their concert preparations again.

It was 8 days before the Gwangju concert.

***

Sang-hyun shook hands with lawyer Lim Gu-hyun.

Lawyer Lim confirmed several facts the day after talking to Sang-hyun on the phone and came down to Gwangju in person.

“You’re very popular these days. I’m glad to see that you’re doing well.”

“I want to do better, but Okyeong Media is suddenly biting me.”

“Is that so? Still, it’s not bad to see that a large company thinks highly of Sang-hyun’s value.”

Sang-hyun brought yuja tea [citron tea, a popular Korean beverage] to lawyer Lim, who was sitting at the living room table. It would be comfortable to go to a coffee shop, but now there were so many people who recognized him that it was difficult to go to a coffee shop carelessly.

“Manager Oh Yeon-joo will finish her business trip tomorrow and come to Korea. The flight time is so long that it’s hard to get in touch, right?”

“I didn’t see my phone because I was getting so many calls from here and there, so I had missed calls. When I called, the phone was turned off again.”

The conversation between the two, which had been a brief chat, soon turned serious.

“First of all, I would like to ask Lee Sang-hyun one thing. Why are you so reluctant to be affiliated with Okyeong Media? As far as I know, if only Lee Sang-hyun agrees, Okyeong Media is willing to recruit the entire 888 Crew as a sub-label.”

“If it’s a sub-label, then one of us will become the president? A puppet president, though.”

“That’s right. It won’t be completely independent, but some defensive rights and management rights will be given. It’s a bit strange to use the term management rights when musicians run a label.”

“I think that awkwardness is very dangerous. As you know, even if there are only one or two toxic clauses in a normal contract, the contract collapses. The same goes for us. The moment Okyeong Media tries to sell our music, 888 Crew is no longer 888 Crew.”

Sang-hyun answered firmly and then asked lawyer Lim.

“No matter how I think about it, I don’t understand why Okyeong Media did something of this scale.”

“Well, it’s because of the sub-label system.”

According to lawyer Lim, the most aggressively promoted project by Okyeong Media after its affiliate independence was the ‘sub-label’ system.

This was a system in which the company operated with a number of labels under its umbrella, with the labels focusing on producing albums based on their know-how, and Okyeong Media supporting distribution, investment, and marketing.

This was a project that was being promoted because it was expected that distribution and distribution would take most of the music revenue once the streaming service system that LOC and Okyeong were competitively pursuing was fully established.

“Okyeong Media sees Lee Sang-hyun as a label at the center of a new cultural trend.”

“It’s amazing that 888 Crew is being evaluated that highly.”

“No. It’s not 888 Crew, it’s Lee Sang-hyun.”

“Yes?”

Lawyer Lim said in a strong tone.

“A one-person label. That’s how Okyeong Media is looking at Lee Sang-hyun.”

“……I don’t feel very good. It feels like they’re ignoring the other crew members, and if they really treat me like a one-person label, they shouldn’t have proceeded with things so recklessly.”

“I agree with that.”

A silence flowed between the two for a while. It was lawyer Lim who broke the silence.

“Lee Sang-hyun. Do you know why I keep talking positively about Okyeong Media?”

“……I thought it was unconscious, but you intended it?”

“Yes. I intended it.”

“Why?”

“This recruitment…… cannot be avoided.”

Sang-hyun’s expression hardened at lawyer Lim’s unexpected words.

The first thought that came to mind was that Oh Yeon-joo had sided with Team Leader Hong Kyung-soo.

“Did Oh Yeon-joo side with Hong Kyung-soo?”

“Yes? No. Manager Oh Yeon-joo is very considerate of Lee Sang-hyun.”

“Then why do you say that I can’t avoid recruitment?”

“You signed a contract, didn’t you?”

“We call a contract that demands only obligations without legitimate compensation a fraud. I heard that Okyeong Media offers contract fees even when signing contracts with trainees. Did I receive a contract fee? I didn’t receive anything. So, Okyeong Media has no grounds to claim that they recruited me.”

Then lawyer Lim opened his mouth.

And Sang-hyun was able to confirm the identity of the unconsciousness that had been making his heart uneasy.

“Contract fee…… you received it. No, to be precise, it’s not a contract fee, but you received money that Okyeong Media claims ‘included’ a contract fee.”

“……!”

Sang-hyun finally confirmed the card that Okyeong Media was holding.

“Accident compensation…….”

“That’s right.”

“But that’s a logically inconsistent argument. Even if you just look at the financial statements, the accident compensation and the contract fee are different items, right? I don’t know if the accident compensation is entered as miscellaneous loss or if a compensation item is set separately, but anyway, isn’t it a non-operating loss?”

Lawyer Lim was surprised to hear Sang-hyun’s words. It was something that could be known even by taking basic accounting in college, but it was still surprising that a high school student had knowledge of financial statements.

“On the other hand, the contract fee, I don’t know what item the contract fee is. I’ve never seen an entertainment company’s electronic disclosure…….”

“The contract fee is included as an intangible asset.”

An entertainment company’s affiliated singer is treated as an intangible asset in the financial statements. Usually, an entertainment company’s intangible assets consist of industrial property rights, software, and exclusive contract fees, and among these, the exclusive contract fee was the money paid to the singer in exchange for promising affiliation for a certain period.

“Then there’s more clear evidence…….”

Sang-hyun stopped talking because he was angry.

Suddenly, he remembered that Okyeong Media had separated from Okyeong Entertainment. What if they played tricks during the affiliate independence? The Korean judiciary can’t even touch the blatant accounting fraud of large companies, so can a mere singer stir up the Okyeong Group?

Sang-hyun opened his mouth with a miserable expression.

“They intend to push through with circumstantial evidence…….”

“The truth is under the surface of the water, and the lie is above the surface of the water. The fact that Lee Sang-hyun wrote a contract and received money is the fact that Okyeong Media can put forward.”

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