The Rap Star [EN]: Chapter 219

Verse 33. Hit Song

***

Tae Jiwoong, the head of the legal team at Ohkyung Media, honestly thought Koch Records’ lawsuit was just a publicity stunt [noise marketing].

No, it *had* to be a publicity stunt.

Ohkyung Group was a conglomerate that surpassed even the largest corporations. The entertainment division was just getting started, but the group’s overall power was immense, and it could exert strong influence not only in Korea but also abroad.

So, he believed that Koch Records wouldn’t sincerely file a lawsuit, and even if they did, he was confident he could handle it with overwhelming resources.

‘After all, in the music industry, plagiarism disputes are always won by the side with more power.’

However, while handling this matter, Tae Jiwoong had to realize that he had been wrong about two things.

First, Koch Records’ lawsuit wasn’t just a simple ‘plagiarism dispute’ but a case of ‘illegal duplication’ – specifically, illegal duplication and distribution for commercial activities.

He’d assumed they had framed the charges that way to exert maximum pressure, but it was real. It was genuinely illegal duplication.

“Hey, you fucking bastards! What the hell is going on here!”

“W, well…”

“Are you going to handle work like this? Who authorized this! Who was it!”

“It, it was Manager Hong.”

“Who is Manager Hong! What kind of idiot…! Ah, that idiot? Lee Sanghyun’s contact? Was his name Hong Kyungsoo?”

“Yes, yes.”

“Bring Manager Hong here right now!”

Tae Jiwoong shouted, fuming, and a subordinate employee darted out of the office.

Seeing him flee when he could have just made a call from inside the office made him even more furious. He probably just wanted to escape the tense atmosphere.

‘Damn it…! That’s why you shouldn’t hand out promotions to the chaebol [family-owned conglomerate] kids so easily. How can the company run properly when a guy who’s barely thirty is a manager?’

Even if Manager Hong had political connections, he was from a less influential branch of the family.

In contrast, Tae Jiwoong was the legal team leader sent directly from headquarters.

He would win in a power struggle, and he would win in a battle of connections. He reviewed the documents again, determined not to let Hong Kyungsoo off the hook.

Shortly after, Manager Hong Kyungsoo arrived, looking pale.

Judging by his expression, he seemed to have heard what had happened.

Tae Jiwoong glared and stood in front of Hong Kyungsoo.

“Manager Hong.”

“Yes, yes.”

“Is this how you handle work?”

“I, I clearly checked with the copyright association several times! Unless something went wrong…”

“You checked, huh? Because something felt fishy. You want to steal someone else’s food, but you’re worried your shit will smell bad. But you should have at least checked who was originally supposed to eat that food. Huh?”

“What are you talking about…”

“These songs are all registered with the NMPA (National Music Publishers Association) through Koch Records! The beat! The lyrics! Even the rap! You idiot!”

Tae Jiwoong’s tirade was relentless.

Normally, he couldn’t speak this way to a member of the chaebol family, even if they were from a collateral line.

But Hong Kyungsoo was finished now. His fate was sealed.

He would either be transferred to a Southeast Asian overseas branch like Vietnam and spend his life overseeing battery assembly, or he would be transferred to a pharmaceutical company as a sales executive [술 상무, a position involving heavy drinking with clients] and kowtow to hospital directors, ending up with fatty liver in his later years.

There were only two options.

From the beginning, Ohkyung Enter (now Ohkyung Media) was a company that weeded out underperformers, and Hong Kyungsoo’s performance was beyond subpar; it was a disaster.

“Hoo……. Manager Hong, listen to this carefully. It’s a copyrighted work registered with the NMPA.”

Tae Jiwoong, barely suppressing his anger, pointed to the computer, and Hong Kyungsoo hesitantly put on the earphones.

As soon as the music started playing, Hong Kyungsoo’s face turned ashen.

Except for a few words or phrases missing because the rap tempo was changed to a different song, it was undeniable plagiarism – no, duplication.

‘That bastard Cha Inhyun…!’

Hong Kyungsoo tried to remain calm and listened to Lee Sanghyun’s song to the end. Many thoughts raced through his mind during that time.

Hong Kyungsoo thought for a long time even after listening to the song, and then he got up from his seat. Tae Jiwoong was looking at him with a pathetic expression.

“Team Leader Tae Jiwoong. You said Koch Records, right?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t know what kind of company they are, but can’t we stop them? I admit a hundred times that I handled the work wrong, but the company’s image will also be damaged the moment we lose the lawsuit. Isn’t Ohkyung Media an affiliate that prioritizes group-level image improvement over money? Shouldn’t we handle it by any means possible…”

“Manager Hong Kyungsoo. To be honest, I don’t intend to criticize Manager Hong’s actions themselves. I don’t know whose song you stole, but stealing it and making it a hit? Okay. Well, that could happen. But the problem is that you got caught, and there’s no way to hide it.”

“No way to hide it?”

“Yes.”

The first thing Tae Jiwoong learned while taking on this case was that it wasn’t just a simple plagiarism dispute but illegal duplication, and the second thing was the power of Koch Records.

Koch Records.

Because it was a company he had never heard of, he thought he could win through a power play. He thought he could easily crush them and shut them up.

But he was wrong.

Of course, it wasn’t that Ohkyung Group was smaller than Koch Records or had less influence. That was absolutely ridiculous.

Ohkyung Group had more than 20 affiliates and was one of the top 30 companies in the world.

Maybe Sony Music, Apple, or Google could compete, but Koch Records was not a company that could win a power struggle against Ohkyung Group.

But the problem was that the current incident was happening within the music industry. And it was based in the United States, not Korea.

Koch Records was an entertainment label that held significant influence in the United States.

Koch Records was started as a subsidiary of Koch Entertainment in Germany in 1975, and with the independence of the affiliate, it advanced to New York and established itself in the United States in 1987.

It meant that they had been in the show business for over 30 years and had deep roots in the United States for over 20 years.

However, the significance of Koch Records in the American music market wasn’t simply that it was ‘old.’

In 1991, they were the first company to lay the foundation for the ‘label system’ that makes up the current American music market.

They were the company that established the word ‘label’ as the meaning of a super agent that distributes music all over the world, going beyond distributors limited to states or countries.

They handle music, movies, and television shows, and have a huge influence not only on popular culture but also on the classical music scene in Germany and the United States.

It was a multinational music industry company with a mix of capital from Germany, Australia, and the United States.

This was Koch Records.

Moreover, because of its symbolic importance in the United States, it was still called Koch Records in the United States, but the actual owner was the famous ‘Entertainment One.’

Entertainment One, an international media group covering Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, Benelux, France, Germany, Scandinavia, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, acquired Koch Records in 2005.

‘How did this idiot manage to touch such a huge company no matter what he did? That’s also a talent?’

Entertainment One has exclusive distribution rights to over a hundred companies, and even if you only count the ones that are famous in Korea, there are more than ten.

Universal Pictures, FOX, BBC, Discovery, MTV, and so on.

If Ohkyung Group was a dinosaur that encompassed all fields, Entertainment One, which owned Koch Records, was a beast that tightly controlled the media field.

‘There’s no solution. No solution.’

Tae Jiwoong shook his head.

No matter how he thought about it, there was no solution. It was impossible to resolve the situation without losses, and the next best thing was to reach an amicable agreement with Koch Records and move on.

Of course, all the profits earned through the ‘illegal duplication songs’ had to be returned. Maybe that wouldn’t be enough.

Tae Jiwoong suddenly felt sorry for this idiot.

“When I checked, it was listed that a friend named Cha Inhyun was in charge of writing and composing……. Who started this first?”

“That bastard Cha Inhyun suddenly brought those songs…!”

“Whoa, whoa, there’s no need to curse like that among comrades who ruined their lives together, and what I’m curious about is the facts. No, more than that, who is the original composer? Who registered the music through Koch Records?”

“……Lee Sanghyun.”

“Lee Sanghyun? Lee Sanghyun from the 888 Crew?”

“…….”

Silence was affirmation. As soon as Tae Jiwoong heard the name Lee Sanghyun, he connected the dots and understood the sequence of events.

‘Did Lee Sanghyun anticipate that his song would be stolen? Sigh, this idiot must have made it obvious. Then what’s next? He thought it would be difficult to fight for copyright in Korea… and went to Koch Records to register the music. But how? Koch Records isn’t just a local store. Ah, KRS1 mentioned Koch Records. The plan he came up with the moment KRS1 contacted him for a collaboration.’

The answer came quickly.

“Wow, that Lee Sanghyun is something else.”

It was amazing that he predicted and prepared for Hong Kyungsoo’s actions in advance, but even more surprising was his ability to take action with Koch Records.

Most musicians would have left a record on the internet that this song was theirs, or registered it with the Korean Copyright Association.

Of course, that would be some preparation, but if Ohkyung Media used its power properly, the facts would be blurred and the matter would likely be glossed over.

‘Hong Kyungsoo, that bastard, is more of an idiot than I thought. What did he do to advertise, “I’m going to steal now~”? Ah, maybe that idiot Cha Inhyun made it obvious? Then Hong Kyungsoo might be a little wronged.’

A series of events was established in Tae Jiwoong’s head.

However, in fact, Tae Jiwoong was thinking about the cause and effect in the wrong way.

It wasn’t that Hong Kyungsoo or Cha Inhyun made it obvious, so Sanghyun prepared, but that Sanghyun set a trap and induced Hong Kyungsoo and Cha Inhyun’s actions.

“So, what’s going to happen to me now? Admit plagiarism and apologize…”

“What apology are you talking about? You have to hold on as much as you can. And what will change if you apologize? It’s a matter that will be resolved with money anyway.”

The best-case scenario was that Koch Records would receive a reasonable amount of money and end the case, and the worst-case scenario was that it would go to trial and they would lose, with rumors spreading everywhere.

Since he couldn’t do nothing, he had no choice but to prepare a press release before the incident leaked, contact Koch Records, and control the articles that the media was trying to release.

‘Three people’s lives are ruined.’

It was too obvious that Hong Kyungsoo and Cha Inhyun’s lives were ruined, and Lee Sanghyun’s future would not be easy either.

Regardless of the facts, Lee Sanghyun stabbed his agency in the back.

Ohkyung Media would put in a strong push, and now Lee Sanghyun would not be able to make music in Korea.

I heard he was a pretty talented friend, but the power of huge capital comes from the fear they have built up.

“Oh, what a mess.”

Tae Jiwoong passed by Hong Kyungsoo, who was standing blankly, and grabbed the phone. It was his role to put it on the fire, whether it became rice or porridge.

That’s how the Korean music scene began to shake.

***

< Verse 33. Hit Song > End

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