The Rap Star [EN]: Chapter 226

< Verse 35. City of Angels >

As I was contemplating the LA scene while entering the club, a very familiar sound reached Sanghyun.

-California Love-

The intro, with its cleverly mixed electronic sounds.

It was 2Pac’s ‘California Love,’ which had swept through the United States and Europe in 1996, topping the Billboard singles, Hot Rap/R&B charts, and various Top charts.

Soon, funky drums reverberated through the interior of Bellachino, and people cheered.

People inside the club started making the West Coast hand sign, a ‘W’ formed with four fingers excluding the thumb, and began to move to the beat.

The song was so famous that few people actually sang along. Everyone just mumbled their favorite verses.

It was only 9 o’clock, but the atmosphere in the club was already heating up.

“Cool, right? This is the hottest place in LA.”

“It’s like stepping into a movie.”

Standard laughed, teasing me for being a country bumpkin in situations like this. The two of us pushed through the crowd and entered the club.

The interior of Bellachino wasn’t much different from any other club in Korea.

It was large, dark, and noisy.

The only real difference was the separation between the speakers blasting music throughout the club and the live sound equipment on the stage.

‘Oh, and instead of cigarette smoke, it’s full of marijuana smoke.’

As Sanghyun thought, the inside of Bellachino was indeed filled with thick marijuana smoke.

One of the things that surprised Sanghyun while traveling in the United States was the general attitude toward marijuana.

Korea is a country that strictly regulates drugs, so marijuana is also considered a dangerous drug. However, the American perception of marijuana was more akin to that of cigarettes. In fact, many people considered cigarettes to be much more harmful because of their addictive nature.

In Colorado, Washington, and Washington DC, marijuana was legal, and even in states where it wasn’t legal, cracking down on marijuana use in private spaces was rare.

Sanghyun had no intention of using marijuana at all, but he’d come to feel during his trip that it wasn’t something to make a huge fuss about, like, ‘How can you smoke marijuana!’

Standard, noticing Sanghyun looking at the marijuana, asked.

“Why? Are you interested in marijuana?”

“No way.”

“It’s okay to smoke marijuana if you can stick to just marijuana. It’s not addictive for everyone. There are no withdrawal symptoms and almost no tolerance build-up. The problem is that many people who smoke marijuana end up looking for stronger drugs out of curiosity. The moment you touch ecstasy or amphetamine (methamphetamine), you ruin your life.”

“Don’t worry. I won’t smoke it.”

“I want to tell you a lot since you’re leaving soon. Well, the most important thing is connections…”

Standard pointed to the stage and said.

“Speaking of which, do you want to go to the waiting room now? The performers will be waiting, so you can say hello. Oh, or you can watch the show.”

“Let’s watch it. It looks like it’s about to start.”

As Sanghyun said, the club staff were cleaning up the live stage.

Standard and Sanghyun took seats with a good view of the stage and sipped beer with nachos. In the meantime, quite a few people recognized Standard and greeted him.

In fact, Sanghyun wasn’t old enough to drink alcohol according to American age laws, but because he was with Standard, no one interfered.

‘Maybe they don’t care that much anyway?’

At that moment, a loud voice was heard from behind Sanghyun. Surprised, I turned around and saw a black man standing there.

“Hey, Standard. Haven’t seen you lately. And you’ve appeared with a kid?”

However, the answer came from Sanghyun, not Standard.

“What do you mean, kid? I think I’m bigger than you.”

“Oh, this friend has some temper. Can I sit down for a moment?”

Standard pointed to the black man and introduced him as Bever. Bever had gentle eyes and a handsome appearance, and he also owned two record stores.

Bever sat down and asked.

“A feisty Asian. What’s your name?”

“FiveSix.”

“That’s weird, must be a stage name. Are you a DJ?”

“Rapper.”

“I guess you’re working in K-Town (Koreatown). Oh, that’s not important. Standard!”

“What.”

“How about it? Have you thought about my proposal?”

“Would I do that? I’m in the process of a contract with Koch Records.”

“But this is worth it!”

Bever began to passionately explain his idea to Standard. Naturally, Sanghyun, who was sitting next to him, also heard the conversation, and soon he understood what Bever’s proposal was.

‘Is this guy an idiot?’

Bever wanted to create an independent label with Standard, who was a popular DJ in LA.

The intention was to use his connections to directly supply records to stores in eastern LA without being ripped off by distributors.

It didn’t sound like a bad idea, but in Sanghyun’s view, Bever’s plan was likely to suffer from ‘internal diseconomies’ as the business grew.

If the label did well and the number of record stores doing direct deals increased, at some point, the incidental costs for those direct deals might become larger than the distribution fees.

“I don’t think there will be a problem now because you’re thinking of trading with record stores that you’re friendly with, but what if it expands to shops that have nothing to do with you?”

“What happens? It’s a success!”

“What if you go beyond LA and cover the entire state of California? What if it gets even better and moves to another state? There will be hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of customers who need to be treated individually, and there’s no way you can handle that. It’s much better to distribute through a distribution system.”

Sanghyun was listening to Bever’s passionate explanation to Standard and offered some advice.

Bever looked at Standard with a bewildered expression. It was a look asking who this guy was.

Standard shrugged and said.

“Bever, you don’t know, but this friend started with nothing and created a label that dominates Korea. Don’t ignore him and listen carefully.”

“Not quite dominate.”

“If you’ve recorded the most sales of any Korean rap album ever, that’s pretty much dominating.”

Bever was surprised by Standard’s words and asked back.

“The most sales in Korea? But why are you in LA? Oh, are you here for sightseeing?”

“It’s not sightseeing, it’s a kind of American dream.”

“Are you going to succeed as a rapper in LA? A Korean?”

Strictly speaking, it was ‘starting’ in LA, but I didn’t think it was necessary to say that much, so I just nodded.

Bever, who was thinking about something at Sanghyun’s words, asked again.

“Five, what exactly are the incidental costs you’re talking about? In my opinion, record store owners will like it because the album is cheaper than buying it through a distributor.”

“If it were that easy, there would already be such a company. Okay, fine. Let’s put aside the complaints of individual clients for now. How much will it cost to distribute albums to meet the requested quantity of record stores throughout California?”

“Well, I don’t know? How much is it?”

“How would I know? The important thing is that even that cost isn’t much different compared to going through a distributor. Do you think the term ‘economies of scale’ exists for no reason? Why are small distributors going bankrupt and only large distributors surviving?”

Standard’s final declaration landed in Bever’s ears, who was wearing a stupid expression.

“Besides, I have to go back to Denmark for at least a year. Even if I’m attracted to your proposal, I can’t physically do it with you.”

“You’re going to Denmark?”

It was then. The song and lights cut out, and a simple drum line looping in 4-bar units began to fill the club.

-VellaChino Wassuppp!

A burly bald black man appeared in the DJ booth, receiving a single spotlight.

Then DJ Brook’s DJ set began. Brook started to raise the excitement with songs that combined old school West Coast sounds with new school beats.

“Until last week, I was doing that.”

Standard nodded and whispered to Sanghyun.

“You were Bellachino’s DJ?”

“That’s why I’m close to the security guards. Just know that it’s the first time a white man has been the main DJ since Bellachino opened.”

Listening to Standard’s pride-filled words, Sanghyun got up from his seat. I didn’t want to sit and watch the first stage of the scene he would be working in.

It wasn’t that there were no other Asians in the club, but I could feel black people staring at him as I approached the stage.

However, Sanghyun enjoyed the music to his heart’s content without paying attention to the surrounding gazes. The funky yet raw sound unique to the West Coast had the power to excite people.

As the 10-minute DJ solo ended, someone appeared from behind the stage and shouted.

-Kickin in a house!

It was a rapper named Kickin. Kickin had a hardcore rap style, and the response was quite good even though he was an opening rapper.

Starting with Kickin’s stage, the LA hip-hop culture began to unfold before Sanghyun’s eyes.

-You already know me, know how I get down!

LA rap was quite interesting.

In fact, after the golden era of the 80s ended and the new school appeared, it was true that it became meaningless to divide the boundaries of rap by sound alone.

With the exception of Southern hip-hop, it was difficult to feel a clear difference in sound between Eastern, Western, and Central hip-hop. So, new school’s coast distinction was often based on the place of origin.

Regardless of rap style, if you were a rapper from LA, you would call yourself ‘West Coast.’

But even so, LA hip-hop had a unique West Coast feel. The roughness of gangster rap, the funkiness of G-funk, and the smoothness of R&B were well blended.

“Damn it!”

Sanghyun cheered and enjoyed the stage to his heart’s content.

In terms of skill, there were quite a few rappers who were worse than Sanghyun. If I were given a notebook and pen right now, I was confident that I could write a much better rap on the same beat.

However, Sanghyun wasn’t someone who derived pleasure solely from technical skill. As he did in Korea, he always showed respect when he sensed sincerity.

The stage continued like that.

What’s interesting is that, unlike Korean concert halls, it’s not just the stage that continues.

After a rapper performs 2-3 songs live, the DJ always plays a song. The DJ’s set was usually two songs, but sometimes it lasted up to four songs.

The audience focused on the stage when the rapper was performing live, but when the DJ played, they drank and danced. This wasn’t a place where the singer was the main focus, but a place where the music was the main focus.

As a result, only four rappers had come out, but three hours had already passed.

‘That’s why the competition for appearances is so fierce. It’s a little past 9 o’clock, and now there are only four people.’

The moment Sanghyun was thinking that, the DJ joked about the next rapper, and suddenly the club became noisy.

-Kyaaaa!

-Jermaine!

Screams filled with women’s expectations erupted, and the words ‘Jermaine’ and ‘Therapist’ were heard from all over the place. Jermaine seemed to be the real name of the Therapist.

‘Screams are the same in Korea and the United States.’

I felt a great sense of anticipation from the reactions of the people.

Not only the female audience but also the male audience were focusing on the stage, so I felt that he would be excellent in terms of skill, apart from popularity.

To be honest, I thought I could beat the four rappers who had performed on stage before. So I was curious about the skills of Therapist, who was said to be the most popular in LA these days.

-Kyaaaa!

-Kyaaaa!

The screams of women that could not be compared to anything so far erupted the moment someone’s silhouette was faintly visible. Some men frowned, saying it was noisy, but the screams did not stop.

The Therapist appeared on stage and said nothing. However, the beat flowed out at the same time as his appearance.

The Therapist lightly started to move to the beat on the drums that smelled of East Coast hip-hop.

At that moment, the Therapist opened his mouth.

“Split You Up.”

The Therapist had a warm yet husky voice.

Sanghyun was curious about his face, but he couldn’t see it.

The Therapist was leaning to the right with his back turned, because Sanghyun was standing on the right. All Sanghyun could see was that the Therapist was over 190cm [approximately 6’3″] and had good proportions.

The moment Split You Up started, the Therapist turned his body to the center of the audience.

Sanghyun was surprised to see his face.

‘It’s J. Cole!’

The Therapist was J. Cole.

However, Sanghyun didn’t fully enjoy the surprise of meeting an unknown J. Cole.

Because someone was pulling him.

“Five. Do you want to work at a record store?”

Bever was looking at him.

< Verse 35. City of Angels > End

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