The Rap Star [EN]: Chapter 251

< Verse 40. The Unknown Factor >

***

Kim Hak-soo was just another journalist at a mediocre newspaper.

He didn’t particularly want to be a journalist, nor did he have a sense of professional duty. He simply graduated with a degree in Korean Language and Literature and figured he could write better than others, so he got a job at a newspaper and became a journalist.

Kim Hak-soo discovered one talent after joining the newspaper: the ability to turn trivial matters into decent noise. Because of this, he was in charge of filling in for editorials or column series when they fell through, acting as a plausible critic. This was also why the section chief would let things slide even if his performance was usually poor.

“Hak-soo, you need to write a column for the first time in a while. Write about the entertainment industry like you did last time.”

“The entertainment industry? What should I write about?”

“What is there? Write something provocative. Just don’t make up too many lies. Got it?”

Kim Hak-soo, upon receiving the section chief’s order after a long time, thought, ‘If I do well this time, I’ll be comfortable for a while,’ and began to think of various sources.

In fact, there were only a few things that could be made into a column about the entertainment industry.

The deep-rooted evils of the entertainment industry, the negative impact of the latest popular songs on teenagers’ thinking, and the incorrect use of grammar in popular songs. It was almost always one of these three.

However, the evils of the entertainment industry were the most recently used topic, and the latest popular songs were being promoted by entertainment companies close to the newspaper.

The expression of incorrect grammar usage… he didn’t quite remember, but it seemed like it had been covered in an editorial in a competing newspaper a while ago.

Since there was someone else at the newspaper who played the same role as him, finding sources was not easy.

‘What should I write about this time?’

While worrying and searching the internet, Kim Hak-soo noticed Lee Sang-mi of the 888 Crew’s musical ‘Love Story in Rhapsody.’

‘Love Story in Rhapsody’ was recording sold-out performances every day and was gaining great popularity, and some of the rappers who appeared as cameos were gaining popularity comparable to celebrities. Rappers like ‘Caliph’ or ‘Kible,’ who had handsome looks, were especially like that.

‘Hmm… A rap-sical [a musical featuring rap music] that has lost the spirit of the musical and fallen into lookism [discrimination based on appearance]? Would this be enough? Is it too weak?’

If he added the content that famous singers or celebrities were taking the places of professional musical actors and leaving them with no place to stand, it seemed like it would be a decent source.

In fact, Kim Hak-soo hated the 888 Crew very much.

It started after he went to cover the 888 Show and was told to buy a ticket if he wanted to see the performance, which he found absurd.

He didn’t like the way the young guys’ noses were in the air just because they had gained some popularity.

‘Let’s go with this.’

Kim Hak-soo, who had decided on a topic and was searching for information about ‘Love Story in Rhapsody,’ came across an interesting article.

The article itself had been posted about five days ago and was already dead, but the comments were interesting.

-Lee Sang-hyun released an album? I live in LA, and it came out yesterday.

Looking at the date, it was a comment posted just two days ago.

It meant that the album had only been out for three days.

‘Lee Sang-hyun’s album came out? The Korean media is quiet, and there’s not much reaction in the comments, so is it a flop? Well, if it had done well, major newspapers would already know.’

It wasn’t a source for a column, but as a journalist, he was interested. He especially liked that it had flopped.

Kim Hak-soo started Googling. He had forgotten a lot, but he could still read English haltingly because he had been on a working holiday in Australia.

“Ugh, the name is terrible.”

Searching for ’56’ yielded too many results.

After thinking for a while, Kim Hak-soo repeated the search using various methods such as ‘LA 56,’ ‘LA Rapper 56,’ ‘LA Korea Rapper,’ and so on.

Finally, in the search results for ‘LA Rapper FiveSix,’ he was able to find the result he wanted.

“Oh?”

The date of issue: May 2, 2008.

Title:

Artist: Kendrick Lamar, FiveSix, J.Cole

Track List.

1. Nigga, Yellow Monkey, Flip

2. Surprise

3. Cruel Killerz (Feat. Schoolboy Q)

4. Mix Them: Black

5. No Color (FiveSix Solo)

6. Compton 2 Flow (Kendrick Lamar Solo)

.

.

The release date was May 2, and the album title was . The artists were names he was hearing for the first time, except for Lee Sang-hyun.

However, it was not the description of the album that caught Kim Hak-soo’s attention.

What he was focusing on was the title of the first track.

-Nigga, Yellow Monkey, Flip.

Because he had studied in Australia, Kim Hak-soo knew that these English words had a very racist nuance. When Korean students gathered together and said ‘I’ or ‘You’ loudly, they were often threatened by black people.

Also, even if you hadn’t studied abroad, you could know about ‘Nigga’ and ‘Yellow Monkey’ if you were interested in American culture.

‘Why did he use these words?’

He Googled a bit more, but there were no special results because it had flopped so badly.

The only thing he could find was a phrase written on a personal blog.

-I felt very bad after seeing the tracklist of this album. I don’t know the three musicians, but I have no intention of listening to music from musicians who openly engage in racism.

Rappers may think that their SWAG increases by mocking the socially disadvantaged, but it just makes me frown.

‘That’s it.’

Kim Hak-soo’s journalistic instincts began to flash. He seemed to have found a source that he could use to show off to Section Chief Park for two months.

After organizing his thoughts for a while, Kim Hak-soo turned on a Korean word processor and began to type.

-The music industry, where the essence is damaged by hasty achievement.

Scholars say that the three things necessary for human life are clothing, food, and shelter. However, I think there is one more thing that people need to live. That is art.

Art has continued since the birth of mankind. As early as 18,000 years ago, Paleolithic people living in the Spanish region painted murals in the Altamira Cave.

Did they at the time realize that murals were art?

Could they have solved their hunger and found comfortable sleeping places by painting murals, thereby increasing their chances of survival?

I can say with certainty that this was not the case. They simply instinctively completed art as a necessary and sufficient condition for life. In this way, art is an act included in human instinct.

So, what is the field closest to the public among these arts? The answer may be different for each person, but in most cases, it is music art.

The public has fantasies and yearnings for the music industry.

They love musicians, want them to do well, and feel emotional empathy for their music. They can also improve the quality of their lives through good music.

The music industry, which is so important to the public, is recently being ruined by ‘hasty achievement.’

‘It’s a bit of a shame to go straight to Lee Sang-hyun’s story? It seems a bit of a leap.’

After thinking for a while, Kim Hak-soo inserted the story of the rap-sical ‘Love Story in Rhapsody’ that he had thought of earlier.

It was a story about how real musical actors were losing their place due to the production company’s pursuit of performance (or lookism).

This discussion had actually been dealt with a lot, so it was also a device to give strength to the credibility of the content that would follow.

Now it was time to deal with the main dish.

…Lee Sang-hyun of the 888 Crew, who left for the United States, is also showing a disappointing move that cannot escape this pursuit of performance. The album released by Lee Sang-hyun in the United States on May 2 abandoned the essence of music art and chose ‘noise marketing’ [a marketing strategy that relies on generating controversy]. It used the ‘racism controversy,’ which is always an important issue in the multi-ethnic society of the United States, for the album’s promotion.

The title of the first track of is ‘Nigga, Yellow Monkey, Flip.’

I was embarrassed and angry when I came across this title. This is a very serious word of racial discrimination. Translated into Korean, it is a term that degrades blacks, yellows, and mixed races as ‘black slave, yellow monkey, mixed blood.’

Such terms are never tolerated in American society.

If a U.S. senator used such words even in private, he would immediately be asked to resign by the public across the United States. It is such a serious word that it would end his political life.

One of the American album critics said about Lee Sang-hyun’s , ‘I don’t know the three musicians, but I have no intention of listening to music from musicians who openly engage in racism.’

It has already been over a year since Lee Sang-hyun left for the United States. It is understandable that it was not easy for him to endure a year of obscurity after enjoying the height of popularity in Korea.

But I cannot tolerate trying to create a noise issue like this. He is still a star and a public figure in Korea. He is also the first Korean rapper to advance to the United States. Whether he is famous or not in the United States, I can’t help but think that he is in a position to represent Korea.

(Omission)

Kim Hak-soo, who had spent three hours completing the column, sent an email to Section Chief Park with a confident expression. Less than three minutes later, the phone rang.

-Hey! What is this? Is this real? You come to my office right now!

The first words Kim Hak-soo heard when he arrived at Section Chief Park’s office were about the truth.

“How much of this is fact, and how much is fabricated?”

“It’s all fact. It’s just that the perpetrator and the victim change depending on the point of view of a traffic accident.”

“Hmm. Who is this critic here?”

“Ah, that’s from a personal blog, but does criticism have a license? If you make an evaluation in a public place, it’s criticism and a critic.”

“That’s true…”

Section Chief Park put a cigarette in his mouth and asked again.

“The release of Lee Sang-hyun’s album hasn’t been reported in the Korean media, has it?”

“Yes. I searched, but not at all.”

“Is this a flop? ‘Despite using such noise marketing, it has not achieved good public results.’ Is this true?”

“Wouldn’t it be? It hasn’t been long since the release date, but no one knows, right?”

“Still, let’s take out May 2nd. Don’t mention the date, and make it seem like it was released a few months ago. Oh, but this has too many miscellaneous stories to be a column or commentary?”

“Then wouldn’t it be okay to just publish it as an article?”

“Wait a minute. I know a painter whose solo exhibition failed miserably because of a poetry and rap event after 8 years? That person occasionally contributes a cartoon to the newspaper called ‘World Cartoon.’ Let’s borrow that person’s name.”

“Did he fail because of poetry and rap and hate the 888 Crew?”

“Yeah. That bastard is a bit petty. And he holds grudges. Actually, he can’t draw very well either.”

Section Chief Park smiled and picked up the phone.

“Ah, Mr. Wi, this is Editor Park. How have you been?”

The next day, ‘Mr. Wi’s World Cartoon’ was contributed to the daily newspaper and internet news of the Hanju Ilbo.

The repercussions were much greater than Section Chief Park and Kim Hak-soo had expected.

***

< Verse 40. The Unknown Factor > End

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