The Rap Star [EN]: Chapter 101

< Verse 15. Flow >

‘The first edition needs to sell out… Even if it doesn’t all sell immediately, it’ll sell little by little as Hip Hop the Vibe airs, right?’

The initial print run of the 888 Crew Official Bootleg was 2100 copies. Of those, 100 were for promotional purposes, so the actual sales volume was 2000 copies.

Usually, first editions are printed around 1000 copies, so 888 Crew’s 2100 was an incredibly bold decision.

To support this bold decision, Sanghyun prepared a sales marketing event. The first 30 purchasers of the official bootleg and 20 randomly selected people, a total of 50, would receive a ‘OOO X 888’ t-shirt with their desired area code printed on it.

The price was also low. The bootleg price was set at 9000 won [approximately $7.50 USD]. The recording was done at home, so there were no separate recording costs, and the album cover design was the work of Woominho and Kimhwan. Even the album assembly and packaging were done by hand by the crew members.

So, this official bootleg ‘Triple Eight’ was a work made by the 888 Crew members, stitch by stitch, through their own handicraft.

The main tracks of the Official Bootleg Triple Eight, created with the passion and hard work of all crew members, totaled 10 tracks. And there was one skit and two bonus tracks.

* 888 Crew Official Bootleg – Triple Eight

1. Why Commin` – Ominji, Park Inhyuk, Kimhwan

2. Lonely Road – Lee Sanghyun, Shin Junhyung, Shin Hayeon

3. Crouching Writer – Lee Sanghyun

4. Locker Room – Park Inhyuk, Shin Junhyung

5. Written Apology – Lee Sanghyun, Kimhwan

Skit. A Day in the Life of a Webtoon Artist

6. Daydream – Shin Hayeon, Lee Sanghyun

7. Rapsosist – Lee Sanghyun, Shin Junhyung, Ominji

8. Roller Coaster – Shin Hayeon, Ominji

9. Mix Up – 888 Crew With Cheese Flow

10. Forecast – 888 Crew With Stars Record

Bonus Track.

11. Lonely Road Live (in Mudeung Stadium)

12. Eight, Eight, Eight Los Angeles Remix (Prod. DJ. Standard)

Tracks 1 through 8 were made with the participation of only 888 Crew members. The 6 tracks excluding Why Commin` and Lonely Road had never been released to the outside.

Tracks 9 and 10 were exchange tracks with rappers representing other regions that had been prepared for a long time.

Cheese Flow was a team representing Incheon, and Stars Record was a team representing Hongdae. The music video, taken together wearing Incheon’s ‘032 X 888′ and Hongdae’s ’02 X 888’ t-shirts, was also scheduled to be released with the album.

Although the 10 tracks were the main tracks, there were 2 bonus tracks that were as good as the main tracks.

The bonus tracks were a collection of songs expressed in a different way from the existing sound sources.

11. Lonely Road Live (in Mudeung Stadium)

As you can guess from the track name, it was a song extracted from the Lonely Road performance at Mudeung Stadium.

The Lonely Road, which was sung at the pre-playoff celebration performance, felt very different from the original song. Unlike the original song, which was made with orchestra sampling, it added richness through real sound performance, and it led a dramatic flow using electronic sounds.

The 888 Crew members thought it was too good to bury the Lonely Road live version, and eventually decided to include it in the official bootleg.

12. Eight, Eight, Eight Los Angeles Remix (Prod. DJ. Standard)

The group song’s LA remix was a track that Standard suddenly sent one day.

‘I made a killer remix with your song. Listen and give me some feedback. It’s a big deal in LA right now.’

Sanghyun was surprised to hear the remix track that Standard sent. No, he wasn’t just surprised, he was shocked.

He didn’t know the exact year because he wasn’t interested in electronic or house music, but the combination of dubstep and trap house wouldn’t appear until at least 2012.

The trap genre was born from hip hop but broke away from the hip hop framework.

The changes that would occur as this trap music began to be treated as a new genre.

Standard created the by-product of change in 2005, even before the change occurred.

‘Should I go to LA during vacation?’

In Sanghyun’s memory, Standard started gaining great popularity in 2008. It was thanks to Standard’s album title song Bypass, which reached number one on the Billboard charts.

Even before that, he was said to be famous among LA musicians, but Sanghyun didn’t know how much. However, at this rate, Standard seemed likely to gain popularity before 2008.

‘Then I should get some credit too.’

The day after the playlist selection was completed with 11 tracks, Sanghyun played the Standard remix to the crew members.

“Listen to this.”

“Eight, Eight, Eight Remix? What is this?”

“Do you remember the LA DJ I told you about before? The person who made the beat for our group song.”

“Ah, Standard Chartered?”

“That’s the name of the bank. Anyway, Standard sent us a remix of our group song.”

“Oh, really? Play it. Let’s listen.”

Sanghyun played the Eight, Eight, Eight remix through the studio speakers. As the music started, the noisy studio became quiet.

Sanghyun was impressed and surprised to hear Standard’s remix. But it wasn’t unfamiliar. He remembered the results of ‘Trap + Electronic’ that Diplo and Skrillex had released.

However, dubstep trap was sure to be an unfamiliar sound to 888 crew members other than Sanghyun. No, wouldn’t even dubstep, which was born in the early 2000s, be unfamiliar?

Standard’s remix track filled the studio and spewed out a storm-like sound for 5 minutes and 16 seconds.

When the low frequency sound unique to dubstep met the trap of the 808 drum kit [a drum machine commonly used in hip hop], it gave an indescribable pleasure.

“How is it?”

“…….”

After the song ended, the members were silent in response to Sanghyun’s question. They just stared at Sanghyun with blank eyes.

Sanghyun was embarrassed by the ambiguous gaze.

“Why? Is it bad?”

“…….”

“What? Why aren’t you saying anything?”

Junhyung, representing the members who had been silent for a long time, opened his mouth.

“You’re really bad.”

“Huh? What?”

“We were deceived. This guy was a really, really bad guy?”

Sanghyun couldn’t understand and blinked his eyes. The crew members, led by Junhyung, started talking.

“If this happens, we won’t be able to get feedback on our song after the bootleg is released. Won’t it be completely buried?”

“That’s right. And the hip hop community will only talk about Crouching Writer and Standard’s remix.”

“What should we do, I feel sorry for Cheese Flow and Stars Record hyungs [older brothers or respected male figures]?”

“Still, wouldn’t people be interested in the exchange song? We even filmed a music video?”

“Sanghyun wasn’t satisfied with taking half of the album’s share. He pretended to give us the other half, but he was making something like that behind our backs.”

“Sly!”

“Lewd!”

The crew members started whispering.

“Now that we’ve heard this, we can’t not include it. But if we include it, it feels like we’re losing our share.”

“Should we take Crouching Writer out of the album? We can release it as a single.”

“No, let’s just kick Sanghyun out of the crew. If you subtract 56 from 888, what is it…? Okay, from now on, our crew name is 822!”

“It’s 832.”

“Oh! As expected of a test taker! Hayeon, how many days are left until the college entrance exam?”

Sanghyun, who understood the flow of the story, made a dumbfounded expression and said.

“We did all the rapping in there anyway, right? So what share are we losing?”

“No, no. Let’s say the official bootleg is released and we do an interview? Then the interviewer will ask this. There’s a lot of buzz about the remix by a DJ named Standard. How did you get involved with LA musician Standard?”

Kimhwan asked, and Junhyung quickly answered. He even raised his tone and imitated Sanghyun’s voice.

“He’s a musician I’m personally interacting with.”

“Oh, how did you get to interact with him?”

“Is that even a question?”

“Yes?”

“I got to know him because I’m good at rapping. Bees are bound to swarm around flowers.”

“Wow, similar?”

Park Inhyuk chuckled, saying that Junhyung’s impression was quite similar.

At that moment, Woominho plucked up the courage to speak.

“I’m in favor, even if you guys are against it. I really like this song.”

“……?”

“……?”

“……What is this idiot saying?”

“I am a descendant of an independence activist. No matter how much you oppress me, I will not bend my opinion!”

“Woominho, you idiot…….”

That’s how Standard’s Eight, Eight, Eight LA Remix was unanimously included in the official bootleg. Woominho still believes that his opinion was accepted.

Before long, the release of the official bootleg was fast approaching, just 5 days away.

***

The 888 Crew happily carried out their scheduled performances. They performed a total of 3 times, at the Unsan High School festival, the Chungjang Festival, and as guests at the unplanned L&S performance, and the response was all hot.

The response from the Unsan High School festival was especially good, and Sanghyun could feel their increased status since the Mudeung Stadium performance.

“Kyaaaaaaak!”

The screams of middle and high school girls flocking from all over Gwangju sounded like a celebrity had appeared.

“Dropkick Lee Sanghyun!”

“Dropkick!”

The cheers of friends who were still teasing him about the dropkick incident were also great.

Unsan High School had a strict academic atmosphere, but the festival season was an exception. Unlike other schools’ festivals where it was difficult to hear voices, Unsan High School was equipped with high-end audio equipment that could fill the entire auditorium with sound. Because of this, the majority of middle and high school students in Gwangju visited Unsan High School’s festival during the festival season every year.

Also, every year, they hired one well-known indie band for each festival, and interestingly, Golden Finger was hired this time.

‘Still slick as ever.’

Sanghyun was able to see Lee Kyungmin’s annoying face for the first time in a while.

The war of nerves at Sejong Instrument Store, the spread of the Show Business interview, the confrontation at Jeonju WCD.

The things that had been entangled with Golden Finger had happened only a while ago, but they felt like a long time ago because he had been living so busy.

‘Cha Inhyun, what is that guy doing?’

Stealing Calip’s songs and dreaming of a futile rosy future? With Ohkyung Entertainment backing him?

No, maybe he was regretting leaving L&S. L&S’s momentum, with Miju recruited as the vocalist, was no less than that of the 888 Crew. It wasn’t just the 888 Crew that was in the spotlight at the Mudeung Stadium performance.

Unlike the 888 Crew, which couldn’t get weekday and out-of-town performances because there were many students, L&S was diligently carrying out the performances they were being invited to.

Not long ago, they presented a Harbeth monitoring speaker worth over 4 million won [approximately $3,300 USD], saying it was all thanks to the 888 Crew.

The Harbeth speaker, which is at the pinnacle of British sound, was good in performance, but more than that, it felt like evidence of a precious relationship gained through music, so I was fond of it.

< Verse 15. Flow > End

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