The Rap Star [EN]: Chapter 103

The 888 Crew’s video was quite chaotic. Perhaps because it wasn’t fully edited yet, performance scenes alternated with scenes of them hanging out in the practice room and recording. I was already dead tired, so it was hard to focus.

Dread took off his headphones and said,

“Hyung, I don’t care what these guys do for fun. Can’t we just watch the interview parts?”

“I’m watching this for the first time too, so I don’t know. 888 isn’t a team I cover.”

Kim Byung-woo grumbled and spun the wheel. The screen flipped rapidly, and the background changed from the performance hall back to the studio. It seemed like the interview scene Dread was looking for was about to appear.

Dread put the headphones he had around his neck back on his head.

Even as Kim Byung-woo turned up the volume, he thought Dread was really strange. The fact that Code Name and 888 Crew had gotten into a fistfight in the Gwangju Tigers’ waiting room was something most broadcasting staff knew.

Given their relationship, Code Name would diss [disrespect] 888 Crew, and 888 Crew would diss Code Name. Maybe not overtly, but there was bound to be some disparagement of each other in the interviews. So Dread was now listening to find those disses.

‘Is this bastard a pervert? Why is he listening to his own insults? Is he looking for something to sue over?’

Even as Kim Byung-woo was thinking that, Dread was focused on the 888 Crew’s interview.

The interview was conducted with all the members of 888 Crew equally, but Lee Sang-mi, Woo Min-ho, Kim Hwan, and Oh Min-ji were almost entirely edited out during the guide editing.

As a result, the video mostly featured interviews with Jun-hyung, Sang-hyun, In-hyuk, and Ha-yeon.

‘That Thousand Cherry Blossoms bastard’s name was Park In-hyuk, right? That bastard is just a funny idiot. And Ha-yeon? She’s just the face of the group.’

The interviews focused on musicality were mostly from Shin Jun-hyung and Lee Sang-hyun. Perhaps because of his position as the leader, Shin Jun-hyung’s interview came first.

A voice-only writer asked the first question, ‘What is 888 Crew’s working style like?’

“First of all, we influence each other a lot. We always say, ‘Our enemy is yesterday’s 888 Crew.’ But the original intention was to beat the Man in the Mirror, but it’s become a bit distorted. A sense of competition has arisen where we fight against our own crew members in the mirror.”

“So, you’re saying you think of your crew members as rivals?”

“No. It’s a little different. Thinking of crew members as rivals means having a competitive spirit even while making music together, but we don’t do that. I work hard to beat Sang-hyun. But I don’t want the current Sang-hyun to be bad. Instead, I try to be better than yesterday’s Sang-hyun. Does that make sense?”

“That’s an interesting story. Then how do you decide on the concept or direction of a song? Does the leader usually bring it up first?”

“There’s no consistent method. It just seems to be different every time. When making personal songs, there might be work habits, but when 888 Crew gets together to make a song, there’s no consistency.”

“So you’re saying there’s no set way for 888 Crew to work?”

“That’s right. We have a lot of members, and each of us has a different musical style…”

Shin Jun-hyung talked about the working methods of 888 Crew. At first, Dread was listening blankly, but before he knew it, he was deeply absorbed in the interview.

He had been doing hip hop for three years, but 888 Crew seemed to be talking about a completely different world that he didn’t know.

As Code Name, whose album concept was decided by the company’s composer and A&R team [Artists and Repertoire, the division of a record label that is responsible for talent scouting and artistic and commercial development], and who received lyrics written by lyricists to match it, these were unimaginable stories.

Then the writer asked a sensitive question.

What do you think of overground [mainstream] hip hop teams like ‘Code Name’ or ‘Bounce Rhyme,’ who have been confirmed to appear on Hip Hop the Vibe?

Dread snapped out of his thoughts and stared intently at Shin Jun-hyung’s mouth in the video.

“That’s a bit of an ambiguous question. Are you asking what I think of Code Name and Bounce Rhyme? Or are you asking about overground hip hop in general?”

“Um, let’s ask about overground hip hop first. What do you think of overground hip hop?”

“Underground is often called independent, right? Independent means art that is independent of capital [money/funding]. So, overground is the opposite, art combined with capital. In some ways, overground rappers may have it harder. The music they want to make can be tainted by capital. But I don’t see people who don’t have ‘the music they want to make’ as artists. Those people are just eating away at the scene and creating prejudice. They’re not rappers.”

“Then what do you think of Code Name and Bounce Rhyme?”

“Um… it’s hard to say it indirectly. I’ll just be honest. It’s okay if this goes on air, right, hyungs [older brothers/male friends]?”

The camera zoomed out, and the faces of the 888 Crew members watching from behind were captured. Kim Hwan shrugged and said,

“It’s up to the leader.”

“Um… personally, I think Dolphin and the female rapper Edition from Bounce Rhyme are okay. They may be lacking in skills, but I think they can express their own vibe in rap. However, their musical sense is terrible. The album is awful, and there are some verses that don’t seem to analyze the beat properly. If these problems are due to the album concept and beat set by the agency, then it’s not their musical problem.”

“Then what about Shin-gak from Bounce Rhyme?”

“Um… not really. Just not really. I don’t have anything else to say.”

“Next, what about Code Name?”

Shin Jun-hyung paused for a moment before opening his mouth.

“I don’t even want to give them the title of rapper. Lip-syncing isn’t rapping, is it? Well, I admit they have excellent dancing skills and good looks.”

“Can you be a little more specific?”

“I said earlier that I don’t see people who don’t have the music they want to make as artists. I don’t think Code Name has a musical mind, apart from the technical aspects of rap.”

After that, Shin Jun-hyung talked about Stars Records and the Hip Hop the Vibe format.

Dread, who watched Shin Jun-hyung’s interview, twisted his lips and sneered.

He answered exactly as I thought he would. He probably wanted to throw in some insults, but he didn’t have the courage to do it in front of the camera.

‘As if they make great music.’

The first thing Code Name members, including Dread, did after the Mudeung Stadium performance was to search for ‘888 Crew’ on the internet.

There were more search results than expected, but they had never released an album, and they had never appeared on a music show, let alone a major festival. The only major festival they had appeared on, the World Indie Music Festival, was when Lee Sang-hyun came out alone as a competition team. That means they didn’t get paid a penny.

They probably received three times more performance fees than 888 Crew for the Mudeung Stadium performance.

‘888 is no different from the other guys.’

Dread had seen countless underground musicians dissing him.

But the funny thing was, they would talk about the ‘underground spirit’ but when the opportunity came to sign with a big agency, none of them would refuse. Not a single team.

On the surface, they seem cool and stubborn, but the underground is still the underground. A boringly poor neighborhood.

Dread was sure that his settlement amount for the last quarter was several times more than what 888 Crew had earned so far. He heard that 888 Crew had been getting some performance offers lately, but that was only temporary anyway.

‘Let’s see what this bastard said?’

Dread focused on Lee Sang-hyun’s interview, which came after Shin Jun-hyung’s.

Sang-hyun’s interview flowed in a similar direction to Jun-hyung’s. However, instead of asking about the working method, they asked about show business stories and the Jeonju World DJ Festival that he participated in with L&S.

And finally, the story of Code Name came up.

“I have to ask you the same question I asked Shin Jun-hyung. What do you think of Bounce Rhyme and Code Name?”

Sang-hyun paused to organize his thoughts.

He knew about the future of Dolphin, the main rapper of Bounce Rhyme. Dolphin was currently suffering from a slave contract [an exploitative contract where the artist has little to no control over their work or earnings]. Making music he didn’t even want to make.

About five years later, he would leave his current company and start a hip hop label, and interestingly, it was a label that aimed for underground hip hop. And it did quite well.

After that, Dolphin didn’t rap, but devoted himself to the underground as a producer and beatmaker. Even hip hop fans who hated Bounce Rhyme would call Dolphin ‘the poor dolphin’ a few years later.

This was because things like suffering from a slave contract, making music he didn’t want to make, and the reason for returning to the underground were revealed.

Sang-hyun talked about Bounce Rhyme in a similar way to Jun-hyung, but interviewed Dolphin more favorably.

“Next, what do you think of Code Name?”

“Um… I think they’re people who are working hard in their own way.”

“That’s a bit different from Shin Jun-hyung’s opinion? What does it mean to be working hard?”

“It means that Code Name is playing its role in the position it’s in.”

Sang-hyun’s words were sincere. After receiving Dread’s apology call, he felt that Code Name was a very small existence. And he could see that 888 Crew and they were completely different beings.

The circle that 888 Crew draws never overlaps with the circle that Code Name draws. 888 Crew’s ideal is a place that Code Name can’t even dare to invade.

Whether it was because K-Mnet’s writer Seon Min-ah was surprised by Sang-hyun’s answer or wanted a more stimulating picture, she asked again.

“So you’re saying you acknowledge Code Name as musicians?”

“Yes. There’s no reason not to.”

Hearing Sang-hyun’s words, Jun-hyung frowned and asked,

“Really? Really?”

“Yeah. Really.”

The writer spoke again.

“Then, while filming Hip Hop the Vibe, do you acknowledge Code Name as 888 Crew’s rivals?”

“No.”

“Um, is it because 888 Crew is superior in terms of skill that you don’t see them as rivals?”

“No.”

“Then why aren’t they rivals?”

“Because we don’t compete with Code Name. So there’s no chance to compete in skill.”

“What? Hip Hop the Vibe is a program that competes with rap, and Code Name and 888 Crew are appearing together?”

Sang-hyun, who was organizing his thoughts at the writer’s question, said,

“Um, I think you’ll understand if I say it like this. A boxer can’t compete with a gymnast. Except for the big framework of sports, boxing and gymnastics are completely different worlds. The training methods, goals, and mindsets are different. Of course, a boxer may hate a gymnast, just like I hate Code Name as a person. But a boxer doesn’t think about having a match with a gymnast. That’s a stupid idea.”

Sang-hyun continued,

“We are boxers, and Code Name is gymnasts. Hip Hop the Vibe, should we think of it as the National Sports Festival? Even if we participate in the same National Sports Festival, we won’t compete with Code Name.”

Seon Min-ah was speechless at Lee Sang-hyun’s different scale. It was an unimaginable statement.

When Shin Jun-hyung defined ‘Code Name is not a musician,’ he felt a personal animosity. Whatever the truth may be.

But Lee Sang-hyun was not.

He was distinguishing the difference between Code Name and themselves with a surprisingly cold eye.

‘Could there be such a scathing criticism? And that’s completely devoid of emotion.’

What’s even more surprising is that there is no arrogance or conceit in Lee Sang-hyun’s attitude.

As I followed 888 Crew, I felt that they were passionate but humble. They are full of confidence but work hard. And Lee Sang-hyun was always at the center of it.

“Uh…”

In the end, Seon Min-ah couldn’t ask the next question for a long time.

< Verse 15. Flow > End

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