The Rap Star [EN]: Chapter 129

< Verse 18. Hip Hop the Vibe (End) – End of Volume 5 >

Get that money Welcome to school

Get that money Welcome to school

Get that money Welcome to school

Make money like a dog, spend it like a rapper

Like leaves falling on a calm surface, Sanghyun’s rap settled gently without resisting the beat.

Get that money Welcome to school

Get that money Welcome to school

Get that money Welcome to school

Make money like a dog, spend it like a rapper

Like the first meeting on a blind date.

Like MMA [Mixed Martial Arts] fighters sizing up their opponent.

Sanghyun’s chorus was small and cautious.

This was to eliminate the audience’s unfamiliarity.

‘I will rap in this way,’ he seemed to say.

At the same time, it was a feint to the audience.

‘Will the current calmness continue?’

After the intro chorus, which contained many intentions, the full-fledged rap began.

250 audience members arranged in the front, left, and right, 8 cameras, 19 musicians.

All eyes were on Sanghyun, who was walking around the stage, riding the rhythm.

I’ll apologize in advance, sorry to most rappers who only know rap

My talent isn’t just in rap, inside my rap name ’56’

The moment you realize the meaning, you’ll nod your head

Even those who hate me will feel it, this song is a preview for my whole life

‘Get That Money Welcome to School’ had a very slow BPM [beats per minute] of 65. Also, the beat’s main device was a piano melody that suited the slow BPM.

However, Sanghyun increased the rap speed exactly twice, to BPM 130.

Then, the rap, ignoring the slow piano melody, began to form a tremendous sense of speed, and a cool pleasure struck the audience’s ears.

But this method had one weakness.

By skipping a snare once while doubling the speed, the lyrics had very long breaths. And lyrics with long breaths were difficult to convey their meaning properly.

For a typical rapper, that is.

‘Screwed up. That Dread bastard.’

Chae Daehan, the genius composer of Oh Kyung Entertainment, who secretly visited the set, sighed deeply.

From the moment Lee Sanghyun started the first word of his rap, he could tell. There was no carelessness in him at all. Rather, he felt that he had grown more than Lee Sanghyun in the videos he had encountered in the past.

It was a dazzlingly perfect rap.

It’s not that I’m neglecting rap, it’s just that other things are quite urgent right now

Studio, equipment installments, I’m working because I don’t want to rap for them

The music I make by making music while in debt looks commercial to me

I’ll make money and protect my purity, this is my mutual agreement with my ideals

Sanghyun realized one thing while doing business. People who are really short on money think about money all day long.

Looking at the upcoming payment dates and the decreasing number of customers, even traffic lights looked like the end of money.

‘If you make music while in debt, wouldn’t your head be full of thoughts about money? Then wouldn’t that music be commercial music?’

If you curse at me, that’s your business

You’re deceiving your desires, it’s self-deception

I still fall short of my goal

Waiting for bills in my wallet

No one wanted to be paid less than the value of their work, saying they loved the company.

The shackles of some fans on underground rappers were ultimately self-deception.

In the end, I make money, and then I spend it

Very rapper-like, Wa$$up

You can’t buy class with money, but

You can get into school

What Sanghyun was trying to say was ultimately in the chorus.

‘Make money like a dog, spend it like a rapper!’

The audience’s reaction while Sanghyun was rapping was unusual.

No one screamed or raised their hands high. They were just standing still, perking up their ears.

Chae Daehan watched the scene and realized that he was also the same as them.

‘I’ve felt it several times, but Lee Sanghyun’s ability to deliver lyrics is abnormal. It feels like the sound is seen with the eyes and then heard with the ears…….’

It wasn’t that Lee Sanghyun was using textbook pronunciation like an announcer. Lee Sanghyun had his own diction style. But even that diction seemed to help deliver the lyrics.

Chae Daehan couldn’t think of a rapper in Korea who could deliver as well as Lee Sanghyun. Even when he turned his eyes to foreign countries, only a few came to mind.

And one rapper who came to mind.

‘Still, isn’t comparing him to Eminem an exaggeration?’

Eminem was a rapper who had been periodically plagued by lip-syncing controversies since his debut. There were allegations that AR [augmented reality, referring to pre-recorded vocals] was used in the Up in Smoke Tour and BBC Radio live clips. But surprisingly, those stages were 100% live.

Swallow CD.

The joke that Eminem swallows a CD in his mouth before rapping didn’t come out for no reason.

From the late 2010s, when his heyday was passing, he sometimes showed himself using AR, but Eminem in his heyday was truly a rapper who deserved the title of CD player.

Chae Daehan was getting a similar feeling while listening to Sanghyun’s rap, and the audience was no exception.

“Seriously, he’s freaking awesome…….”

Kim Anhyun, an aspiring rapper who was one of the invited guests, was speechless. He couldn’t understand how such a live performance was possible.

Besides, this wasn’t an exciting song. Lee Sanghyun didn’t unleash indiscriminate rap bombardments like Shin Junhyung, nor did he turn up like Park Inhyuk.

But why is it so crazy?

“Ah…….”

The troubadour Bob Dylan was not the best vocalist. He was just throwing songs with a voice that dripped with rust.

Kim Anhyun had once told a friend who was a fanatic fan of Bob Dylan, ‘I don’t know why Bob Dylan is good. He’s not good.’ At that time, his friend foamed at the mouth, but in the end, he couldn’t specifically explain why Bob Dylan’s vocals were good.

Kim Anhyun’s feelings watching Lee Sanghyun right now were exactly like that.

It’s crazy good. It’s so good. I want to keep listening, and even while listening, I want to listen again. But I wasn’t confident in explaining why it was good.

Is it because the rap tone is good? Is it because the lyrics are good? Is it because the beat is good? Is it because the rhythm is good?

All of them are correct. But that wasn’t all. There was something more that I was feeling but couldn’t clearly express in words.

The audience, including Kim Anhyun, was captivated by the rap.

If it weren’t for the drum sounds coming through the speakers, you could believe that you were watching a classical performance or an opera.

‘This is really amazing!’

That was the common thought of the camera directors who were filming the audience.

Get that money Welcome to school

Jordan, LeBron, Nike Shoes

Hoodie, Baggy, Camouflage

New Era, Snapback, Du-rag, Goods

After the 1st verse, the Pre-Hook (Previous Hook: a sub-chorus attached before the main chorus) followed.

Sanghyun’s Pre-Hook was listing items related to hip-hop culture in rhyme.

What is the first thing that black people in the Hood [slang for neighborhood, often impoverished], who were desperately poor, do with the money they earn as rappers? The answer was to buy Nike Jordans.

It was absurd and difficult to understand for some, but it wasn’t something to laugh at.

It was only natural that hip-hop, which was the only means of self-expression for black people in slums, became closely related to swagger culture over time.

Sanghyun was talking about this swagger culture and arguing that you can buy class with money.

Get that money Welcome to school!

Jordan, LeBron, Nike Shoes!

Hoodie, Baggy, Camouflage-!

The Pre-Hook was repeated twice, and the rhyme matched with ‘School, Shoes, Plage’ began to get stronger and stronger.

Finally, Sanghyun shouted for the first time.

New Era, Snapback, Du-rag, Goods-!

At that moment, a huge drum exploded.

The piano trap beat, which had been in chemistry with the weak drums until now, was surprisingly well matched with the intense drums that suddenly exploded.

On top of the tension of the beat that went up without warning, the chorus, which was even more powerful than that, fell like a bomb.

Get that money Welcome to school-!

Get that money Welcome to school-!

Get that money Welcome to school-!

Make money like a dog, spend it like a rapper—!

Sanghyun, who was singing the chorus like crazy, realized that his surroundings were quiet. When he turned to look at the audience, everyone was looking at him with blank expressions.

Sanghyun’s pride was hurt for a moment.

‘Is this boring?’

Is it because of the unfamiliarity of the trap genre?

Sanghyun gritted his teeth and sang the chorus again. But the audience still didn’t follow his chorus. They were just looking at him with the same eyes.

Sanghyun clenched the hand holding the microphone with a boiling heart at the unexpected reaction.

‘Will they be able to stay still even after listening to verse 2?’

His stubbornness soared.

Sanghyun’s rap, which was more powerful than verse 1 but not forced or burdensome, was spewed out.

Uh, someone will say I lack the qualities of a rapper

Every time I hear those words, I think, are you on drugs?

Freedom is not free. Freedom doesn’t have taxes

I separate money and music to pursue freedom of creation

In that way, Sanghyun’s solo performance, mixed with some misunderstandings, was being recorded as a divine live performance that continued the lineage of Lonely Road Live.

***

Dread could sense that he had lost the moment Sanghyun’s rap ended. His performance hadn’t even started yet, but he was sure of the result.

And as if to prove his conviction, the energetic applause that filled the venue showed no signs of ending.

Applause after a hip-hop performance?

It was a chilling scene that showed how immersed the audience was in the rap.

Audiences who are deeply immersed in rap breathe together in the parts where the rappers breathe without even realizing it. But the breath of ‘Get That Money Welcome to School’ was so long that more than one audience member almost ran out of breath.

As a result, the exhausted audience after the performance gave stiff applause instead of cheers. Of course, it was also because they felt like they had seen a work of art.

“Dread, we’ll take a ten-minute break and then proceed with the performance.”

PD [Production Director] Heo Taejin, who had approached him at some point, whispered to Dread. Dread could tell that Heo Taejin’s words were for his sake.

‘No, is it for the sake of the broadcast? If I go up now, I’ll become too listless?’

But Dread didn’t want to ignore this situation.

He was the one who had watched Lee Sanghyun’s change just before the performance more closely than anyone else today. Lee Sanghyun was clearly a little careless just before the performance.

But in the very short few seconds of standing on stage and looking down at the audience, all of that carelessness had disappeared.

“No. I’ll just proceed.”

“Yes? Please don’t…….”

“I guess this performance is like my last performance anyway, so please consider it as doing me a favor.”

Dread smiled and snatched the wireless microphone held by the staff. Then he went straight to the stage.

The applause that had barely begun to subside disappeared in an instant the moment Dread came up. Dread felt it was like a silent attack. An attack for suddenly coming up on stage and breaking the afterglow of the performance.

But Dread was Dread.

He was still fearless and a troublemaker.

Dread, who grabbed the microphone, pushed Sanghyun on the stage and opened his mouth.

“Drop the Beat.”

This was something he had always wanted to try while watching videos of foreign rappers.

But the beat didn’t come out. It seemed to show the sound director’s concern, ‘Is it really okay to play the beat?’

Dread screamed as if tearing his throat.

“Drop the Beat-!”

At that moment, the beat that Chae Daehan had created fell like lightning on the stage.

De-Red.

Red alert.

Now Dread could vaguely know how much other rappers had studied rap and how thoroughly they had revised their lyrics.

He had prepared and prepared, but 2 weeks was hopelessly short.

‘If I fall here, I’ll have to start over. Without being pressed for time.’

Finally, Dread’s rap started.

***

Filming on November 18, 2005

Hip Hop the Vibe 2 / Heo Taejin

Round 2 Theme Battle

Stars Records (198 votes) vs. Bounce Rhyme (52 votes)

Stars Records wins with 198 votes

888 Crew (236 votes) vs. Code Name (14 votes)

888 Crew wins with 236 votes.

The final eliminated team is Code Name, which received 14 votes.

The results recorded on paper were too simple.

But the record couldn’t remember everything.

Stars Records, which has been with the history of Korean hip-hop, presented the deep taste of underground hip-hop to viewers across the country.

888 Crew took another step forward in terms of the avant-garde nature of the lyrics.

Lee Sanghyun raised the level of ‘rap live performance’, which had been ignored in Korea, to a higher level.

Dread began to jump into the world of rappers in earnest.

Now that the filming of Hip Hop the Vibe, Round 2, where many things happened, has ended.

These were things that were not recorded, but had to be remembered.

< Verse 18. Hip Hop the Vibe (End) – End of Volume 5 > End

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