The Rap Star [EN]: Chapter 164

This is the locker room, locker room, locker room, locker room

This is the lock-er- room (locker room)

Even people who weren’t familiar with the song could hum along thanks to the simple, repetitive hook.

-Kyaaaaaa!

-Woaaaaaaah!

Contrary to Sanghyun’s casual intention, Inhyuk and Sanghyun’s chorus exploded from the speakers.

The pounding sound pressure from the speakers stimulated everyone’s ears, quickly leading to wild bouncing and sing-alongs.

-This is the locker room, locker room, locker room, locker room!

“This is!”

-Lock-! Er-! Room-!

The massive sing-along drew in more and more people. As the crowd grew, even louder cheers erupted, attracting even more attention.

The sight that greeted the AIMMF [Asia International Music & Media Fair] management team leader, who had rushed over after hearing the commotion, was a scene of over 300 audience members going wild.

‘This is a disaster waiting to happen.’

Right now, only 300 people are going wild because the space is limited, but everyone passing by is fixated on the 888 Crew. Who knows what will happen if they had a bigger space.

And the area behind booth number 10 was a very large space. It was also a good environment for performing.

‘Is this going to ruin the sub-stage?’

The sub-stage could accommodate about 1,500 people, and the organizers were expecting around 1,000 audience members to attend.

However, the problem was that the buzz surrounding the 888 Crew, the sub-stage’s secret weapon, was significantly impacting these expected numbers.

‘I hope it doesn’t affect the main stage.’

The amount of money spent on inviting famous musicians from Korea and abroad was truly enormous. What if something went wrong with the main stage?

The show business [the entertainment industry] person who had a conflict with the 888 Crew and the staff who terminated their performance contract would be in deep trouble.

No, it would be fortunate if they only got cursed out. Disciplinary action could be taken.

‘But these guys are really something. Are they giving Show Business such a big middle finger because they hate them so much?’

The team leader shook his head.

There was a slight misunderstanding in these external perspectives.

The 888 Crew canceled their performance contract because they didn’t like interviews, but they only prepared the busking [street performance] for the fans who came all the way to Yongin. They had no intention of directly flipping off Show Business through this incident.

However, from the outside, it seemed like the 888 Crew harbored tremendous animosity towards Show Business. It was a frightening level of persistence.

If a problem really did occur on the main stage, the blame would ultimately fall on Show Business.

While the team leader was racking his brain, he heard Sanghyun’s voice after the first song.

“Ah, was that too casual? It seems like you guys have a lot of energy left since you were just casually having fun.”

‘What is this crazy guy saying?’

-It was too casual!

-You’ve changed!

‘What are these guys saying now?’

Sanghyun nodded at the audience’s laughter-filled voices.

“Then shall we make it a little hotter? Of course, it won’t be enough compared to the busking that will be at six o’clock behind booth number 10.”

‘Stop promoting, you crazy bastard.’

Sanghyun promoted the time and place once again with the enthusiasm of a vendor selling *chapssaltteok* [sticky rice cake] and buckwheat jelly. The moment the audience started to follow Sanghyun’s voice, a crackling noise began to be heard.

Sanghyun was flustered by the unexpected noise and frantically looked around.

And, the street flipped.

-Woaaaaaaah!

-It’s Gwangju UP!

-Gwangju UP-!

-Kyaaaaaa!

It was because Gwangju UP, which had been broadcast nationwide through OMB’s Baseball Story, had begun.

Gwangju UP! Gwangju UP!

Light (光) City (州) [Gwangju’s name in Hanja, Sino-Korean characters]!

-Gwangju UP!

The popularity of Gwangju UP was truly amazing. In fact, anyone who had experienced professional baseball knew ‘Gwangsu UP,’ and if you knew Gwangsu UP, you could immediately sing along to Gwangju UP.

Arrived at Yongin Station, spotted beautiful women

Sensible outfits befitting the festival city

The lyrics, slightly changed, made people happy.

Sanghyun performed enthusiastically, showing off his own energy even on the narrow stage made of a cart.

Originally, Sanghyun wasn’t the type to make big gestures or dance on stage. However, just as the crew members were influenced by Sanghyun’s rap, Sanghyun couldn’t help but be influenced by the crew members’ actions.

Having been influenced by energetic members like Inhyuk and Junhyung, his gestures naturally changed.

The 888 Crew members set up guidelines to prepare for safety accidents and had a great time jumping around with the audience. Inhyuk, who had finished Locker Room, went right into the middle of the audience and was jumping around.

Yongin UP! Yongin UP!

Hanja! Don’t know! Yongin UP!

This is a killer city, Yongin UP!

Yongin UP, which we love!

The charm of Gwangju UP was in the hook that could draw a response from people anytime, anywhere. Moreover, as long as you kept the rhythm, you could make any word into a hook.

-Yongin UP!

Even though the song was over, the audience’s shouts of Yongin UP were repeated endlessly.

The atmosphere created by just two songs was tremendous. As Sanghyun came down from the stage after finishing Gwangju UP, the audience’s voices of disappointment continued.

“Please do one more song!”

“Encore! Encore!”

However, unfortunately, there were no additional songs.

Sanghyun was also really disappointed, but if he went crazy and sang an encore song here, it would miss the point. He also had to take care of his voice.

“Have a delicious meal and see you at six o’clock!”

“If you go to booth number 10, there’s a sign! Please tell the people around you!”

The 888 Crew members worked hard to promote while taking pictures with fans, shaking hands, and signing autographs. Perhaps because the musicians were within arm’s reach, even older people liked the 888 Crew.

Meanwhile, Sangmi skillfully set up an advertisement board made of hardboard next to a bench. This advertisement board would be collected after the performance.

After doing fan service for a while, when the 888 Crew left the performance venue, about two-thirds of the spectators left. However, about one-third of them followed behind the cart again. These were the people who had joined late and hadn’t been able to see it properly.

By the time they arrived at the next performance venue, two-thirds would be filled with new people, and another promotional performance would begin with the buskers.

“Ugh, it’s heavy.”

It was Sanghyun and Hwan’s turn, and the cart they were pulling began to move slowly.

Behind them, sweating in the middle of winter as they pulled the cart, Inhyuk’s catchy melody followed.

888- Busking-

6 PM- Booth number 10-

***

The 888 Crew finished promoting in 1 hour and 30 minutes.

The event venue was so large that they couldn’t go all the way around, but they seemed to have met most of the people anyway. The people they hadn’t met would be covered by the advertisement board Sangmi had set up and the buskers who had performed with them.

“Ugh, I’m tired.”

“What time is it now?”

“Five o’clock.”

“One hour left.”

Since they had appropriately divided the songs and promotion duties, there were no members whose voices were damaged or tired. They were just hungry.

The 888 Crew members pulled the cart towards a large tent with a sign that said ‘Central Support Center.’ It was a place that provided *kimbap* [seaweed rice rolls] and drinks for free to musicians who had applied for busking.

The AIMMF organizers were at a loss for words.

They were paying close attention to the 888 Crew’s busking, anxiously wondering if there would be a problem on the main stage, but the 888 Crew was calmly entering the enemy camp and eating.

‘Why did Show Business even touch a team like this?’

At first, they were thinking of coaxing the 888 Crew onto the stage, but they promoted well. Too well.

Too many people knew about it, so they couldn’t stop it.

Moreover, they showed meticulousness in winning over the surrounding buskers in order to prevent the trouble of ‘stealing busking audiences with fame.’

They were a really smart team.

‘This team would do really well even if they started a business.’

The 888 Crew, unaware of the organizers’ misunderstanding, filled their hungry stomachs with *kimbap*, drank coffee, and headed to booth number 10. The Central Support Center and booth number 10 were not far apart.

When they arrived at booth number 10, they saw a sign that had been set up in advance. The sign was pointing to the road leading out of the AIMMF event venue.

The words written on the sign were ‘Real Hiphop 888 St’

Road number 888 leading to real hip hop.

The stand that could be found by walking for about 10 minutes from booth number 10 along ‘Road number 888’ was today’s performance venue.

This stand was a sports facility located within the ‘Yongin Natural Recreation Forest’ site where today’s event was taking place.

Yongin Natural Recreation Forest was a large complex facility of 490,000 *pyeong* [approximately 1.6 million square meters] that began construction in 2006 and was scheduled to be completed in 2008, and Ohkyung Entertainment leased it just before construction for AIMMF. However, they couldn’t lease all 490,000 *pyeong*, so the sports facility was located outside the AIMMF event venue.

In other words, the place where the 888 Crew would be busking today was not a place included in AIMMF.

-AIMMF VS Real Hiphop 888 St

The 888 Crew had held a new festival next to AIMMF.

***

While walking along Road number 888, the 888 Crew listened to the music coming from somewhere. At first, they thought it was coming from the AIMMF event venue behind them, but the music was getting louder as they approached the stand.

“What is it?”

“Isn’t this outside the AIMMF event venue?”

The 888 Crew members quickened their pace a little. If an event was taking place at the stand, they would have to move the location.

However, the sight that appeared after passing the public restroom that blocked their view was a very interesting sight.

-Woaaaaaaah!

-It’s the 888 Crew!

As the 888 Crew pulling the cart appeared in the distance, the audience gave a tremendous cheer. It was only 5:30, but there was a huge crowd.

“Wow.”

“How many people is that?”

People were scattered here and there, so they couldn’t tell at a glance, but it seemed like there were over 700 people at a rough estimate. Moreover, more audience members were appearing from here and there.

“Didn’t we steal all the sub-stage audience members?”

“So what? It’s natural for musicians to make music and the public to make choices.”

Minji shook her head at Kim Hwan’s words.

“I think it’s the opposite here? The musicians made the choice.”

As Minji said, busking was taking place all over the performance venue.

These were the people who had actively sought out the audience. Knowing that people would flock to the 888 Crew’s performance venue, they had been performing in advance for an hour or two.

“It’s completely a busking museum?”

Hayun said with a smile. The expression busking museum sounded very appropriate.

Audiences were standing or sitting on a large court whose exact purpose was unknown, whether it was a badminton court or a tennis court. Among the family-unit outing visitors, some were spreading out mats on the quiet stand side and eating. Perhaps because the weather was warmer than usual today, there were many family-unit audience members.

The buskers were performing in between these audience members. They were performing different genres and selections of songs while maintaining a distance that wouldn’t interfere with each other’s music.

As a result, the audience could comfortably watch a variety of performances. They would watch a busking that selected songs from the 80s, and if they heard the melody of their favorite latest song, they would move to that side.

It was a really wonderful and heartwarming sight.

End

ⓒ