The Rap Star [EN]: Chapter 178

Having learned music in the United States after arriving penniless, Chae Dae-han wasn’t opposed to sharing his knowledge. He was just lazy and hadn’t met anyone he deemed worthy of teaching.

So, when Sang-hyun asked him to teach beat making, he immediately agreed, mainly because he was very interested in the 888 Crew and Sang-hyun himself.

‘Official Bootleg’ was a near-perfect masterpiece, especially considering the limited sound equipment they had. He was amazed that such a high-quality hip-hop album could come out of Korea without proper professional guidance.

‘Is he truly talented? Or was ‘Official Bootleg’ just a fluke, a moment of luck he’ll never replicate?’

That’s how his relationship with Sang-hyun began.

And in just fifteen days, Chae Dae-han was certain.

Lee Sang-hyun was the real deal. The realest of the real. It even seemed like his relatively short music career was holding him back from fully expressing his potential.

Sometimes, Sang-hyun would get inspired while making beats and quickly jot down lyrics, recording a rough version on his phone. Every time that happened, Chae Dae-han was so impressed that he was genuinely taken aback.

One of those songs, ‘I just see,’ made it clear that this guy wasn’t just going to be successful in the underground scene, but had the potential to dominate both the underground and mainstream, despite his underground beginnings.

And surprisingly, there was one more guy who was quite fun to teach.

“I’m here.”

“This crazy bastard? ‘I’m here?’ Can’t you even greet properly? You were eager at first, but you’re getting too comfortable, aren’t you?”

“Hey, hyung [older brother or male friend], hello.”

It was Dread.

Dread was immediately bombarded with insults upon entering, then bowed respectfully to Chae Dae-han. He then plopped down in the chair between Sang-hyun’s computer and Chae Dae-han’s computer.

“Hyung, aren’t you being a bit harsh? This guy has been learning from you for less than a month, and I’ve been learning for over four months, so why don’t I get a proper seat?”

“Ah, how many times do I have to tell you? You don’t need a dedicated computer. You use my sub-computer when you write lyrics anyway, right?”

“Still, hyung, there’s a hierarchy. Hierarchy comes from having a designated seat.”

“If we’re talking about hierarchy, you should be massaging Sang-hyun’s shoulders. Or shining his shoes.”

Dread looked genuinely hurt at Chae Dae-han’s words.

Sang-hyun chuckled at the sight, and Dread immediately noticed.

“Laughing? You laughing at me?”

“I’m laughing because it’s funny, you weakling.”

“Hey, stop calling me that! And when are you going to stop using informal speech with me!”

“Haven’t you read any martial arts novels? Even if there’s an age difference, if your skill or rank is higher, a senior brother can speak informally to a junior brother.”

“That’s right! I learned first, so I’m the senior brother.”

“Yeah, you’re the senior brother.”

Sang-hyun answered nonchalantly and put his monitoring headphones back on.

Dread belatedly understood Sang-hyun’s words and huffed for a while, but when Sang-hyun focused on composing, he didn’t bother him to avoid disturbing his concentration.

‘Ugh, that stalker bastard.’

Chae Dae-han had been convinced that Dread was Sang-hyun’s stalker for a while now. And he didn’t seem to realize it himself, but his lyric-writing style was gradually resembling Sang-hyun’s.

Dread learned about rap at Chae Dae-han’s studio whenever his afternoon schedule was free or on his days off. Sang-hyun was obligated to spend a set amount of time at the company three days a week, and he spent most of that time at Chae Dae-han’s studio, except for the mandatory training sessions that all trainees had to participate in.

Because of this situation, the two inevitably ran into each other often. At first, they were awkward being in the same space, but as they saw each other’s faces more often, they started exchanging personal stories and jokes. But basically, they were always in a playfully combative mood.

A major reason for this progress in their relationship was that Dread had first apologized to Miju and the female crew members at the Hip Hop the Vibe company dinner.

Their relationship was mutually beneficial.

Dread was greatly helped by Sang-hyun’s rap advice, and Sang-hyun was able to learn about information and trends within Oh Kyung Media that no one else would tell him.

Moreover, although Sang-hyun didn’t know it, Dread was subtly thwarting the obvious tricks of the trainees who disliked him.

For example, ‘accidentally’ resetting Sang-hyun’s attendance records or breaking the audio equipment in the practice room assigned to Sang-hyun. Dread had experienced and even done all those things when he was a trainee, so he knew all the tricks.

“Don’t do obvious things to mess up the company atmosphere. Can’t you see how tense the atmosphere is between Department Head Oh and Section Chief Hong since Oh Kyung Media became independent?”

Dread clicked his tongue as he watched a trainee trying to hide Sang-hyun’s shoes after he entered the dance studio.

‘Seriously, who is this crazy bastard to be telling others not to mess up the atmosphere?’

However, Dread didn’t care what the trainee was thinking and just wore a pathetic expression.

“How is it that this entertainment industry hasn’t changed its ways even after five years? That’s why kids should be running around in the playground. They’re getting more and more petty because they’re trapped in a small space.”

Dread clicked his tongue again, and the trainee, looking embarrassed, put Sang-hyun’s shoes down and disappeared somewhere.

That’s how the dark paladin [a fallen hero or anti-hero] was doing his job again today.

Sang-hyun’s position at Oh Kyung Media was somewhat ambiguous.

He wasn’t a trainee, but he wasn’t a fully established singer either. If you had to force a description, you could say that he was a singer when he was actively promoting and a trainee when he wasn’t.

He was a trainee now because he wasn’t active, but he was definitely not an ordinary trainee. Because no one dared to mess with Sang-hyun.

First of all, Sang-hyun didn’t take vocal lessons, which were the main focus of the agency’s training program. During the mandatory training time, he only learned the basic vocalization techniques that are the foundation of all sounds.

The vocalization for singing and the vocalization for rapping were completely different, so the vocal trainer was hesitant to interfere carelessly. They were afraid that Sang-hyun’s rap, which had tremendous lyrical delivery and emotional expression, might be negatively affected if they tried to change his technique unnecessarily.

Of course, it wasn’t that the company didn’t have rap directors to teach rap. But to them, Lee Sang-hyun of 888 Crew was someone they would ask to learn from, not someone to teach, no matter how young he was.

Most of the rap directors had built their careers in the underground scene and were affiliated with the company because they were desperate for money, or they were doing it as a side job while still working in the underground scene.

Unlike the vocal trainers, the rap directors were not very old and were often active underground musicians. This was especially true because the hip-hop scene hadn’t been around for very long in Korea.

So, it was obvious how these rap directors felt about Sang-hyun and 888 Crew. The only people Sang-hyun was genuinely friendly with at the company, besides Chae Dae-han, were the rap directors.

From the perspective of the vocal trainers who found Sang-hyun difficult to manage, they secretly wished the rap directors would control Sang-hyun, but the rap directors had no intention of doing so. Rather, they secretly brought their copies of the Official Bootleg album to get his autograph.

Finally, the general employees of Oh Kyung Media didn’t really bother Sang-hyun either. This was a bit different from the situation with the vocal trainers and rap directors.

The high-ranking officials who knew the details of Sang-hyun’s contract left him alone, and that atmosphere naturally spread to the lower-level employees who didn’t know the specifics of the contract.

It wasn’t that Sang-hyun was arrogant or disrespectful, so they didn’t feel the need to interfere with something they didn’t understand.

On the surface, Sang-hyun might have seemed like an unmanageable wildcard at Oh Kyung Media, but that was not the case at all. Oh Kyung Media was strategically using Sang-hyun to their advantage.

It started with a copy of Sang-hyun’s contract being leaked to the public. The leak originated from within Oh Kyung Media itself.

On the surface, Oh Kyung Media’s contract with Sang-hyun was very favorable to Sang-hyun. He was allowed to continue his 888 Crew activities without interference, and he could receive support in areas where financial backing was needed.

Oh Kyung Media actively used this contract to successfully cultivate an image as a clean and artist-respecting agency. And based on this image, they were actively pursuing a sub-label system [a smaller division or imprint operating under a larger record label].

Image is as important as any tangible asset in the entertainment industry, which thrives on public interest, so this publicity stunt was being evaluated as quite successful.

In addition, Sang-hyun had participated in several photo shoots. The intention was to achieve a decent advertising effect by leveraging his rebellious underground rapper image and the backstory of being admired by high school students.

The fashion magazine Sang-hyun shot featured luxury clothing popular among students in the Gangnam academic district [affluent area in Seoul known for its private education], and he felt a pang of bitterness when he saw his picture hanging in large format at the Oh Kyung Department Store in Myeongdong [major shopping district in Seoul].

It wasn’t that he had an aversion to the advertisement itself, but because the image portrayed in the photo was not ‘Musician Lee Sang-hyun’ but the image of a ‘celebrity’ manufactured with capital.

A face plastered with powder and strange smoky makeup no matter how you looked at it. His appearance was completely styled to maximize sales.

Oh Kyung Media’s assurances that the photo was well-received and the advertising effect was positive offered no comfort to him.

Sang-hyun couldn’t shake the memory of that photo he saw while getting a ride in Bang Min-sik’s car for days.

That’s why he was even more immersed in music.

Thanks to Chae Dae-han’s help and Cha In-hyun’s animosity, the blade he needed to feed Hong Kyung-soo [metaphor for achieving his goals] seemed to shine more clearly.

***

The 888 Crew forgot everything else and focused solely on music. Their goal was to release a full-length album before July. And at this rate, it seemed like they could release it around the end of June, not July.

There was one very big difference between the working process of the Bootleg series and the full-length album JFTR, besides the crew members’ skills improving.

It was the 2 PD [Producer] system.

When making Bootleg 0.5 and Official Bootleg, 888 Crew was under Woo Min-ho’s 1PD system. Of course, tracks by Standard and L&S Bang Min-sik were also included, but that was only partial assistance. The sound engineer who oversaw the entire bootleg was Woo Min-ho, regardless of anyone else’s contributions.

However, Sang-hyun, who was now backed by Chae Dae-han’s teachings, participated in JFTR as both a PD and a rapper, resulting in the diversity and richness of the 2PD system.

In fact, Sang-hyun had been feeling a bit frustrated until now. It wasn’t frustration with Min-ho’s skills, but frustration with himself. There was a sound that existed in his head, but he felt like he wasn’t properly conveying his inspiration to Min-ho.

Maybe this was a natural limitation, because there were very few people who could immediately understand a song’s vision and accurately express that sound in words.

The only reason he had been able to create sounds so far was because Sang-hyun had a very wide listening spectrum, so he compared it to various existing songs and explained it to Min-ho.

But now that frustration was gone, because he himself had become a beat maker. Of course, he didn’t yet have the full ability to bring the beats in his head into reality perfectly, but he no longer felt any difficulty in communicating his ideas to Min-ho.

While 888 Crew was focused on JFTR, L&S was gradually gaining popularity, just like 888 Crew had done before.

The Royal Band was recording a bigger hit than expected.

The appeal of audition programs is competition, no matter what anyone says. In that sense, ‘Royal Band’ was even more stimulating than ‘Hip Hop the Vibe 2’. This was because the judges actively supported the bands they mentored and competed against each other from the position of helpers.

Of course, it was more artificial than the genuine competition of Hip Hop the Vibe, where direct verbal battles and psychological warfare took place between rappers, but Royal Band was more suitable for the TV format.

The 888 Crew members were sincerely happy for L&S’s success, and it served as a stimulus that made them want to work even harder.

Perhaps because of that, 888 Crew, who had been refusing all invitations and making tracks like crazy for a long time, accepted two invitations for the first time in a while.

The first was the poetry and rap event with poet Choi Hak-rim, and the second was the congratulatory stage for the opening game of the 2006 professional baseball season on April 8.

End

ⓒ