The Rap Star [EN]: Chapter 183

< Verse 28. Jaws >

Jaws: A term referring to the metal part of a trap that snaps shut on an animal’s foot.

***

Large corporations are both progressive and conservative.

What this means is that for a company to grow into a ‘large’ corporation, it must have a progressive side, as conservative methods alone would not suffice. To achieve significant growth, a company needs to innovate and adapt to new market trends.

Conversely, once it has grown into a large corporation, the relatively conservative aspect becomes more emphasized. This is because maintaining stability and protecting existing market share become priorities. Hence the term ‘conservative’.

This was true of the Ohkyung Group as well, and it was a common trait among Ohkyung Group’s affiliates.

Ohkyung Media was no different.

“Next on the agenda… let’s discuss ways to achieve the target sales for the second quarter.”

As Oh Yeonju, who had finally become the vice president of Ohkyung Media, opened her mouth, the sound of swallowing and flipping papers filled the room. Everyone anticipated the sharp words that would follow from Oh Yeonju.

“Section Chief Hong Kyungsu. Is Ohkyung Media a nursery school? Or a company that pursues profit?”

“……A company.”

“Aren’t you taking Ohkyung Media too lightly, assuming it’s not as sensitive to profit as other affiliates? What do you think?”

Hong Kyungsu could only swallow hard at Oh Yeonju’s pressure. In the behind-the-scenes office politics, Hong Kyungsu might be able to land a blow on Oh Yeonju, but a direct confrontation was impossible. The difference in rank was too great.

‘Oh Yeonju…….’

Hong Kyungsu clenched his fist under the desk.

Since her inauguration as vice president, Oh Yeonju had been building her career by meddling in various fields of Ohkyung Media. But there was one thing she was focusing on the most.

That was pressuring him.

‘Damn it…….’

The excuse was the contract terms with Lee Sanghyun.

Lee Sanghyun, who had created a huge buzz with his poetry and rap ‘Between the Second Line,’ finally had his first activity under Ohkyung Media.

Since a suitable song was not completed, he promoted with ‘Welcome To School,’ a remix of ‘Get That Money Welcome To School’ as a trap party tune. It was a track co-worked by Chae Daehan and Lee Sanghyun.

Some of the A&R [Artists and Repertoire, the division of a record label responsible for talent scouting and artistic development] team thought it was too niche to promote, but the opinion that it was worth trying if the artist’s image, which had been heated up through poetry and rap, was emphasized was adopted.

It was also a pity to miss the golden opportunity to have the musician’s name go up and down not only in the entertainment section but also in the society section, and it was also a mock test-oriented project to experience how to utilize the musician ’56’.

In conclusion, Welcome To School was a success that far exceeded expectations.

Of course, it did not win first place on music shows. That was close to impossible given the sentiments of the Korean music scene, so no one expected it.

However, surprisingly, it ranked first on three major music sites for two weeks and was nominated for first place on CBC Broadcasting’s Popular Music and cable channel KMnet’s KM Music Box, two of the three major broadcasting stations.

In the end, it did not reach first place, and some whispered that it was only the result of CBC Broadcasting and KMnet, which were friendly to Lee Sanghyun, but it was definitely amazing.

Ohkyung Media quickly started playing the media.

They advertised that hip-hop music, which had deviated from the commercialism of the Korean music scene, had entered the mainstream for the first time, and solidified Ohkyung Media’s image as its supporter.

No. 1 on radio play in April 2006.

No. 5 on radio play in May 2006.

No. 1 in the first half of 2006 for single track buzz index.

Meaningful indicators piled up, and Hong Kyungsu’s shoulders gained strength. It was he who had made the contract with Lee Sanghyun despite opposition that the conditions were unreasonable.

But that’s when Oh Yeonju’s pressure began.

‘What is the purpose of a company? Isn’t it maximizing profits? Are we doing charity work now?’

Oh Yeonju’s argument for attacking Hong Kyungsu was very simple. They could have squeezed more out of Lee Sanghyun, but the company was taking too little, she said. She also pointed out that he was giving too many conveniences.

This was because Lee Sanghyun never responded unless it was a schedule, event, or broadcast specifically stated in the contract. Except for one additional appearance on CBC Broadcasting’s radio program ’20 O’Clock Station’ and music show ‘Popular Music’.

In fact, a normal singer would have handled five or six times Lee Sanghyun’s schedule. And the company would have made more profit.

‘Are we a music academy? Are we raising students now? Persuade, threaten, or appeal to Lee Sanghyun to get him to do additional schedules.’

Public opinion is truly strange.

The internal opinion of colleagues who had envied Hong Kyungsu’s career began to lean towards Oh Yeonju’s opinion.

Of course, behind this atmosphere was a great deal of jealousy and competition, but some people really felt that way because Oh Yeonju persistently mentioned and attacked him at every meeting.

‘Squeeze him more. He’s just a high school student anyway. You can’t even coax him by saying you’ll make him more money? The contract terms are almost a giveaway…….’

‘I know. The meeting atmosphere keeps getting worse because of trivial matters.’

From Hong Kyungsu’s point of view, it was driving him crazy.

He had clearly made a progressive contribution to giving Ohkyung Media, a newly launched affiliate, a very distinct color.

He created a positive perception among the public that respected the underground and respected musicians as artists, not just money-making tools, which money couldn’t buy.

But the problem was that this was not a part that could be directly converted into money. It meant that he could not satisfy the conservative aspects.

Hong Kyungsu’s role was clearly significant in the rise of Ohkyung Media’s stock, but who could prove it? His superior was downplaying his achievements.

What was even more frustrating was that people around him only saw Lee Sanghyun as an ordinary high school student. Frankly, Hong Kyungsu might also see a colleague as incompetent if they couldn’t coax a high school student.

But if it was Lee Sanghyun, the story was completely different.

‘Section Chief Hong. Did you apply the withholding tax rate twice? I think the withholding tax rate has already been applied to the payment for the original song and the payment for the arrangement? How can you add them up and do it again? Are you trying to deceive me clumsily? Or are you really stupid and don’t know?’

No matter how much he changed the settlement method in a complicated way or brought up the contract to interpret it in his favor, he wouldn’t bat an eye and would see through the truth.

In addition, according to rumors, Lee Sanghyun’s first action when he came to Ohkyung Media was to turn on a pen-shaped recorder.

It was driving him crazy.

‘Section Chief Hong. Isn’t this ratio wrong? How can the settlement ratio be so high?’

‘That’s because Lee Sanghyun owns the beat copyright and lyrics copyright of the original song Welcome To School. Besides, the main arranger is also…….’

‘I’m really tired of this. Can’t you bring me visible results instead of excuses?’

‘It’s not an excuse…….’

‘Let’s end the meeting here. Everyone worked hard.’

Hong Kyungsu was on the verge of a nervous breakdown and even had alopecia areata [hair loss] due to Oh Yeonju’s pressure.

What was even more infuriating was that Lee Sanghyun was still on a roll, and the executives thought that everything was going well since Oh Yeonju took office as vice president of Ohkyung Media.

No, in reality, things were going well. There were no major problems. But she was very subtly creating flaws in him.

‘Oh Yeonju…… Lee Sanghyun…….’

According to rumors, Oh Yeonju and Lee Sanghyun’s relationship was very bad after some kind of incident.

Oh Yeonju was witnessed ignoring Lee Sanghyun coldly several times, and Lee Sanghyun was also witnessed cursing Oh Yeonju.

So now the time when each of them was a weakness for the other had passed. Rather, Hong Kyungsu was worried that Oh Yeonju would use the contract as an excuse to abandon Lee Sanghyun.

***

Sanghyun listened to the entire song of Just For The Record, which had been guide-recorded, non-stop in the car heading to CBC Broadcasting.

Listening to the song that he had been listening to with the best monitoring equipment with ordinary MP3 and 128kbps sound quality, he felt unexpected sound differences.

‘Did I record this part too subtly? I need to add more color to it.’

One of the common problems of novice engineers was that they did not recognize the damage to the sound source.

The sound source completed in a recording program such as Cubase was bound to undergo at least two damages before it was released to the world.

Once in the process of mixing and mastering through the program and exporting (extraction, commonly known as mixdown).

Once again as the extracted sound source was recorded on a CD or changed to a format such as an MP3 file.

This was also the minimum damage that inevitably occurred, and no one knew how many damages had occurred to the sound source that actually roamed the world.

So it was natural for engineers to keep in mind the deterioration in the final process of releasing the sound source.

This was in line with the fact that the release of 888 Crew’s first full-length album JFTR was entering the final stage.

The songs of JFTR were completely finished.

There was nothing more to fix musically, and no more tracks would be added. The only remaining process was the official recording to improve the quality from the guide recording.

However, 888 Crew was postponing the official recording of JFTR because of one concern. It was the order of the tracks that would make up the album.

‘No matter how I think about it, Straight Writer suits track number 1. Then track number 2 has to change…….’

It may be an unfamiliar part to the Korean public, but the Western public, especially in the United States, thinks very, very highly of the value of an album to an artist.

Even if a musician has mega-hits every time they release a single track and frequents the Billboard charts as if they were their own home, they are still unproven if they don’t have a proper album.

Even if only the single is a hit and the album is bad, they are often ridiculed. Among rappers, Big Sean and J. Cole, who only had hits with featuring and singles, were ridiculed in the early days because their full-length albums were terrible.

This was because the American public accepted music as a concept of possession rather than consumption. They value the complete artistic statement an album represents.

You can’t properly own a single. You can put it on your computer or MP3, but that’s not true ownership.

This importance of albums applies to all musicians, but the message that makes up the album, the track arrangement, the implied meaning, etc., are more strongly required of rappers than vocalists.

Vocalists rarely write all the lyrics for all the songs when making an album. They sometimes make music, but usually, they choose songs or lyrics made by others according to their subjectivity.

But if a rapper included 10 tracks on an album, they wrote the lyrics for all 10 tracks, and if they included 20 tracks, they wrote the lyrics for all 20 tracks.

Naturally, the musician’s unique color was bound to be present in the message the musician was trying to convey and the way they conveyed it.

The public who bought and owned the album also wanted to catch the musician’s intentions and emotional changes by listening to the songs in order from track number 1 to the last track, rather than just listening to a few hit songs.

That was why the 888 Crew members spent days and nights worrying about the track order of the album before going into recording.

Of course, it would be easier to record the tracks individually and combine the order. But rather than that, they wanted to decide the track order first, and then record after clearly recognizing the flow of emotions and changes according to the flow of the song.

Official record.

They had no intention of making their first official record just one of the many songs that pass by.

A masterpiece that leaves a mark on the era.

A classic that never fades over time.

This was the knife that the 888 Crew was holding in their hearts as they prepared for JFTR.

Ohkyung Media’s car arrived at CBC Broadcasting, and soon people poured out of the car.

Sanghyun was not the only one in the car. There were many trainees from Ohkyung Media.

Today, they were scheduled to appear in a documentary being filmed at CBC Broadcasting.

< Verse 28. Jaws > End

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