The Rap Star [EN]: Chapter 193

< Verse 29. Just For The Record >

It was also an expression of confidence that the music of 888 Crew could perfectly match any beat.

This confidence was evident in today’s showcase. Minho’s ‘Bootleg Series Remix Live Performance’ was chosen as the second performance of the showcase.

“You guys have a sense of what I’m about to do, right?”

Minho, pushing back his chair, stood up and raised his right hand high.

Both hands of the audience were raised in response.

A roar erupted.

“Bootleg Remix! Let’s Get it!”

With Minho’s energetic shout to take charge of the second performance, the turntable scratch of ‘Ei, Ei, Ei, Eight That Crew!’ signaled the start of the track.

Soon after, a heavy drum line and New Orleans-style jazz sampling began to form the backbone of an attractive 80s old-school beat.

“Put`em up-! Put`em up-!”

-Put`em up!

“Put`em up-! Put`em up-!”

-Put`em up!

The audience followed Minho’s lead, raising their hands and shouting. It was hard to believe that these were the same audience members who had quietly enjoyed La Mancha; the showcase venue was now filled with enthusiastic shouts.

Against the backdrop of the audience’s cheers and the heavy drum line, Minho, with his headset tilted, swayed his whole body.

At the same time, the 888 Crew members also actively rode the beat and ran around on the stage.

Sanghyun thought that there was a switch in the 888 Crew members.

How could Minho, who was now on stage, be seen as the same person who was teased as Woo Minhogu due to his chronic lack of confidence?

‘Well, I have a switch too.’

Sanghyun smiled and shook his shoulders wildly.

It was Inhyuk’s trademark, but it had become a basic gesture for the 888 Crew members.

Gwangju Up, Coffee Machine, Dressing Room, Run This Town…….

Every time Minho’s arms and shoulders shook, the meticulously practiced DJ play was carried out, and a new dish popped out using the songs of the Bootleg Series as ingredients.

This is the dressing room! Dressing room! (Walk This Way!)

This is the dressing room! Dressing room! (From The Lonely Road!)

-Kyaaaaa!

-This is the dressing room!

-WALK THIS WAY!!

The audience’s cheers were adding flavor to Minho’s cooking.

In fact, when he first joined the 888 Crew, Minho’s role and position were ambiguous.

To put it nicely, his talents spanned a wide range of fields; to put it bluntly, he wasn’t an expert in any one field. Design art, video director, DJ, produce, etc., there was nothing he didn’t handle.

But now the 888 Crew had become a more advanced and more professional group.

Just as they hired Dream Entertainment for stage production, they were now able to hire experts for Triple Eight goods production and music video making.

It’s a memory they laugh about, but they would no longer be assembling and packaging albums by hand to lower costs.

But producing was different.

They could explain the crew members’ intentions and desired sounds to outside producers and hire appropriate experts. However, there were things that could never be known unless they directly witnessed the moments when the 888 Crew members’ inspirations collided fiercely and noble impulses sprang up.

That’s why, starting with JFTR [Just For The Record], Minho’s position became limited to producing. The designer who designed the music of 888 Crew was Woo Minho, no matter what anyone said.

The first skit of JFTR, Bootleg Series Remix, was a track that revealed Minho’s producing skills to the world.

-Kyaaaaa!

-Woo Minho! Woo Minho!

People were screaming like crazy.

Music and lyrics that they knew well and could sing along to, but a remix track placed on a completely different and fresh sound.

Just like the reason why so many audition programs and ‘I Am a Singer’-like music programs were popular, it was always fun to see a favorite song reborn in a new way.

Uh! Swag~ Uh! Uh! Swag~ (Gwangju UP!)

Uh! Swag~ Uh! Uh! Swag~ (I daydreamer!)

Hit songs were cleverly mixed, and people continued to be excited.

At the center of it all was Minho’s turntable, spinning in circles.

***

The 888 Crew’s showcase was conducted spontaneously and impulsively according to Park Hye-yeon’s progress, but broadly speaking, it had a certain flow.

The beginning of that flow was to newly determine the track to perform. After the first song was conducted impulsively, the existing cue sheet was blank.

The seven 888 Crew members and Park Hye-yeon laughed and chatted, sharing stories on stage. As mentioned earlier, it was more like friends having a house party with hip-hop music than a showcase to show to someone.

As a result, the audience asked questions without hesitation, and those questions became clues to determining the track.

There were times when sensitive questions came up, but because they were never asked with malice, the 888 Crew members’ answers were truthful.

“Didn’t you really know that making ‘F*ck the Show Biz’ would become an issue marketing [a marketing strategy that uses controversy to generate attention]?”

To the question from a male fan who appeared to be in his mid-20s, Sanghyun, the owner of F*ck the Show Biz, paused for a moment before opening his mouth.

“I knew it would become noise and an issue. It’s in the lyrics of the song. ‘I’ll even inherit the f*cking noise marketing.’ But I didn’t know it would become such a big topic. Actually, it’s a natural thing. Looking at the results, it became a big topic among hip-hop fans, Homi’s performance live became a topic, and after the AIMMF [Asia-Pacific Independent Music Market Fair] performance, it became a national topic in conjunction with the Show Biz merger, but honestly, who could have predicted this?”

Sanghyun continued.

“The important thing is that there were no marketing elements in my motivation when I made this song. Only 100% anger. It was a track made to express that.”

“Then are you grateful to Show Biz? No, the expression ‘grateful’ is a bit strange, but do you think you had the opportunity to rise thanks to Show Biz?”

“I have similar thoughts. But the people who can really use the word ‘thanks to’ are not Show Biz, but the people who helped create F*ck the Show Biz. Junhyung, who edited the beat, and Minsik hyung of L&S, Hayeon, who helped with the mixing, Sangmi, who cheered me on, and Bae Ga hyung, who boldly gave me a spot at Homi’s performance, etc. Thanks to those people, the song could be born, and I was able to overcome Show Biz’s f*cked up actions. Without this help, Show Biz’s interview manipulation could have been a crisis that could have eliminated the 888 Crew.”

As he spoke, Sanghyun smiled, recalling the time when he made F*ck the Show Biz. At that time, he was really angry, and that anger remained unchanged, but the image of the 888 Crew gathered in a circle in the studio, expressing their anger, remained in a corner of his memory.

Not just F*ck the Show Biz.

He had no intention of denying, and could not deny, that the 888 Crew had come this far thanks to the help of many people.

At that moment, Sanghyun wanted to let the audience know that there was a track on JFTR that accurately expressed his thoughts.

Just For The Record Track 3

Hitchhiking (Hitch, High, King)

Hitchhiking was a title that changed the meaning of the word Hitchhiking, which means getting a ride, with a homonym.

The 888 Crew had Hitch(hitched: to latch onto) many things to reach its current position.

They had hitched a ride on favors, like L&S8’s performance, and they had hitched a ride on issues, like Club Homi’s performance. The performance at the Mudeung Stadium was a performance that they were able to hitch a ride on thanks to the luck that ‘Gwangju’ and ‘Gwangsu’ sounded similar.

Of course, there was a premise that they could hitch all of these things because their music was attractive.

A recollection of the many hitches that would elevate them (High) and put them in the king’s seat (King).

That was the third track on this album, Hitchhiking.

“Junhyung. Hitchhiking?”

At Sanghyun’s sudden question, Junhyung nodded. Junhyung had already expected that Sanghyun would choose Hitchhiking.

In that way, Sanghyun and Junhyung’s duo song, Hitchhiking, began without any prior work. The act of exciting people and explaining the meaning of the song was sufficient in terms of lyrics and flow.

L&S, Run This Town, Show Biz, World D. Fes [World DJ Festival]

Stars, Homi, Gwangsu Up & Code Name

Bootleg, 0.5 & Official, Domestic Brand

Triple Eight, Hip Hop the Vibe, Still on the Beat

The chorus, which listed their ‘transfer stations’ that they had gone through, slowly echoed.

A flow that was like riding a Viking that went up and down.

Expressing this flow was the perfect harmony between Junhyung and Sanghyun.

Junhyung’s cutting low tone and Sanghyun’s high tone, which was optimized for delivery, began to mix without even a 0.1 second error.

The meeting of the two voices, as if they were overlapped by a machine, created a third voice, and that soon led to the audience’s expectations.

The interesting thing was that there was a feeling of longing for ‘stars’ in these expectations, but more than that, there was a greater curiosity about another story that ‘friends’ would tell.

The 888 Crew’s fans had always liked the stories in their raps as much as their rap skills. But today’s fans seemed to be particularly focused on the lyrics and stories.

As a result, there was a big response at the beginning of the performance, the repeated chorus, and the ending, but during the verses, everyone was just pricking up their ears.

But the 888 Crew was not at all dissatisfied with this atmosphere. No, far from being dissatisfied, it was an atmosphere like a blessing to them, who had become rappers because they had so much to say.

In that way, the 888 Crew’s showcase was proceeding differently from a typical showcase, but successfully.

***

Han Yuseok was a huge hip-hop mania, and of course, he bought the 888 Crew’s Official Bootleg as soon as it was released. He bought three copies, one for storage, one for opening, and one for investment.

‘Aren’t I feeding the 888 Crew?’

Han Yuseok had such thoughts in a slightly joking manner, but seven months later, it was the 888 Crew that fed him. A two-person invitation to the 888 Crew showcase flew to him, who was frantically worried about what to do for his girlfriend’s 2nd anniversary.

Thanks to that, Han Yuseok was now able to enjoy the happiness of enjoying the 888 Crew’s stage while holding his girlfriend’s hand tightly.

The 888 Crew’s stage, which he had only seen on TV, was much better than he had expected, and when he glanced at his girlfriend’s expression, she seemed to be enjoying it even more.

It was also a small pleasure to see his girlfriend’s expression changing from moment to moment, even though she had said that she didn’t like hip-hop because it was too noisy, even when he gave her MP3s to listen to.

‘Ah, this is amazing.’

The showcase was so fun.

The main performances were enjoyable, but the 888 Crew members’ jokes (?) were as enjoyable as the performances. In addition, Park Hye-yeon’s hosting skills were also smooth.

However, there was only one thing that bothered him, and that was the small sound of bottles colliding.

-Clang!

‘Isn’t that going to break?’

Han Yuseok secretly glanced at the man sitting next to him.

The man sitting next to him, who appeared to be in his late 20s to early 30s, had a face that made him realize the saying that dark circles went down to his chin. In addition, his eyes were so hollow that he seemed to be distracted by another world. When he looked closely, his eyes were also strange.

-Clang.

He looked neat in himself, but when he looked at his overall appearance, he looked like some kind of drug addict.

What kept moving his assumptions to the side of certainty was the ‘Bacchus’ [South Korean energy drink] that the man was drinking.

The man had been taking something out of the sports bag he had brought in and drinking it since he sat down in the showcase hall. Constantly.

The way he slowly sucked on the not-so-big Bacchus bottle little by little, and the trembling hands as he put the empty bottle down in his sports bag were very suspicious.

‘Is it really drugs?’

Han Yuseok seriously recalled the drug reporting phone number.

But Chae Daehan was just soothing his tired body with Bacchus, completely unaware of the strange suspicion he was receiving from someone.

< Verse 29. Just For The Record > End

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