The Rap Star [EN]: Chapter 218

< Verse 33. Hit Song >

***

-Wow, KRS-One finally dropped something killer.

-Let’s not jump to conclusions about it being killer yet; only one song has been pre-released. But from the perspective of someone who loves hip-hop culture, this kind of attempt is amazing and should be welcomed. Honestly, I barely know British hip-hop, so when else would I listen to rap in French or Korean?

-Parker isn’t called ‘teacher’ for nothing. He cares more about the culture than his personal gain.

-Still, his last album was trash.

-Maybe he loves the culture so much that he wanted to give other rappers a chance…?

-More importantly, what did everyone think? In my opinion, it goes ‘US-Korea-UK-France-Japan’ in that order. But the UK, Korea, and the US are down to personal preference. All three are incredibly skilled.

-Wow! I don’t want to rank their skills. This project is just awesome. All five rappers have their own unique charm.

-Well, maybe it’s because I can understand the language, but I think KRS-One and Skepta are the best. Among the languages I don’t know, I like Korean the most.

-Why are these chink bastards doing black music? Rap is music that contains the emotions of black people!

-I’m amazed by your ignorance in thinking that the ‘black’ in black music refers to the current consumer base. Here, black simply refers to the origin of the genre. Just like early jazz was called New Orleans music.

-More importantly, the Korean rap is really killer, isn’t it? I can’t understand the pronunciation system, but I feel like the rapper is using the language properly. I also like that he uses English in appropriate parts to convey the message.

-KRS-One should have recruited a Turkish rapper. I like listening to songs from other countries, and Turkish rap is really cool.

-The Japanese rapper’s pronunciation feels a bit slurred.

-I don’t really like the feel of Korean. But I know this rapper is very talented. I think French feels the best.

-I was surprised when I first heard the Korean rap. The word ‘Douche’ came out so much, lol. But it’s good.

-That’s not Dush, it’s pronounced Dosi. It means ‘City’. Strictly speaking, it’s closer to Metropolis.

-Is the person above Korean? How popular is the musician 56 in Korea? He looks very young.

-I don’t know. He must have debuted after I left Korea. But when I asked my friends in Korea, they said that 888 Crew’s album was the best-selling Korean rap album.

-Really? Is he a diamond (selling over 10 million copies) rapper?

-No way. The best-selling single album in Korea only went triple platinum (3 million copies).

-But 888 Crew is 56’s team, right? Are all these guys’ names numbers? Does that mean if you add up all the team members’ names, it equals 888?

-What if one of them dies? They’d have to change the team name.

-People don’t die easily in Korea.

-?? Is it the land of immortality?

-No, that’s not what I mean, lol. You said ‘die’ as in rappers getting shot or dying from drug overdoses or something. Guns are banned in Korea and drugs are strictly controlled, so that kind of thing doesn’t happen.

-Anyway, ‘Eight hundred eighty eight’ in Korean is ‘far far far’, right?

-The Far-Outer line was so good. I actually had a aversion to rapping in languages other than English, but after hearing that intro, I wanted to listen to 56’s rap.

-If you want to listen to other songs by the musician 56, go to the Korea Hiphop YouTube channel. There are some pretty good songs there. With subtitles too.

-More importantly, I like the way that Japanese girl looks.

-But that Japanese girl probably doesn’t like the way you look.

-You son of a bitch.

Most hip-hop fans in the US and UK showed similar reactions. They liked the raps of KRS-One and Skepta, who use English, the most, and among other languages, they liked Sanghyun’s rap the most.

France, of course, liked French rap the most, followed by the US or Korea.

Basically, *The way we live* had the meaning of ‘collaboration of rappers from all over the world’, and this made hip-hop fans lenient with the language barrier.

Thanks to this, Sanghyun’s rap was able to receive quite a bit of attention. The fact that language isn’t a big problem for listeners who heavily enjoy hip-hop, as long as there are translations, also played a part.

But the atmosphere was a little different in Japan.

-The Korean rapper imitated American hip-hop too much. It’s okay to listen to, but there’s no originality at all? On the other hand, Hime has some shortcomings in terms of skill, but I think she captured the unique flavor of Japanese hip-hop well.

-Originally, Korea has an ideology of wanting to be dominated by culturally advanced countries.

-But why did Hime work on it? Hime isn’t the best rapper in Japan.

-Think about which agency Hime belongs to.

-Ah… If it’s Sony Music, it wouldn’t be too difficult to recruit KRS-One.

-I wish a better rapper had gone as a representative of Japan. Hime’s verse is a bit disappointing.

-Still, Hime did well too. Much better than the Joseonjin.

-Do you really think so? Really? No matter how patriotic you are, the difference is too big…

-I’m a little embarrassed looking at the comments right now. It’s frustrating, but the Korean did very well, and Hime was just okay.

-Two Koreans pretending to be Japanese have appeared.

Japanese netizens belittled Sanghyun’s rap.

Of course, there were many netizens who didn’t, but in terms of overall numbers, they were only a minority.

As this happened, Korean media companies, especially internet news reporters, couldn’t help but be excited.

-‘Korean rap is very attractive.’ Lee Sanghyun recognized in the home of hip-hop.

-What are the reactions of Japanese netizens to *The way we live*?

The reporters began to تحریکly translate the reactions of Japanese netizens and American netizens, and began to drive it into a 56 VS Hime structure.

In fact, Sanghyun and Hime became quite close in New York, and they are still in contact and have even made a collaboration promise.

As provocative articles continued to pour out day after day, the atmosphere in Korea had somehow begun to treat Sanghyun like a rapper representing Korea.

In particular, after the comment from Nas, another king of New York, that atmosphere completely solidified.

-I have always respected KRS. His *The way we live* is a project with great meaning, and the raps of the participants gave me great inspiration.

This also made me think a lot about the connection between YouTube and rap videos. As RUN DMC showed, hip-hop and video art are bound to be closely related.

Personally, I enjoyed listening to Korean and French rap.

This was Nas’s lip service, who is close to KRS-One and received a request from YouTube, but it was also a somewhat sincere statement.

JFTR’s 11th track, National Team.

*National Team* was a track created with the 10th track as the present and hoping for the near future, but somehow Sanghyun had become a real national representative.

Sanghyun, who had been out of the limelight for the past few months, was once again the center of attention.

Numerous reporters came to Seoyul High School and asked questions such as, ‘What do you think of Hime’s rap?’ and ‘What place do you think you are in *The way we live*?’

Although he didn’t answer, Sanghyun thought he was number one, of course.

This was the pride that musicians couldn’t help but have, or rather, had to have.

It was the same reason he competed with the Stars Records members over who was the best verse in *Forecast*.

As the interest in Sanghyun, which had been quiet for a while, rose as much as it could, intertwined with living legends such as KRS-One and Nas, the bizarre phenomenon of 56 JFTR rising back up the charts occurred.

In addition, as it became known that the gayageum [Korean zither] was used in the beat of *The way we live*, and that Standard made the beat, Standard’s popularity soared among Korean hip-hop fans.

The topic of *The way we live* made Korean pop music officials feel empty.

Because even with <56 JFTR>, a track released in the United States was becoming a hot topic because of Lee Sanghyun.

‘No matter how strong black music is, autumn is still for ballads.’

The agencies that released ballads to welcome autumn with this thought couldn’t help but feel frustrated.

What’s the point of doing promotions to death? A natural disaster-like guy keeps overturning the *판* [pan; the game board or scene, meaning the established order or market].

Cha Inhyun’s reaction was similar.

The video clip of *The way we live* was released on the day that Joo Yohan’s was released, so the album didn’t receive as much attention as expected.

‘He’s blocking my path so fiercely.’

Of course, it wasn’t that *Coffee* wasn’t successful.

Joo Yohan was still Joo Yohan, and his fandom was still strong. However, he was disappointed that he was only receiving about 50% of the attention he could have received 100% because of Lee Sanghyun.

The songs on *Coffee* were lining up on the charts, and fans who remembered the singer Joo Yohan were giving him a thumbs up, saying it was the return of the king. He didn’t reach number one in the first week of the album’s release, but he did reach number one from the following week.

Cha Inhyun felt great joy in the fact that he had created a number one song. L&S friends, who he had contacted after a long time, also sent their sincere congratulations.

In fact, Joo Yohan wasn’t an incredibly good singer.

Instead, he had a very comfortable voice, a mid-low tone that women liked, and a high and clear high note that could fill the highlights sufficiently.

As a result, Joo Yohan was evaluated as a singer who received a lot of ‘song power’.

If the song was good, he could make it a hit, but if the song was bad, it wouldn’t go beyond bad.

Therefore, there were many predictions in the industry that Joo Yohan’s album was likely to fail in the current era of black music’s dominance.

However, Joo Yohan’s *Coffee* overturned all expectations and succeeded beautifully. Although the topicality was lower due to *The way we live*, it was definitely number one if you only thought about it within the Korean music industry.

The number one contributor to this success was the songs on *Coffee*, which maximized Joo Yohan’s charm while being full of sophisticated black music vibes.

“Hey, find out who made Joo Yohan’s album.”

“Isn’t it obviously an Ohkyung Media composer?”

“Did I ask you something you can answer while sitting down? I’m telling you to find out how much is left on the contract, and whether it’s an outsourced job, even though it’s unlikely!”

Thanks to this, interest in Cha Inhyun, who made Joo Yohan’s album, increased in the industry, and his recognition naturally increased as well.

As *Coffee*’s title song, ‘You’re All I Need’, recorded number one on the three major broadcasting stations for two weeks, and the follow-up song, ‘Wiper’, was nominated for number one, Cha Inhyun’s mini-album was released.

As industry interest in Cha Inhyun increased, Ohkyung Media produced a 5-track mini-album to appease Cha Inhyun, who had suffered as a trainee.

All five songs on the album were composed and written by Cha Inhyun himself. No, to be precise, it was Cha Inhyun who stole Sanghyun’s songs and registered them.

“Hello! 8 PM Station listeners! This is Park Hyeyeon, the face genius actress from Chungmuro [Korean film district]!

“Hello. This is Joo Yohan, returning to the stage after a long time.”

“Hello. I’m Cha Inhyun, a rookie composer and singer.”

Ohkyung Media judged that Cha Inhyun’s album was competitive enough. They thought it would be difficult to achieve a mega-hit, but they thought a decent hit was possible.

Thanks to this, Cha Inhyun was able to receive typical ‘rookie push’, such as appearing on the radio with Joo Yohan.

These were fantastic days for Cha Inhyun.

Joo Yohan’s *Coffee* continued to succeed smoothly, and his own album, *Under dog*, was also able to have a successful debut with the support of enthusiasts and the public.

In November, he also performed as the opening guest for Joo Yohan’s national tour concert.

At the moment when everything seemed perfect.

What broke that moment was an international lawsuit that arrived at Ohkyung Media’s legal team.

“What is this? Koch Records? The address is… New York?”

“That’s KRS-One’s label, which is hot these days.”

“What? Why is KRS-One’s label suing Ohkyung Media? Is it because of Lee Sanghyun, who they collaborated with?”

“We’re currently investigating, but it’s not because of Lee Sanghyun. It’s… because of Joo Yohan and Cha Inhyun.”

“What? Joo Yohan? Cha Inhyun? What nonsense is that! What are the charges?”

“Copyright infringement.”

“Plagiarism?”

“We’re looking into it now, but it’s not plagiarism, it’s illegal reproduction for profit.”

“What?”