The Rap Star [EN]: Chapter 224

< Verse 35. City of Angels >

Verse 35. City of Angels

On February 27, 2007, Sanghyun’s plane, which departed from Korea, landed in New York instead of LA.

Of course, he hadn’t intended to launch his music career in New York. The musicians he’d met at Amateur Night had unanimously advised that LA was the best place for a ‘person of color’ to pursue rap music. And Sanghyun wasn’t one to disregard sound advice.

“When is ‘Empire State of Mind’ coming out?”

Arriving in New York, Sanghyun grumbled about his eagerness to hear Jay-Z’s song. The miracle of regression had improved many things, but it also meant he had to wait to listen to songs he was anticipating.

Instead of Jay-Z’s ‘Empire State of Mind,’ Sanghyun listened to Melody’s ‘Theme from New York, New York,’ which he’d heard at Amateur Night, as he left the airport.

Thus, his journey began.

In truth, Sanghyun came to New York not for music, but for travel and experience.

Rap music is a genre often seen as an outlier, even within the broader music and arts landscape.

Quincy Jones called rap music ‘the most revolutionary form of expression in modern Black music,’ but that assessment could easily be broadened from ‘modern Black music’ to ‘modern music’ in general.

So, what makes rap so revolutionary?

The answer, and it can’t be overstated, is ‘lyrics.’

The rapper’s consciousness embedded within the lyrics.

The way that consciousness is structured and conveyed.

The skill in delivering that method.

These elements combine to create rap.

So, the beginning of rap was lyrics, and the end is also lyrics.

To put it another way, if the rapper’s consciousness within the lyrics doesn’t resonate, then the rap is no different from a castle built on sand.

That’s why Sanghyun started traveling instead of immediately making music. He wanted to build his rap on solid ground, not shifting sand.

There was no need to rush, and nothing to be overly concerned about.

He occasionally thought about the people he’d left behind in Korea, but it was more out of curiosity than worry.

‘I wonder if everyone is doing well. I hope Shin Junhyung isn’t causing Sangmi any trouble?’

Starting in New York, Sanghyun traveled across the United States, encountering diverse people living under the 13 stripes and 50 stars [the American flag]. He observed their lives, shared their stories, and forged connections.

He usually traveled by plane, but he also frequently used the Megabus (a budget-friendly bus service for interstate travel in the US) or trains.

“Hello.”

“Hi.”

“Where are you headed?”

Airplanes, buses, and trains were filled with a wide array of people living their own lives. Sanghyun found a lot of inspiration in talking to them.

In this way, his sand was gradually solidifying, turning into firm ground.

Sanghyun’s travels avoided the word ‘plan’ and were carried out spontaneously and impulsively.

There was no fixed destination or route.

The reason he went to New Orleans after enjoying New York was because of a captivating jazz performance he happened to hear in a record store.

Just looking at the order in which he moved from New Orleans to Detroit-Las Vegas-Chicago, you could see how impulsively Sanghyun made his decisions.

Las Vegas is geographically distant, while Detroit and Chicago are relatively close.

So, if you wanted to visit Detroit, Las Vegas, and Chicago, traveling from Detroit-Chicago-Las Vegas would be much more cost-effective.

It wasn’t that Sanghyun had so much money that he chose such an inefficient route.

He simply spent a few weeks in Detroit and then felt like going to Las Vegas, and after seeing the musical ‘Chicago’ in Las Vegas, he was inspired to visit Chicago.

Sanghyun had deeply connected with Standard’s ‘Total Inspiration Theory’ while consistently creating , , and <56 JFTR> in Korea.

The Total Inspiration Theory was a concept born from Standard’s peculiar concern that ‘the total amount of inspiration a person can receive in their lifetime is finite.’

And Sanghyun began to share the same worry as Standard while working on <56 JFTR>.

Because he felt no particular struggle in coming up with the song’s flow, writing lyrics, and expressing them through rap. It’s not that he was careless, but it was also true that he didn’t feel the need to desperately push musical boundaries or conventions.

An album created too effortlessly, like flowing water.

And the immense success it achieved.

As a result, Sanghyun worried that the way he made 56 JFTR was his final, complete form, and that he might not be able to receive new kinds of inspiration anymore.

However, Sanghyun discarded these worries while traveling.

Because the inspiration that filled him every moment, every hour, was overwhelming.

And the moment he could properly express this inspiration in the English language, Sanghyun’s journey would end.

Traveling through so many cities, he inevitably experienced various incidents.

In Las Vegas, he booked a hotel, but he couldn’t enter the casino because he wasn’t twenty-one, the legal gambling age in the US. In Chicago, he was caught on the kiss cam with the woman next to him while watching a Chicago Cubs game, leading to an embarrassing moment.

In New Orleans, he met his first fan who recognized Sanghyun from ‘The way we live’ music video.

“Oh my god! Fivesix! I really enjoyed your rap!”

The thing was, this fan, named Carter, was a fairly well-known bass player in New Orleans.

Thanks to this, Sanghyun had to participate in Carter’s pub performance and rap.

Although it’s described as semi-forced, Sanghyun would never do something he genuinely disliked. It was a pretty fun experience, except for the fact that he was a bit embarrassed because he didn’t have many English rap songs in his repertoire.

In fact, Carter was an exception; almost no one in the United States recognized Sanghyun.

There were fewer than 10 people in total, and even then, 2 of them were New York citizens who remembered Sanghyun not from ‘The way we live’ but from Amateur Night.

Just as Asians don’t easily distinguish between white or black people, Americans also didn’t seem to immediately recognize Asians.

However, it wasn’t just that few people recognized Sanghyun.

Tourists visiting from Korea recognized Sanghyun even in passing, and sometimes Japanese tourists recognized him. There was also one person who might have been Chinese or Taiwanese.

Returning from the life of a celebrity who received attention for every move to the life of a free ordinary person felt very liberating at first.

But at some point, he became determined.

That was the determination to make himself known throughout the United States.

‘I really want to rap.’

Sanghyun felt a strong urge in the Great Sand Dunes of Colorado.

What filled his body as he stood in the vast desert, with the front, back, left, right, and even the sky wide open, was an overwhelming desire.

That night, Sanghyun spoke in English in his dream for the first time.

His face was full of smiles when he woke up. He loved Korean so much, but it was necessary to follow the conventions of the stage he would be on in the future.

Thus, Sanghyun ended his six-month journey and headed to LA.

It was the first day of October when Sanghyun suddenly burst into Standard’s house.

***

“What’s with this yellow black?”

That was what Standard said when he first saw Sanghyun.

Sanghyun, who tilted his head at the unfamiliar term ‘yellow black,’ soon realized that he was referring to his tanned skin.

He had been traveling around the United States from February to September, and it seemed that his face had gotten very tanned without him even realizing it.

“Am I that tanned?”

“Where the hell have you been wandering around? Were you in the desert or something?”

“Everywhere in America you can imagine. I’ve been to the desert, of course.”

“I thought you were deliberately tanning with the determination to conquer Black music.”

Sanghyun chuckled at Standard’s joke.

“It’s a bit awkward, but this is better. Actually, you used to look too pampered. Like a rookie.”

“Would you prefer to call it nobility?”

“Your speech [Korean: 말투, *mal-tu*] has gotten better too. Hmm, it feels like you’ve gone from a model private school student to a troublemaker.”

“I’ll be better at English than you, though?”

“I may not know all the words, but I understand the feeling. And I’m not a singer, am I? My mouth is just a speaker, and my tongue is an MPC [Music Production Controller].”

While traveling, Sanghyun realized that his speech sounded cheesy to Americans.

To borrow the expression of someone he met at a guesthouse, it was as if he had only updated the vocabulary of a ‘classic movie dialogue about a romance in an upper-class aristocratic family in the 19th century.’

‘Haha, Kyungyi. Stop right there. You’ll have to be prepared to be punished if I catch you.’

Sanghyun recalled lines he had seen in Korean films from the 80s and understood how his speech was being perceived.

Melody and Standard had mentioned it before, but he had dismissed it as a personal feeling, and he didn’t realize that so many Americans would say the same thing.

In the past, Sanghyun had worked hard to adopt a formal and professional speaking style as the president of a company that dealt with Taiwanese-Americans. He had even hired a tutor for advanced conversation.

After that, it seemed that his speech had changed a bit strangely while spending a lot of time with Asian Americans.

Anyway, he had corrected it significantly now, and no one had mentioned Sanghyun’s speech for the last two months of his trip.

Rather, there were women who said it was sexy because it was a unique accent.

“So, did you enjoy your trip?”

“Aside from when I’m making music, it was the best time of my life.”

“Well, I also traveled to California when I first came to America, and it was amazing. I didn’t know a Danish guy would be so popular.”

“You’re kidding me.”

“Damn it, you’re not falling for it. Just sit there for a second. I’ll save the session and come back. I was working.”

Standard went into the room, and Sanghyun drank a Budweiser on the creaky sofa and looked around Standard’s house.

He heard that he lived with a friend, but strangely, there was no sign of his friend.

‘It’s so old.’

As he had heard, Standard’s studio and house were more shabby and old than he had imagined.

He had made quite a bit of money since working with KRS-One, but LA was such an expensive place that he seemed to be just getting by.

Or maybe he had money but couldn’t find a suitable place to live and make music at the same time. He knew that LA also had a crazy population density.

Standard spoke to Sanghyun, who was sitting on a cheap yellow vinyl sofa and counting the patterns on the wallpaper, which was either orange or yellow.

“What are you doing?”

“Looking around the house.”

“The house is a bit old.”

“The studio is good enough. But didn’t you say you lived with a friend?”

“Um…….”

Standard didn’t answer Sanghyun’s question, but instead asked a question.

“Why don’t you carry a cell phone?”

“I didn’t want to carry a cell phone while traveling. I have to buy one now, though. But didn’t I call you quite often?”

“The most recent call was two months ago.”

“Was it?”

“You don’t read your emails either. You would have become an LA stray if you were any later.”

“LA stray?”

When Sanghyun made a puzzled expression, Standard said.

“I have to go back to Denmark. It’ll probably take at least a year.”

“What? Why?”

“My father is a bit sick. My sister called me yesterday, and he has cancer. It seems serious.”

Sanghyun was momentarily speechless.

He was about to ask what kind of cancer it was, what stage it was, and whether he was having surgery, but he realized that those things weren’t important.

“Stay strong. He’ll be okay.”

“Thanks. I have to go for now. By the way, it won’t be easy to settle down in LA without me…….”

Sanghyun shrugged at Standard’s concern.

It would be nice if he could get help from Standard, but if he couldn’t settle down without it, there was no reason for him to come to America.

< Verse 35. City of Angels > End

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