The Rap Star [EN]: Chapter 25

< Verse 2. Gotta Move >

Sanghyun was led by Miju to a park on the outskirts of the city. The park, named Geumnamno Park, was hosting an event organized by Gwangju City Hall.

‘Was this on purpose, not just a coincidence?’ Sanghyun wondered.

The event was a fundraiser for the visually impaired, with a fairly large stage set up for various performance teams.

Bands, dance groups, singers, magicians, and more – a diverse range of acts filled the lineup.

“How about this team?” Miju asked.

“Not really…” Sanghyun replied.

Miju and Sanghyun sat on a bench on the second level of Geumnamno Park, watching the performances.

“Then how about that team?”

“Hmm, they’re good.”

“What about the team that just finished dancing?”

“I don’t know much about dance…”

“Just tell me what you feel.”

“Um… they were all good.”

“Why?”

At Miju’s question, Sanghyun hesitated before answering.

“I don’t know? They just looked good.”

“Then do you think they made the dance just to look good?”

“No? They must have had some intention, right?”

“What intention?”

Only then did Sanghyun realize that Miju’s question was an extension of the advice he received from Mr. Hong of Sejong Instruments.

He didn’t feel bad about it.

He didn’t know Miju well, but he knew she played the piano at a fairly famous music college. If that was the case, she had probably played the piano her whole life, and even though their fields were different, Sanghyun was ready to take her advice.

“Um… the intention to entertain the audience?”

Miju pondered for quite a while after hearing Sanghyun’s answer. By the time Sanghyun had finished watching the next performance team’s stage, Miju spoke.

“You know I major in piano, right?”

“Yes.”

“I first played the piano when I was five. And I’ve been playing it ever since. So, I’ve been playing the piano for 17 years.”

That’s an incredibly long time. He couldn’t imagine what it felt like to dedicate himself to one thing for 17 years.

“I’ve seen countless talented people during that time. Especially when I was preparing for college entrance exams, there were times when it felt like someone who had been playing for about 2 years was better than me who had been playing for 14 years.”

“I think I know what you mean.”

“But regardless of talent, I can tell ‘this person will play the piano for a long time, or they’ll quit soon.’ I have my own way of classifying who will be my rival and who will just pass by the piano.”

Sanghyun became interested in Miju’s words.

“How?”

“Wrists.”

“Wrists?”

“Just like fingering is important in guitar, wrists are very important in piano. The position of the wrist shouldn’t be too high or too low. But the process of practicing wrist control is so tedious and repetitive.”

Each pianist may have different views and methods, but the method Miju learned was to place a pen under her wrist while playing the piano.

If the wrist went down too much, the pen would poke her, and the area around her wrist would be covered in ink.

“It’s a really boring and tedious process. Correcting your posture while repeating a piece you can play with your eyes closed hundreds of times. But as far as I’ve seen, people who will play the piano for a long time even enjoy this.”

They find joy in the decreasing amount of ink on their wrists and enjoy playing the same song hundreds of times.

“That’s the kind of person who does art, as far as I know.”

“…”

“What were those kids thinking when they made that dance earlier? Of course, they made it to have fun themselves. They just put together the moves they’re best at. They weren’t thinking about the audience or anything like that.”

Sanghyun was silent. He was beginning to understand the meaning of what Mr. Hong and Miju were telling him. A topic about art.

As Sanghyun was deep in thought, Miju suddenly got up from the bench and pulled Sanghyun along.

“Come on.”

“Yes? Where are we going?”

“What else would we do here?”

“…?”

“We’re going to perform.”

While Sanghyun was making a bewildered expression, unable to understand the situation, Miju approached the staff of the performance with her usual decisiveness.

Miju had a conversation with the staff and quickly returned to Sanghyun. Sanghyun thought the conversation hadn’t gone well, but that was not the case at all.

“Next, it’s our turn next. What song are you going to do?”

“Yes?!”

“Why are you so surprised? Next, you and I are going on stage!”

“How did you get a performance so easily?”

“Feminine charm.”

“…”

“What’s with that look?”

At Sanghyun’s distrustful expression, Miju revealed the truth.

“The PD [Production Director] who’s handling the sound right now used to be in a band with me. I contacted him in advance this morning.”

“What, is this a parachute appointment [getting a position through connections]?”

“Who cares?”

Miju seemed excited. She had a playful look on her face, like she was preparing a surprise party.

In fact, Miju was thinking about the harmony of keyboard and rap in Run This Town. The harmony she ideally envisioned.

“But there’s no beat, nothing’s prepared?”

“I’m here. Just tell me. I can play almost anything on the keyboard.”

When Sanghyun hesitated, Miju stared straight at Sanghyun and asked.

“You don’t want to perform?”

Sanghyun asked himself. Do I not want to perform right now? No, not at all. He wanted to perform. To be honest, he had wanted to perform from the moment he saw the band and dance team. He wanted to tell the audience his story.

“No. I want to.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

Sanghyun nodded. He wasn’t prepared, but he wanted to do it. Really.

“I don’t know much about hip-hop, but if you let me hear what’s on your MP3, I can play most of it.”

“Even songs with no melody and only drum-like percussion?”

“Oh? That’s a bit difficult…”

Sanghyun chuckled at Miju’s expression.

There was a song that immediately came to mind when he thought of rap with piano. It was Junhyung’s signature song, ‘Alone at Night’.

‘Alone at Night’ was the only song Junhyung, who had been active in the underground for over a decade, had ever charted. It was incredibly popular at the time. Although he didn’t appear, he had even received offers to appear on public broadcast music shows.

However, Sanghyun couldn’t sing this song. If he sang it now, it would only be stealing Junhyung’s hit song.

‘What should I sing?’

He searched through his MP3 playlist, but if necessary, he could sing ‘Walk This Way’ again.

Then a song caught his eye.

2Pac (Feat. Nas, J. Phoenix) – Thugz Mansion

“Would you like to listen to this once? It’s a song played only with acoustic guitar?”

Miju silently put the earphones in her ears. After concentrating on the song for a while, Miju’s expression changed. Then she flicked her wrist as if thinking about something.

“Wow, how do you know a song like this?”

Sanghyun smiled at Miju’s exclamation as she took out the earphones. It was perhaps a natural reaction.

‘Thugz Mansion’ was a song included in Tupac’s posthumous album, who died in 1996.

The album was released in 2002, a full six years later.

However, this album topped the Billboard Hot Rap/R&B chart, ranked 2nd on the Billboard 200, and the single ‘Thugz Mansion’ reached 4th on the Billboard Hot Rap Songs. In terms of album sales, 3 million copies were sold in the first week alone.

It was hard to believe that an album released 6 years after a musician’s death would dominate the Billboard charts.

Tupac was that great of a musician.

“Can you play it on the keyboard?”

“I can’t get the exact same sound as the acoustic guitar, but the keyboard might have its own flavor.”

“Okay. Let’s do this.”

“Do you have the lyrics memorized?”

“I have about five foreign raps memorized, and this is one of them.”

As of 2005, Sanghyun had two released raps and three unreleased raps memorized.

Of course, if you include domestic songs, he had many songs memorized, including Junhyung’s raps.

“This song has a loop format. I’ll loop it once and then give you a signal with ‘tan tantan’. Then you rap.”

“I wonder if I can catch the signal?”

“You’ll know when you hear it. So, get used to the speed at first. It’ll be similar to the original song, but there will be differences.”

While Miju and Sanghyun were discussing the performance song in their minds, their turn was approaching.

“Let’s go.”

Sanghyun and Miju went on stage. The feeling was quite different from when they were at Sejong Instruments. At Sejong Instruments, he was forced to stand on stage, but now it was his intention.

When he got on stage, he saw many people.

In fact, there weren’t many people who were seriously watching the performance. However, because it was a fundraising event for the visually impaired, there were quite a few visually impaired people sitting in the front row, and the number of volunteers and performers added up to quite a few people.

Miju, after asking for understanding from the next band, sat down at the keyboard and began setting up. Meanwhile, Sanghyun, who was holding the microphone, felt awkward just standing still, so he greeted the audience.

“Hello. We are the team performing the song ‘Thugz Mansion’.”

From down below, someone asked, ‘What’s the team name?’ Sanghyun was briefly flustered by the unexpected question and said M&S. He suddenly thought M&S meant Miju & Sanghyun.

“Let’s begin.”

Miju’s keyboard setup was finished, and the performance began with a soft piano melody.

It was different from the acoustic guitar melody that remained strongly in his memory, but soon he was able to find a familiar path in the keyboard melody.

Sanghyun’s quiet rap began.

A quiet place to spend the night, time to unwind
So much pressure in this life of mine, I cry at times
I once contemplated suicide, and woulda tried
But when I grab my strap, I see my mama’s eyes
Nobody knows my struggles, they only see the trouble
Not knowin’ it’s hard to carry on when nobody loves you

Sanghyun rapped comfortably.

He didn’t try to show off or try to look good. He simply tried to enjoy the moment on stage.

The sound quality wasn’t great, and the lyrics were full of English that couldn’t convey the meaning. But Sanghyun’s stage had something eye-catching.

Naturally, people’s attention was drawn to it.

Feeling comfortable, Sanghyun improvised and changed the chorus to Korean.

Every street, every city
There are places that make us suffer
You can lie down comfortably while drinking
You can look at the sky, Cause It’s all good
Forget what’s bothering you
It will slowly disappear
Nothing but Peace, Love
A place with passion, in each of our streets

It wasn’t a very well-sung song, but it was a song that made the listeners nod their heads.

After the chorus ended, Sanghyun continued to rap to the best of his ability. There were parts where he hesitated because he was confused about the lyrics, and he accidentally rapped the first verse again in the second verse.

Finally, the very short performance ended.

“Thank you.”

Sanghyun and Miju bowed deeply.

It was an enjoyable stage. But it didn’t seem like a very good stage.

But at that moment, unexpected warm applause was heard. It was applause coming from the visually impaired people sitting in the front row.

< Verse 2. Gotta Move > End

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