The Rap Star [EN]: Chapter 260

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-Hey, is Lee Sang-hyun going to win this? That would be amazing. How much is 5 million dollars in Korean currency?

-Come on, how can you tell after just the first episode? And honestly, The X Factor isn’t just about the money. If Lee Sang-hyun had stayed in Korea, couldn’t he have earned 5 million dollars?

-It’s 5.5 billion won, though?

-He couldn’t have. He couldn’t have.

-Even if we leave the prize money aside, I think Lee Sang-hyun has a pretty good chance of winning. At least top five or six. Oh, so that’s why FiveSix?

-Honestly, it’s a bit corny, but we should ignore it.

-Crazy, lol [laughing out loud].

-I don’t see any particularly strong competitors for Lee Sang-hyun either. Of course, the first auditions from one state haven’t aired yet, but even if someone comes out of there, it’ll only be one or two people, right?

-Still, predicting Lee Sang-hyun’s win based on just one episode is premature.

-I hope Hanwha wins this year [a reference to a Korean baseball team, often used humorously in unrelated contexts].

-This isn’t funny at all, so we should ignore it.

-I think it’s too early to tell. Who knows how many solo musicians are hiding their potential?

-Just by looking, it seems like Melody, Hamilton, Langdon, and Lee Sang-hyun are the most likely to win.

-Still, one thing is for sure, if a rapper wins, Lee Sang-hyun has a very high chance. Thinking about it, America is quite interesting. In Korea, vocalists and rappers are seen as different classes of musicians, but in the birthplace of hip-hop, the perception itself is different.

-Lee Sang-hyun didn’t go to America for nothing. No matter how great 888 Crew is, they couldn’t create the respect for a culture that has been built up over decades like in America.

-Still, 888 Crew created the foundation for that respect to be built.

-That’s right. Maybe in about 30 years, we’ll think it’s amazing that we lived in the same era as Lee Sang-hyun, similar to how we regard the late Kim Kwang-seok [a legendary Korean folk singer] as a legend.

-You crazy bastards are exaggerating so much. Until recently, you were the ones saying he went to America and failed. Such fickle minds.

-But if this were Korea, wouldn’t Plan Paper have a 100% chance of winning? Even as a guy, I think he’s so handsome that he’d dominate in voting. And his rapping is decent too.

-PP’s rapping isn’t bad, but isn’t it a bit lacking? It feels like it’s about to explode but doesn’t. He’s good, but not amazing?

-Still, Plan Paper has a good image. I heard he saved a child from being hit by a car.

-Oh, really? Where did you hear that?

-It’s in Plan Paper’s audition scene. You must have missed it.

-Anyway, I really hope Lee Sang-hyun wins.

In the first episode of The X Factor US, Sang-hyun received great praise and was highlighted as the main character.

Of course, due to the nature of audition programs that need to create a main character every episode, the main character of the first episode couldn’t necessarily be considered the main character of the entire program.

But it was the first episode that determined the success or failure of the program.

Moreover, it was season 1, the first launch of the program.

Since he ranked first in the initial episodes, the Korean public couldn’t help but be excited.

Just a few months ago, netizens who were mocking him, saying, ‘Lee Sang-hyun went to America, drunk on unfounded confidence, and failed,’ disappeared without a trace.

What filled that place was the support of the public.

-The Korean rap star who started his journey in America.

-The American scene targeted with music honed in Korea.

-Can Lee Sang-hyun become a rap star in both Korea and America?

-The difference between the Korean and American music industries.

The media is a collection of industries that are sensitive to the public’s interests.

Numerous media outlets began to cover Sang-hyun’s story, and the story became increasingly detailed.

No media outlet was concerned about Okyeong Media’s reaction.

If there were any concerns, they came from Okyeong Media’s subsidiaries, but even the subsidiaries were demanding a change of course, saying that they had no choice but to cover such news.

In fact, with this level of buzz, it was impossible for Okyeong Media to bury it even if they tried. If they were to bury it at all costs, traces would inevitably remain.

-1 year and 7 months since leaving Korea. What path has Lee Sang-hyun taken during that time?

-From a stranger in the LA underground to Hoodman and Hype Man. From Yellow Monkey to Hot 56 Guy!

-The real trailer for The X Factor! Lee Sang-hyun’s amateur night video from the New York Apollo Theater is released!

In the end, Okyeong Media declared a temporary retreat. Media companies under Okyeong also simultaneously released articles highlighting Sang-hyun’s greatness.

And these articles were not just for show. Rather, they were deeply illuminating, even revealing details that other media companies were not aware of.

‘Unbelievable.’

The most surprised by Okyeong Media’s surrender were those working in the Korean show business industry.

It wasn’t a complete surrender, but a temporary retreat. Still, Lee Sang-hyun had defeated Okyeong Media, which had the backing of the Okyeong Group.

With only his personal power.

With the musicality that is the musician’s weapon.

Of course, Sang-hyun had defeated Okyeong Media before leaving Korea.

However, most musicians dismissed Sang-hyun’s achievements as short-sighted. They thought that in the long run, an individual could not beat an agency.

That’s how well they knew the power of large agencies in Korea.

In fact, Sang-hyun’s decision to go to America was 100% his own, but the timing of that decision could be seen as somewhat influenced by others. He knew that if he stayed in Korea, Okyeong Media would put pressure on 888 Crew’s activities.

But now the situation was different.

Copyright disputes are temporary and end when resolved, but the status and popularity that Lee Sang-hyun would gain in the United States and Korea were completely different stories.

‘Beyond growing outside the system, is he now rising above the system? If not just Lee Sang-hyun alone, but the entire 888 Crew can grow?’

The relationship between ‘musician-agency’ in the Korean music industry was first redefined thanks to the emergence of Seo Taiji and Boys [a highly influential Korean music group].

At the time of Seo Taiji and Boys’ debut, the agency system that made up the Korean music industry was a system that completely ignored the ‘singer’s opinion’ or ‘requirements’.

The singers of the time had to unconditionally follow the demands of the agency and manager. Singers who gained immense popularity suffered from a tremendous schedule to generate profits for the company, and as such, the careers of big hit singers (especially groups) were very short.

The first to reject that was Seo Taiji.

Seo Taiji declared a break with his manager just three months after his debut and began to manage his own schedule. After that, he even founded to hire agencies and managers with the ‘singer’ as the main entity.

Agency executives, who had been in a position of absolute power until then, called Seo Taiji’s actions ‘outrages’ and raged, but the power of Seo Taiji’s music was too strong. So much so that he was called by the nickname of Cultural President.

After Seo Taiji’s resistance, many singers in Korea began to change. They began to recognize their legitimate rights and resist unfair treatment.

But sadly, no singer has enjoyed the same popularity as Seo Taiji since then. The door was opened, but there were no juniors to hold onto that door.

In the end, the agency system was re-established in a state of conceding a few steps from the past evils.

And as the idol training system, where popularity is determined by promotion and luck rather than musicality, began to take hold, the steps that had been conceded in the past were gradually narrowing.

That’s why musicians were placing their expectations on Lee Sang-hyun.

They began to look forward to what would happen after Lee Sang-hyun returned to Korea.

For Lee Sang-hyun, for 888 Crew, to become the second Seo Taiji and Boys.

For them to rise above the system.

And these expectations were gradually changing in a feasible direction.

-The X Factor Episode 2! The main character is still FiveSix!

-Lee Sang-hyun once again received rave reviews from the judges.

-Paula Abdul, ‘FiveSix is the strongest candidate for the win.’

-Simon Cowell, ‘FiveSix makes me want to learn Korean. If he writes lyrics like this in a language that is not his native language, how great is he in his native language?’

Sang-hyun’s performance continued in the second episode of The X Factor, and the Korean media was thrilled.

However, unlike the reaction to the first episode, the reaction to the second episode began to ‘compare’ the contestants. This was because Hime, a Japanese female rapper who had worked with Sang-hyun, appeared in the second episode.

-Lee Sang-hyun and Hime, who won a judgment victory in The way we live [likely referring to a past collaboration or competition]. What are their expected results?

-Reactions from Japanese media wishing for Hime’s good performance.

-The only variable is that Hime is affiliated with Sony Music, the production company of The X Factor.

And this comparison was also constant in Japan.

Japan naturally wrote good articles about Hime, who is a Japanese national, and Korea poured out good articles about Sang-hyun.

The Japanese media used the fact that a song in Japanese had topped the Billboard chart as a promotional phrase.

The Korean media used the fact that they had made a mark on Billboard, where foreign musicians had disappeared since the 1980s, as a promotional phrase.

The rivalry with Japan was always a good meal for the media and a well-selling source. It was the same in soccer, and it was the same in figure skating, which would start a few years later.

In the midst of this, Sang-hyun was objectively far superior, so the media couldn’t help but be excited.

“Wow, we didn’t have any news lately, but Lee Sang-hyun is feeding us.”

“Isn’t it amazing? To receive such evaluations in America, the home of rap.”

“I know. Is the level of Korean music higher than I thought? How long did it take for Lee Sang-hyun to reach number one in Korea? Didn’t it take quite a while?”

“I don’t know?”

“Look it up. It would be a good news story.”

The public was now thinking of Sang-hyun’s success not as an individual’s success, but as the development of the Korean music market. They believed that the more Sang-hyun proved his skills, the more he proved the level of development of Korean music.

Of course, it wasn’t entirely wrong.

Sang-hyun is clearly Korean, grew up in Korea, and learned music in Korea.

However, if you think about the ‘vessel,’ you can see that there is a problem with this proposition.

Sang-hyun is a musician who has reached number one in Korea, but it is impossible to know whether reaching number one in Korea was the result of Sang-hyun fully demonstrating all his capabilities.

If Lee Sang-hyun was so outstanding that he had more content than the Korean music industry could contain, then Sang-hyun’s excellence had nothing to do with the development of Korean musicality.

It was just at a level that could not be measured in Korea.

You can’t measure the ocean with a small bowl.

And fellow musicians who knew Sang-hyun well agreed with this idea.

‘He’s the guy who achieved in just two years what I couldn’t achieve even in 10 years.’

Bae Ga of Stars Records couldn’t help but actively agree while watching the ‘vessel theory’ circulating on the internet.

In the meantime, Sang-hyun’s popularity and awareness continued to rise endlessly. Now, even people in their 50s or older who are completely uninterested in rap knew Sang-hyun’s name.

Sang-hyun was famous from the beginning, but if that fame was limited to the category of ‘rapper,’ it was no longer the case. If even remote mountain villages had public channels, they would have no choice but to know Sang-hyun.

This was because there were media outlets that talked about Sang-hyun on the same level as national sports stars such as Park Chan-ho and Park Ji-sung [famous Korean athletes].

Like this, Sang-hyun was being compared to countless things in Korea.

He was compared to Hime, who is Japanese, and to sports stars who are also Korean. He was also indispensable in comparing the Korean and American music markets.

And all of these comparisons were comparisons filled with interest and affection for Sang-hyun.

But at this moment, Sang-hyun was facing a very difficult ‘comparison’ in the United States.

“With the fourth audition of boot camp over, there are 64 people left. And only 32 of these can advance to the next round with us.”

LA Reid gathered all the participants after lunch training and opened his mouth.

“To become the owner of 5 million dollars, you have to be more than just good, you have to be original. It has to be said that only that musician can make this kind of music. If it’s music that anyone can make, we don’t need to hold this kind of program.”

The 64 participants realized that the final 5th round of boot camp was a mission to compete for originality.

However, the method was beyond their expectations.

“From now on, the two people we have paired up are the musicians with the most similar styles to each other out of the 64 people. Did I mention that you have to be original? We are only going to choose one person who is better out of the two musicians. If they have the same style, we will naturally go with the better person.”

As soon as LA Reid finished speaking, the main hall where the participants gathered buzzed.

This was because the probability of success in a one-on-one battle would be 50%, and 50% was a much lower probability than in the previous rounds. The musicians immediately began to recall who was similar to them.

However, before the participants could gather their thoughts, Reid’s announcement began.

“Melody and Lavigne, Dunn and Malcolm, James and Helen…….”

Finally, Sang-hyun’s name was mentioned among the continuing roll call.

“FiveSix and Hime.”

Hime, who was sitting side by side with Melody, turned her head. At the end of her gaze was Hime.

End

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