The Rap Star [EN]: Chapter 276

< Verse 43. Touch The Sky >

***

The heat at the H&R Brainstorm showcase only intensified as time passed.

The opening solo performances by the three artists were truly amazing.

Kendrick, who devoured the rap, J. Cole, with his mesmerizing sound that captivated the hearts of women, and Sanghyun’s stage, which stirred everyone’s emotions.

It was a diverse and complete showcase, presenting almost every aspect a solo rap musician could offer.

However, their albums weren’t entirely composed of solo tracks.

-Black Hippy! Right Here!

-Let`s Go! Q! Jay!

As Schoolboy Q, a member of the Crips gang, and Jay Rock, a member of the Bloods gang, started to energize the stage, the crowd erupted in cheers.

‘If you cry and laugh, your butt will…’

Sanghyun watched Black Hippy’s performance from backstage, grinning to himself.

Then, someone spoke to Sanghyun.

“What are you doing?”

“Oh? Just watching the stage.”

“Do you envy Kendrick because you don’t have friends like his?”

“Why wouldn’t I have friends? I have so many in Korea.”

“Really? Do you have a girlfriend too? The guys keep teasing you, calling you gay.”

“They tease me for *not* being gay. If I were really gay, would they tease me about it?”

Kendrick had been dating his girlfriend since he was 18, and J. Cole didn’t have a girlfriend but occasionally dated women he liked.

That’s why his friends kept teasing Sanghyun, calling him gay.

“Okay, you’re not gay. You can’t be gay.”

“Huh? Why?”

“Well… your female fans lining up in Koreatown would be sad, wouldn’t they?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

At that moment, the stage put on by Kendrick and the Black Hippy members came to an end.

This showcase was structured with performances in the order of Kendrick, J. Cole, and Sanghyun.

Next up was J. Cole.

Kendrick had Black Hippy, and Sanghyun had the 888 Crew, but J. Cole didn’t have musicians who had been with him since the beginning of his career.

It wasn’t that he didn’t have friends in New York, but he hadn’t found anyone with whom he shared complete musical understanding.

However, that didn’t mean J. Cole’s album had no features [guest appearances by other artists].

In some ways, J. Cole’s features were the most powerful.

Because the place where J. Cole met friends with whom he shared musical understanding was the Grammy Awards after-party.

“This song is with two rappers, but due to their busy schedules, they couldn’t attend the stage today. But when I think about the moments when we conceived the track, wrote the lyrics, and recorded together, I feel like they’re here with me.”

As J. Cole spoke, the title of the track began to appear on the screen behind the stage.

“These two rappers have been my idols since I started rapping.”

-New York`s Crown.

Who would be a rapper fitting for the title of New York’s Crown?

The first person that came to people’s minds was Notorious B.I.G., who always wore a crown on his album covers.

But he was dead.

The kings of the Big Apple who succeeded him were…

-New York!

-WASSUP!

The voices of two men heard through the speakers made people stir. They were wondering if it could be.

And J. Cole confirmed it.

“Shout-Out! JAY-Z & NAS!”

The rappers featured on J. Cole’s album were Jay-Z and Nas, who had fiercely competed for the throne of New York.

-Wow!

-Wow!

People were surprised by the unexpected features and screamed.

In fact, although they weren’t performing today, Kendrick’s album featured Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, and The Game. They had even contacted him first to work on the project.

Unlike MTB, which had almost no features, the Golden New Era members had to filter out the numerous feature offers they received while making this album.

As a result, Kendrick chose a lineup of Black Hippy, Dr. Dre, The Game, and Snoop Dogg, while J. Cole chose Nas and Jay-Z, as well as some vocalists he had in mind.

And Sanghyun also had features.

Sanghyun received a total of four features, one of whom was scheduled to appear on stage today. The other three unfortunately couldn’t attend due to scheduling conflicts.

“Looks like it’s ending?”

And that one person was next to Sanghyun.

Waiting for the next stage.

“Ready?”

“Of course.”

At that moment, J. Cole’s ‘New York`s Crown,’ which, although not featuring Jay-Z and Nas, had a composition that made it seem like they were in the same space through the music video, came to an end.

And it was Sanghyun’s turn.

“Huh?”

“Huh? What was this again?”

The moment the beat of the song Sanghyun was going to perform came on, people reacted immediately. It was because it was definitely a beat they had heard somewhere before.

However, no one could accurately guess which song’s beat it was.

That was because Standard had kept the sampling of the original beat intact but changed all the sound effect values.

If the original beat had the feel of a grand orchestral harmony, now it had a sharper and more thrilling feel.

In addition, the lyrics from the chorus to the verse were newly written. That’s why the title Part 2 was attached to the original song.

But the moment the chorus came out, everyone knew the title of this song.

And they couldn’t help but scream.

I’m on the road.
A very narrow, lonely road.
No one to hold my hand,
even if I reach out.
A very narrow, lonely road.

-Lonely Road Part 2.

That was the track title that appeared on the screen.

After solving the first question, the audience immediately came up with another question.

Then who is the vocalist singing this amazing song?

It was innocent yet thrilling.

It was naive yet sexy.

There were no special techniques, but people were amazed that she could sing such a song.

It was like a woman who was only wearing jeans and a white t-shirt, not particularly dressed up, but so attractive that she caught your eye.

At that moment, Sanghyun walked out from the right side of the stage.

Sanghyun reached out towards the opposite side of the stage.

Following his gesture, a white path created by the lights appeared on the dark stage.

At the end of that path, a woman who hadn’t been there until just now was standing.

“X Factor!”

She was Melody, the runner-up of X Factor.

Melody, who had disappeared without any activity as soon as X Factor ended.

Similarly, FiveSix, who had disappeared as soon as the Grammy Awards ended.

Of course, from the perspective of opportunity cost, the opportunities Melody turned down were low-cost opportunities that couldn’t be compared to Sanghyun’s. But in absolute terms, Melody had also given up a lot for musical perfection.

The two hot rookies who had disappeared like that broke their silence at the same time.

The audience who could see their first stage couldn’t help but be delighted.

Listening to Melody’s song, the audience could realize that her song had become deeper and more mature.

They couldn’t understand why Melody hadn’t won.

I’m on the road.
A very narrow, lonely road.
No one to hold my hand,
even if I reach out.
A very narrow, lonely road.

As they thought, Melody had made remarkable progress in her skills.

Not all of it was thanks to Sanghyun, but she had learned a lot from watching Sanghyun’s production process.

Melody was the person who participated the most in Sanghyun’s album this time. She even provided vocal sampling for some songs that didn’t have a feature mark.

“Wow……!”

People repeatedly admired Melody’s song.

But there was something they were forgetting.

That an even more amazing musician was waiting behind this.

That’s how Sanghyun’s rap began.

***

A group of slightly less than ten burly men approached the showcase venue where H&R Brainstorm was taking place, and the security guards guarding the showcase venue tensed up.

Most Americans had come to like FiveSix through The X Factor or the Grammy Awards, but there were still those who pathologically hated Asians.

Although the probability was close to 0%, racial discrimination groups such as the KKK [Ku Klux Klan] or skinheads could carry out a terrorist attack on the concert hall.

Therefore, Hadel Raines was making every effort to ensure safety by constantly contracting with security companies at the company level.

“What brings you here?”

The team leader of the security company blocked the men.

The men didn’t give off any particularly threatening feeling, but just looking at the way they were standing, it was clear that they weren’t ordinary people.

“We’re trying to get into the showcase venue.”

“The admission time is over. I’m sorry, but admission is not allowed after closing.”

“Um…….”

At that moment, a slightly shorter man walked out from among the burly men. In fact, he wasn’t short, but he looked short because the other men around him were so tall.

Unlike the others who were wearing semi-formal attire, he was wearing a hoodie pulled down low and a hat.

“Would this be okay?”

The short man slightly lifted his hood and hat.

“Oh……!”

The security company team leader was surprised, and the short man asked again.

“You know why I’m here, right?”

“Y, yes, please come in.”

That’s how a group of men entered the H&R Brainstrom showcase venue.

***

LA’s Kodak Square, where you can experience all the culture and art of LA and where the Academy Awards are held every year, was crowded with people.

Originally, Kodak Square was always crowded with tourists from Hollywood and local residents, but the scenery in the west was a little different from usual.

Instead of people busily walking around here and there in the square, they gathered in front of a large screen on the west side of the square.

Originally, the west side of Kodak Square was a place frequently visited by busking musicians, so it was called Busk Way.

People who liked music never missed Busk Way, where they could listen to various music all day long when visiting Kodak Square.

However, today, all kinds of music were not ringing out on Busk Way.

It wasn’t that the musicians weren’t there.

They came to Busk Way today as usual.

However, the musicians who came out on the street with various instruments were deeply immersed in the screen instead of performing.

“What is it?”

“What are they broadcasting?”

People who came to Busk Way to see busking also looked at the screen with curiosity, and they soon became one of the crowd filling the front of the screen.

What was being broadcast on the screen was KSCI’s channel’s H&R Brainstorm showcase.

“Wow, this is crazy.”

“Does Melody sing this well?”

“This is no joke.”

The moment the chorus of Lonely Road Part 2 flowed out, the vocalists burst into admiration.

It was because Melody’s song was so beautiful.

However, this admiration soon turned into shock.

It was the moment when FiveSix continued with 16 bars of rap.

“……crazy.”

In particular, the surprise of the rap musicians was enormous.

FiveSix’s rap had rhymes in every phrase, and the rhymes were rarely single rhymes. All of them were multi-syllable rhymes that were complexly intertwined with two or more rhymes.

However, what was even more surprising was that FiveSix’s lyrics were not written for the sake of rhyme, but gave the feeling that he was originally going to say that, but there happened to be a rhyme.

Moreover, the flow was so flexible that you couldn’t let go of the tension for even a moment while listening.

Originally, rap was a genre that pursued change while pretending to repeat. When you listen to rap, you can’t help but predict how the next verse will proceed, and rap is a genre that concentrates the listener by breaking that prediction.

In other words, in order to be good at rap, you must have the stability to predict the next verse and the eccentricity to break that stability wonderfully at the right moment.

And FiveSix was perfectly performing these two things.

On top of that,

“……It’s like listening to rap while looking at the subtitles.”

Like the awestruck admiration of an amateur rapper, he even had perfect delivery of lyrics.

“Doesn’t his style seem a bit similar to Eminem’s?”

“The way he uses rhymes is a bit. But his overall style isn’t similar, and it seems like it’s only this song? I Swear was completely different earlier.”

“That song was really awesome.”

“But doesn’t Eminem do better in this style? If you think about songs like Without Me.”

“What are you talking about? FiveSix is much better. I don’t know about Eminem in 2002, but FiveSix is better now.”

“It was neck and neck on the Grammy stage.”

“That’s because Eminem was the owner of the song, so the production itself was more tailored to Eminem.”

“Is that so?”

“Wow, anyway, he’s really good. He’s crazy.”

That’s how ‘Lonely Road Part2’ continued amidst the admiration of amateur rappers.

If the original Lonely Road was about how the only people who can understand you on a lonely road are your colleagues, Part 2 was about how everything looks beautiful when you reach the top.

It was a track that exquisitely incorporated the rapper’s swagger and pride in what he has achieved so far.

People who watched the performance live and people who watched it on TV could now admit without a shred of doubt.

That FiveSix is by far the most *unique existence* among the many rappers who have appeared so far!

Of course, that doesn’t mean that the existence of legends like Tupac or Biggie is fading, but when it comes to pure rap, there is no one who can compare to FiveSix.

‘At best, Eminem or Jay-Z? Lil Wayne? Are there only these three?’

J. Cole and Kendrick also have great potential, but they still need time.

Time to perfectly hone that potential.

It was that moment.

It was when someone’s voice *cut in* between the speakers as Melody’s chorus ended and the outro flowed out.

“This is no joke?”

While Sanghyun was *flustered* at the unexpected situation, the owner of the voice appeared from the darkness.

-꺄아아아아아아악!

-Wow!

The main character of the voice was Eminem, who could not participate in the showcase because he had a performance schedule in Las Vegas.

As soon as Eminem’s Las Vegas performance was canceled due to a problem with the organizers, he turned the plane’s direction to LA.

Because his friendship with Sanghyun was precious?

Of course, there was that reason too.

FiveSix was a figure symbolizing the change in the hip-hop scene that Eminem had built up over 10 years of hard work, and he was a friend he liked even apart from that.

But that wasn’t the main reason.

The main reason Eminem flew to LA was because he wanted to be on stage. This *desire* was something he had only felt when he was making his first album before he rose to stardom.

It wasn’t that Eminem was feeling *thirsty* to be on stage now.

There were *places overflowing* all over the United States that would let him on stage if he wanted to.

The reason Eminem wanted to be on stage was because he wanted to sing a song with someone. That was ‘Gold Digger,’ track number 5 of FiveSix’s album.

That’s right. Eminem was included among the four people Sanghyun received *feature assistance* from.

“Em, how did you get here?”

“I came by plane.”

“I heard you had a performance in Las Vegas…….”

“We don’t have time, so let’s go quickly.”

At Eminem’s gesture, the beat started to flow out all of a sudden. Before arriving, Eminem’s manager, Paul Rosenberg, and Hadel Raines had already finished talking.

Sanghyun was initially *taken aback* at the sudden situation, but nothing much changed.

The lineup came, and that was all that could be done to show one more track live.

The stage of Sanghyun and Eminem that proceeded like that *continued* from Gold Digger to Crack A Bottle.

From the perspective of KSCI and KTLA, it was like they had a *ridiculous stroke of good luck*, and the audience at the scene was feeling *faint with satisfaction* while watching the stage of Eminem and FiveSix.

That’s how H&R Brainstorm, which will be broadcast on MTV a few days later, *was continuing*.

***

< Verse 43. Touch The Sky > End

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