The Rap Star [EN]: Chapter 282

< Verse 44. The End >

***

The United States is much larger than Korea, with a larger population and significantly more investment in culture and the arts. Consequently, there was a greater demand for live performances, and the expenditure on attending shows far exceeded that in Korea.

This meant a greater number of stages available for musicians to perform on.

Therefore, while Korean musicians mainly performed at specific events, American musicians often engaged in performance activities through extensive tours.

However, there were actually two distinct types of tours.

The first was the kind of tour that the public commonly imagines.

Like the ‘Michael Jackson Tour’ or the ‘Beatles Tour,’ where the musician takes the lead in producing the stage, attracting the audience, and generating revenue from ticket sales.

Tours where groups gather and travel together, like ‘Up in Smoke Tour 2002’ or the ‘Curtain Call Tour 2008’ that Sanghyun participated in, also fell into this category.

The advantage of these tours was the ability to produce the stage according to your artistic vision, set the tour schedule, and plan the tour route.

The disadvantage was that the majority of the tour’s revenue came from ticket sales, so a decline in the musician’s popularity could significantly impact earnings.

The worst-case scenario was starting a tour overconfident in your popularity, only to find that audience attendance was too low, resulting in a financial loss.

In fact, most musicians only ever experienced the first type of tour throughout their entire music careers.

In Hadel Raines’s opinion, if you considered all American musicians, 99.9% of them would only ever experience the ‘ordinary tour’ in their lifetime.

‘Or perhaps there are even more people who can’t tour at all?’

What about the tour that the remaining 0.1% could experience?

It wasn’t about producing a stage and traveling around the United States, but about traveling around the United States by performing on ‘pre-made stages.’

So why not use this great method?

Because the singer doesn’t have the option to choose.

This was only possible if you were incredibly popular and received invitations from various events, festivals, radio broadcasts, and TV broadcasts across the United States.

However, it was possible for Sanghyun.

He could even plan the most efficient tour route and choose the highest-paying events among them.

‘Should I perform in New York, then go to Philadelphia next door, and then appear on a radio broadcast in Washington D.C.?’

Sanghyun wasn’t particularly a singer who cultivated a mysterious image, but he was known as a singer who didn’t perform often.

This was because he hardly did any activities during MTB, so there were few opportunities to see him on stage.

However, whenever he did perform, he left behind memorable performances, and when he was on the lineup, he was known as a draw that attracted attention.

Therefore, the number of events, festivals, and broadcasting stations sending offers to Sanghyun was enormous.

“How much would it be if we accepted all the invitations here?”

“I haven’t counted exactly, but it’ll probably be in the hundreds of millions.”

“100 million dollars?!”

“It’s not like there’s only a 1 in the hundreds of millions, right?”

“Then how much…?”

“About 300 million dollars?”

Sanghyun’s mouth dropped open.

300 million dollars. More than 300 billion Korean won [approximately $250 million USD].

It was an amount of money that he couldn’t even dream of touching, even though he had only worked until right before his regression.

“Don’t get excited. More than half of the performances can’t be done simultaneously anyway. Even if we ignore the simultaneous performances, you can’t realistically perform in Seattle and then perform in New York a few hours later, right?”

“…Couldn’t we? If we cleverly use the time difference….”

“Should I really schedule it that tightly? Let’s say you only sleep on the plane while traveling, and if we perfectly match the travel time and the gap between performances, we could earn about a third more? But you’d have to spend about 21 hours out of 24 in the air.”

“Then it would be really real. A life exactly like the album title.”

Hadel chuckled at Sanghyun’s words.

“Let’s raise your value as much as possible and travel around comfortably. The schedule is already packed without doing that.”

“Kendrick and J. Cole left yesterday, right? So, Hadel, are you following me around?”

“Not necessarily. I’ll follow you for the early part of the tour, but when you go to Vancouver, I’ll have to go to Kendrick. I go back and forth depending on the importance.”

“Ah, I see.”

Hadel hadn’t lied. In fact, he was planning to spend even busier days than Sanghyun, going back and forth between the three musicians.

However, there was one thing he didn’t mention: unless it was a place where he was absolutely needed, he prioritized following Sanghyun’s schedule.

The reason for this choice wasn’t because Sanghyun was incredibly more valuable than Kendrick or J. Cole.

Rather…

“Five, I don’t think you’ve been writing lyrics lately?”

“I’m writing, but they’re not coming out well. I think I worked too hard on this album.”

“Really? Are you going to be okay?”

“Now that I’m traveling around the United States, I’ll probably have more to say. I think I mentioned it before, but when I first came to the United States, I traveled for a long time. The inspirations I received at that time are heavily embedded in the music before Touch The Sky.”

“Music life is long anyway, so take your time. Some mega-hit albums are active for more than two years.”

“Don’t worry. By the way, you said Vancouver earlier, right? Isn’t Vancouver in Canada? Is Canada on my schedule too?”

“That’s right. Why? Do you dislike Canada?”

“No. I just thought I was only touring the United States. I guess I’m pretty popular in other countries too.”

“It’s a place we initially passed on due to time constraints, but they offered $800,000 for three performances over five days. Even with them covering the taxes.”

“$800,000 after taxes? Then the money they’re paying is well over a million dollars?”

“That’s right. Where do you think it is?”

“Judging from the way you’re talking, I don’t think it’s in the United States… Ah, maybe Korea?”

Hadel shook his head at Sanghyun’s words.

“No, China.”

“China?”

Sanghyun’s eyes widened at the unexpected country.

However, he soon nodded, recalling articles about how K-pop stars receive enormous amounts of money in China.

“What? Your reaction isn’t great? It’s over a million dollars, you know?”

“Originally, China’s scale is a bit different.”

“…What are you saying? Why are you holding your stomach and laughing by yourself?”

With Sanghyun’s nonsensical joke, a three-month nationwide tour began, with a slightly different meaning than that of other musicians.

The start of the tour was in Las Vegas.

As the world’s MICE [Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions] industry mecca, Las Vegas was a place where various forums, expos, festivals, and shows never stopped, 365 days a year.

-Kyaaaa!

-FiveSix!

-Yellow Real Nigga!

And Sanghyun was an existence that made those shows even more splendid and brilliant.

A huge number of tourists from various backgrounds flocked to see Sanghyun’s face and listen to his songs.

“Wow…”

Sanghyun repeatedly exclaimed in admiration.

There were really an enormous number of people gathered.

Of course, in terms of numbers alone, there were more audience members at the Grammy Awards or the BET Hip Hop Awards [Black Entertainment Television Hip Hop Awards].

But they weren’t people who had gathered solely to see ‘FiveSix.’ They were people who had gathered to see all the musicians.

However, the crowd gathered at the stage now was a crowd that had gathered solely to see FiveSix.

So, Sanghyun went wild.

“Hands in the Air! As high as they can reach!”

Sanghyun stayed in Las Vegas for exactly 15 days, appearing in 9 performances and two radio broadcasts.

Some might say it was an incredibly tight schedule, but Sanghyun could feel Hadel’s consideration as soon as the tour began.

He realized that the criteria for selecting performances was not ‘more money,’ but ‘more inspiration.’

From 2005 to the end of 2009, Sanghyun had hardly ever taken a break from his music activities. To the public, there was a gap between albums, but he was constantly busy in between.

So, Sanghyun was paradoxically enjoying a break while touring.

It felt like the tour was secondary, and the break was primary, with performances happening whenever he wanted to perform.

Sanghyun went to all the places he wanted to go and did everything he wanted to do, as long as there was no security risk.

“Koreans originally have a talent for gambling. Have you seen ‘Tazza’ [a popular South Korean gambling film]?”

“Isn’t the theme of that movie not gambling, but who can scam better?”

“Uh-huh, you’re saying something terrible. It’s not fraud, it’s art. Reaching the realm of art.”

“So what?”

“I’ll show you that art.”

When he came to Las Vegas while traveling in 2007, he couldn’t enter the casino because he wasn’t of legal age in the United States.

So, Sanghyun tried to enter the casino this time, but the head of H&R INC’s international legal team, who had been hired recently, stopped Sanghyun.

This was because it was illegal for Sanghyun, who had Korean citizenship, to enter casinos other than the Jeongseon Casino [the only casino in South Korea where Korean citizens are allowed to gamble].

“Really? I have friends who brag about going there…”

“It’s originally illegal. It’s just that the country doesn’t catch them one by one. You’re a celebrity, so you have to be careful in this regard.”

“Should I wear a mask?”

“I’ll bet my salary that there will be three digits of people who recognize you even if you wear a mask.”

“You know who gives that salary, right?”

Sanghyun grumbled to Attorney Lim, the head of the international legal team.

Hadel hired a Korean lawyer as soon as Sanghyun appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show. This was to prepare for any possible trouble with the Ohkyung Group.

And the fact that H&R INC was trying to scout a Korean lawyer quickly became a hot issue among Korean lawyers.

This was because the conditions were incredibly groundbreaking.

At that time, there was someone who contacted Sanghyun and asked for a favor (?), and it was Attorney Lim, who had been introduced to him through Oh Yeonjoo in the past.

Attorney Lim had ended his employment relationship with President Oh Yeonjoo a few weeks before Hadel was looking for someone. He was originally going to rest a little more, but H&R INC’s conditions were so groundbreaking that he called Sanghyun.

‘That high school student from back then is now my employer. As a world-class star, too.’

From Sanghyun’s point of view, the appearance of Attorney Lim, who perfectly understood the context of the events between Ohkyung Media and himself, couldn’t have been more welcome.

“Anyway, casinos are absolutely not allowed.”

Although he’s not so welcome now.

Having been stopped by Attorney Lim, Sanghyun eventually couldn’t enter the casino. But after that, he enjoyed everything he could do in Las Vegas.

“Where’s the next stop?”

“Chase Field.”

“Chase Field? Is that a football stadium?”

“It’s not football, it’s baseball. It’s the home stadium of the Arizona Diamondbacks in Arizona. You’ve never performed in a baseball stadium, have you?”

“Are you underestimating me too much? I’ll show you the original music video of LA UP on the plane.”

Thus, Sanghyun and the H&R team, including Hadel, left Las Vegas and headed to Arizona.

And on the plane to Arizona, they heard the news that Touch The Sky had topped the Billboard 200 [a weekly ranking of the top 200 albums and EPs in the United States] for three consecutive weeks.

Las Vegas, Arizona, Colorado, Texas…

Sanghyun’s tour, which seemed to draw a line from the lower left to the upper right on the US map, continued.

The fact that he could cross the United States with such continuity was a testament to Sanghyun’s popularity, and that popularity only grew day by day.

After a month and a half, fans who realized that Sanghyun had started in Las Vegas and was crossing the United States diagonally hoped that Sanghyun would visit the city where they lived.

They were willing to pay money to see the owner of the album that was heading towards triple platinum (3 million copies) after passing double platinum (2 million copies), and the album that had topped the Billboard album chart for a total of 4 weeks.

As a result, there were cases where the organizers of festivals or events that had no intention of inviting Sanghyun hurriedly sent offers.

Seeing the travel route, it seemed like he would pass through their city, so they were trying to invite the hottest musician in the United States right now, even if it was a bit of a stretch.

Sanghyun continued to move, consulting with Hadel and accepting or rejecting performance invitations.

Passing through the West, through the Midwest, through the East.

After two months, at the end of December.

Sanghyun and Hadel arrived in New York.

And…

“What? Why is your face so tanned?”

“Black people are lucky. They don’t get tanned.”

“Isn’t that statement racist right now?”

“Mixed-race people, stay out of this.”

Two musicians who could freely make fun of each other’s skin color also arrived in New York.

New York, where the first Golden Era began.

It was December 30, with two days left to finish 2009, that the Golden New Era members gathered there.