The Rap Star [EN]: Chapter 289

< Verse 44. The End >

***

Time passed relentlessly.

Usually, time moves slowly for someone eagerly waiting for something, but that wasn’t the case for Sanghyun.

His time flew by.

Before he knew it, a month had passed, then two, and already five months had gone by.

And even then, Standard hadn’t woken up.

“You’ve been waiting for a long time-!”

In the meantime, Sanghyun released a new album.

“He Come Back! FIVESIX!”

His album, released in June 2010, was titled .

‘Standard’ was a word frequently used by hip-hop musicians. Therefore, Sanghyun’s album had a title that seemed ordinary.

However, the public knew what that word meant. They knew it was a word for his friend who hadn’t yet regained consciousness.

Of course, there was criticism. Some people said that Fivesix was using his friend’s misfortune to promote his album.

But Sanghyun didn’t care at all.

He was too busy running towards his goal to pay attention to such things.

People don’t really believe in miracles. They verbally wish for miracles but deep down, they think such things can’t happen.

But Sanghyun believed in miracles.

Because his second life itself had begun with a miraculous event.

‘Let’s do it.’

‘Do what?’

‘Billboard Album Chart #1. Billboard Single Chart #1. Album sales #1. Even the Grammy Award for Album of the Year.’

‘You have to do that much to reach the sky?’

‘That’s right.’

The goal that Sanghyun and Standard had set while creating .

A pledge to deliver their story to Sanghyun’s parents and Standard’s father in heaven.

The two had kept that promise.

had swept all categories on Billboard except for the single chart and had been nominated for four major Grammy Awards.

‘Thank you. It’s all thanks to you.’

‘What? What’s going on? Usually, you insist that I succeeded because of you?’

‘Well, that’s also true.’

Standard smiled and offered Sanghyun a glass, and Sanghyun brought his glass to it.

After taking a sip of alcohol, Standard said,

‘The people here must know our father, right?’

‘Maybe? Even if they don’t know anyone else, they know KRS-One or Jay-Z, right?’

‘I guess so?’

Standard, who was looking around the party with a satisfied smile, suddenly put down his glass roughly and looked at Sanghyun, saying boldly.

‘Hey, if I get a Grammy in two days, I’ll do whatever you want. Really, anything.’

‘Why are you talking like you’re the only one getting it? We’re getting it together.’

‘If I get Record Of The Year (an award given to engineers and producers), I’m the only one getting it.’

‘Funny. The singer gets it too.’

‘Ah, anyway, I’ll do whatever you want.’

‘Anything?’

‘Anything!’

‘Give me your bank account.’

‘……Anything but that.’

Sanghyun remembered the conversation he had with Standard at the party.

That’s why he was busy.

If was an album made with his parents in mind, was an album made to ‘force’ Standard to keep his promise.

What Sanghyun was forcing was for Standard to wake up.

Some might say that Sanghyun’s actions were overly emotional. Others might say that it was necessary to have faith in that way.

But Sanghyun wasn’t acting emotionally or forcing himself to have faith.

Strangely, it felt like Standard would really wake up.

***

Sanghyun’s second studio album , released in the United States, began full-scale promotion at the end of June.

Because of this, the promise with the 888 Crew members to go to Korea in 2010 was canceled.

The 888 Crew members also took it for granted.

So, instead of Korea, Sanghyun toured the United States.

The person who helped Sanghyun the most during this time was Eminem.

Eminem had lost his friend, brother, and mentor Proof in 2006 and had almost died from being addicted to antidepressants.

Therefore, he knew Sanghyun’s feelings best.

Standard hadn’t died, but Sanghyun believed that he was partly responsible for the accident that Standard had suffered, so his grief was by no means small.

Of course, Eminem didn’t just help Sanghyun out of a sense of kinship or sympathy.

Eminem was a superstar, and many people’s livelihoods were at stake in his activities. This meant that he couldn’t ask for features, tour together, or perform together simply because of impulse or emotion.

So, Eminem wasn’t pulling Sanghyun up, but simply walking alongside him on an equal footing.

Even Eminem’s manager and label thought that Eminem’s collaboration with Fivesix was a win-win strategy.

That’s how heavy the name Fivesix had become.

He was already in a position where no one could lead him.

Because even the greatest person can’t lift a mountain.

***

‘This is really crazy.’

Hadel Raines shook his head as he looked at the records that was setting.

Jay Cole, who had started his career slightly later than Sanghyun, was also gaining momentum, but Fivesix’s momentum was beyond description.

It was at the level of a typhoon or tsunami that swallowed everything.

While planning and making this album, Sanghyun had made one request to Hadel.

‘I don’t care about any difficult promotions, and I don’t care if you book performances without any consideration. But please make this album surpass Touch The Sky.’

Sanghyun’s request was by no means easy.

was an album that had achieved most of what a rap album could achieve.

Critics said that Fivesix was a beautiful flower that had bloomed too early.

Of course, he would continue to be excellent, perfect, and grow, but ‘the first’ was only the first.

Even if Fivesix rapped more perfectly, the merits of freshness given by ‘Asian rapper’, ‘Korean rap star’, ‘The X Factor’, and ‘Fivesix’s own style’ were no longer there, according to their evaluation.

In other words, the highest point in Sanghyun’s discography was , regardless of rap skills or musical perfection.

As they said, many Asian rappers who actively wanted to pursue their dreams had appeared in the rap scene, and mainstream rappers were trying to absorb Fivesix’s strengths.

In addition, many labels were looking for stars among Korean or Japanese rap stars.

In the wind of change that Sanghyun had brought, talented and attractive people would continue to appear, and they would unknowingly take away Sanghyun’s exclusive share.

So, it was by no means easy for to surpass .

No, it was very difficult.

‘Is it possible?’

‘Of course.’

But Hadel Raines nodded.

And this wasn’t an affirmation as a friend of Standard and Sanghyun.

Rather, it was an affirmation as a very cold-blooded businessman.

Because was that great.

Exactly four months after Hadel nodded to Sanghyun’s request, all the fortresses of collapsed.

-Fivesix’s , Billboard Album Chart #1 for 5 consecutive weeks. Renewed the record of , which was considered unbreakable.

-Fivesix’s single ‘Talk Back’, which debuted at #4, topped the Hot 100 in just two weeks.

-Fivesix won two awards at the AMA (American Music Award), Song of the Year and Artist of the Year.

-Fivesix, surpassed the sales of in just 4 months after its release.

-Fivesix, #1 on Rolling Stone’s ‘2010 Album of the Year’.

***

American singers desperately want their names to be listed on the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) website.

This is because the RIAA officially tallies album sales, awards Record Discs, and lists album information in the [Gold & Platinum] category on the website.

In fact, the original meaning of musicians saying they have achieved gold or platinum was not how many albums they had sold, but that they had received a disc certifying sales from the RIAA.

There were two main types of RIAA record discs. These were the gold disc and the platinum disc, which everyone knows.

But in fact, there was one more type of disc.

It was the diamond disc.

The diamond disc was not an officially tallied type.

However, because it was such a glorious event, the RIAA only certified musicians who had achieved diamond discs.

This was because less than 100 albums in the history of American popular music had achieved this type of disc.

Even most of them were records from the distant past when sales were not systematized as they are now, so only about twenty albums had been accurately certified.

No, now there were twenty-one.

This was because Sanghyun’s had surpassed 10 million sales in the United States, making it the twenty-first album overall and the fourth hip-hop album to do so.

-Wow, that’s crazy. Ten million copies.

-He sold as much as one-fifth of the Korean population. That’s really crazy.

-How much money did he make?

-If you add up album sales, single sales, headlining various festivals, and appearing on TV shows… I don’t know for sure, but he probably earned about the annual sales of Ohkyung Media?

-Ohkyung Media is like the face of Ohkyung Group, so its annual sales are actually low among the top entertainment companies. Lee Sanghyun probably earned more?

-Is he not coming to Korea? I wish he would do a concert.

-Unless the album fails, he probably won’t come?

-But you saw how he released this album. Will there be an album that fails among Lee Sanghyun’s albums? There will be albums that sell less, but.

-I agree.

In Korea, the media no longer stirred over Sanghyun’s activities.

Events such as Billboard records or AMA’s two awards still decorated the main pages of the media, but minor activities were not covered much.

Because it was too much to cover and it was boring.

The public was no longer surprised by Sanghyun’s activities.

It had become a matter of course.

***

Sanghyun spent the last day of 2010 in the same place he spent the last day of 2009.

Times Square in New York.

The countdown event.

Looking back, it was entirely thanks to Hadel Raines that Sanghyun was in charge of the ending of the countdown event last year, raising the lights of the building while singing ‘I Swear’.

It was truly amazing how he had promised donations to the city of New York, which was hosting the countdown event, obtained the understanding of Rock Nation, and obtained the agreement of companies around Times Square.

But in 2010, there was no need for that.

Hadel Raines didn’t do anything, but Sanghyun was the ending liner of the countdown event, was asked to sing I Swear as the last song, and all the buildings around Times Square raised their lights to the song.

He was even asked to perform next year and the year after.

They wanted to fix the end of the countdown event if conditions allowed.

As a meaningful stage that makes you think of someone you want to be with at the end of the year, but can’t be with.

Sanghyun’s song, which welcomed 2011, contained not only longing for his parents but also longing for his friend.

After the countdown event, Sanghyun stayed in New York for about two weeks, fulfilling various schedules.

He held concerts, appeared on TV shows, and filmed commercials.

After finishing all his work, Sanghyun had no choice but to deeply realize that life was different from movies or novels with a phone call he received at LA airport.

He thought that Standard would also wake up dramatically because of the unbelievable event of regression.

He thought that if he received an award at the Grammy Awards in two weeks and talked to Standard after achieving everything they had talked about together, he would wake up.

But it wasn’t.

Reality was different.

As soon as Sanghyun received the call, he headed to the hospital where Standard was sleeping.

Those who had rushed there as soon as they received the call had already arrived.

“Where’s Standard?”

“He’s inside……”

Sanghyun didn’t even listen to Kendrick properly and kicked open the door to the hospital room and rushed inside.

The first thing he saw were two women surrounding the bed, Standard’s mother and sister who had been brought from Denmark.

And the next thing he saw was…….

“Sanghyun.”

It was Standard.

Standard was looking at Sanghyun with a haggard appearance but with brightly shining eyes.

Sanghyun thought he would cry if Standard woke up. But it wasn’t.

“Why did you sleep so long? You made people bored.”

Laughter came out first.

“I know, right? After being surprised by my mom and sister, I’m surprised that I slept for a year. I guess I was catching up on sleep because I stayed up so many nights?”

Standard said in a small voice that could barely be heard.

Of course. It would be strange if he was okay after not using his voice for over 11 months.

“How’s your body? Can you move?”

“I’m okay. I can’t walk yet, but the doctor said I can walk enough if I rehabilitate. By the way, how did the Grammys go? Did you get an award?”

“You crazy bastard. Is that what you’re curious about now?”

“I got into an accident on the way to the Grammys, right? What crazy bastard shot me?”

“You don’t know that the three major organizations in LA moved to catch that bastard?”

“Three major organizations?”

“Police, Crips, Bloods.”

Standard’s eyes widened at Sanghyun’s words.

“Why Crips and Bloods?”

“Did you forget while sleeping which Schoolboy Q and Jay Rock belong to? I heard he was already half dead when they handed him over to the police.”

“Ah…… that’s right. But how did the Grammys go? I was nominated for four major awards, right? I’m not confused, right?”

“That’s right.”

“Where’s the award? You should have brought it to the hospital room if you got it.”

“There isn’t one. I didn’t get it. I’m still the uncrowned king.”

“What? Are the Grammy old men crazy?”

“I think your voice is getting a little better from cursing?”

Sanghyun smiled, took out his smartphone from his pocket, searched for something, and handed it to Standard.

“This……?”

“Can you see it? Your name.”

*53th Grammy Nominated ALBUM

FiveSix – Standard(Prod. DJ STANDARD)

“What is this? The 53rd is this year, right? But my name is on the album title and producer name…….”

“That’s the title, and those are the beats you made.”

The beats on the album were all made by Standard.

The beats that had been put off for the next album while making , the beats that had not been selected at the time, the beats that were being worked on on Standard’s computer, and even the beats that had already been used in Touch The Sky.

Sanghyun had achieved such great achievements with limited beats.

Life was different from movies or novels.

So, the dramatic event of waking up after bringing the Grammy Award did not happen.

Standard just woke up suddenly one day without any warning.

‘I even had the cheesy thought that he might wake up if I got a Grammy and played him the album.’

But life was different from movies or novels, so it didn’t matter if it was anticlimactic and bland to others.

The important thing was that he was unbearably grateful for this moment.

“You fill in the end of the movie that you ruined.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Let’s go get a Grammy Award together.”

“How confident are you to make such a fuss?”

At Standard’s question, Sanghyun raised his right hand and pretended to slit his throat.

“You don’t know the records I’ve set. In a word, The End. The end, the end. The end of rap.”

“Hadel, shouldn’t this guy be lying here instead of me? I think he has severe delusions.”

“Isn’t it understandable if it’s a diamond disc?”

“……Sister, I think we need two more beds here. There’s one more delusional patient.”

For the first time since Standard was admitted to the hospital, laughter was heard in the hospital room.

Soon after, Jay Cole rushed into the hospital room, and a few hours later, KRS-One, who was close to Standard, rushed over.

Hadel was watching the atmosphere full of laughter and was convinced that this atmosphere would lead to the Grammys this time.

< Verse 44. The End >