The Rap Star [EN]: Chapter 304

< Verse 47. On & On >

***

Seoul.

“Seoul City, what’s up!”

Incheon.

“Incheon! Make some noise!”

Daegu.

“Daegu, stand up!”

Busan.

“Busan! Wurrrrup!”

And Sanghyun’s hometown, Gwangju.

“Shout out my hometown!”

The Golden New Era Tour, which toured Korea every four to five days, passed by in the blink of an eye. It felt like he had just arrived in Korea yesterday, but already more than three weeks had passed.

Of course, time flew by quickly when performing in countries like England and Japan.

But if time flew by quickly then because of the performance and broadcast schedules, in Korea, time was flying by quickly because the Golden New Era tour members were playing and enjoying themselves.

The Golden New Era Tour was a tour where the U.S. schedule was tight and the overseas schedule was loose. In the U.S., they performed about once every 1.5 days, but overseas, they performed about once every three days.

Among them, the schedule in Korea was particularly loose.

There were several reasons for this schedule, but the biggest reason was that the Golden New Era team would be disbanding for the time being after the Korean tour.

To be precise, it was because FiveSix would be staying in Korea.

That’s why Hadel Raines, the head of H&R INC, didn’t want the tour members to be rushed by the schedule.

He wanted them to spend more time together.

‘You’re going to focus on Korean activities for a while after the tour?’

‘To be precise, it’s more about spending time with the 888 Crew [a Korean hip-hop collective] rather than Korean activities. I miss my Korean friends now. I also want to see my younger sibling.’

‘Won’t the other friends feel left out if they hear that?’

‘I don’t know? When I’m actually in Korea, I’ll miss the Golden New Era members, Black Hippie [American hip-hop group], and Psychedelic friends again, right? I’ll miss KRS-One [American rapper] and Eminem too. I’ll want to see Melody.’

‘What about me?’

‘……Don’t be obsessed with me.’

‘Hahaha.’

‘Korea and the U.S. aren’t as far apart as Earth and Mars; I’ll come visit often. I’ll keep making albums too. So don’t worry too much.’

‘By the way, go on some dates when you go to Korea. Don’t bury yourself in music too much.’

‘Who’s worrying about who… Hadel, you should get married soon. If you wait another five years, you’ll get all wrinkly and lose the charm you had, you know?’

‘You think I didn’t get married because I’m not as popular as you?’

‘Not popular? To the fourth most attractive male musician selected by Forbes?’

‘I’m just looking at things like that because I don’t have a woman. Tsk, tsk.’

Like the conversation he had with Hadel when the tour started, Sanghyun was planning to stay in Korea for at least two years.

Of course, impulse is noble, and Sanghyun doesn’t ignore impulses, so he couldn’t be sure about the future.

Anyway, thanks to Hadel’s consideration, the Golden New Era tour members were able to spend a lot of time together.

Sanghyun was a little awkward about that.

It was because he was also a Korean man, so he wasn’t used to expressing the sadness of parting.

‘If you look closely, President Ha is also very sentimental.’

However, apart from the awkwardness, the time they spent playing together was really fun.

In Incheon, they rented a gym and played basketball, and in Busan, they rented a PC room and played online games all night.

Standard played a strange rhythm game that Sanghyun had never played before, and he was repeatedly impressed by the skills of the Korean users who matched the bars at ridiculous speeds.

‘If these people start using MPCs [Music Production Controller], am I going to lose my job?’

Daht liked Korea.

It might have been lip service because it was Sanghyun’s hometown, but he also said that it was the most suitable place for him among the Asian countries he had passed through.

“What do you like so much?”

Schoolboy Q, who was taking a break and smoking a cigarette while preparing for the performance, answered Sanghyun’s question.

“It’s moderate and convenient.”

“I understand the convenient part… but moderate?”

“Yeah. China had too many people and was too dirty. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. On the other hand, Japan was too clean, too kind, and orderly. Like a private school. Likewise, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Ah, being orderly even at the performance was bad.”

Sanghyun asked with an interesting expression at Schoolboy Q’s words.

“So you’re saying Korea is in between?”

“It’s moderate. A city that’s moderately dirty and moderately clean. People who frown on the streets but are energetic at performances. It’s like between Compton [city in California] and LA [Los Angeles]?”

“And the internet speed is crazy. I think the internet cafes on the streets might be faster than the White House computers.”

Standard, who had been to the bathroom, chimed in.

Standard realized the internet speed and was seriously considering settling down in Korea.

This was because the internet was fast, making digging (the process of discovering samples needed for sampling) convenient.

“Ah, but not being able to smoke weed is a bit frustrating.”

“Please bear with it, Q. I have a lot of enemies.”

“Don’t worry. I have that much self-control.”

Sanghyun had received a call from President Oh Yeonju a while ago.

Although it was a canceled plan, there was a story that the Ohkyung Group had brought up the idea of using drugs to get him.

Oh Yeonju said that unless they were caught in the act, foreign friends would not be issued warrants, but she also told Sanghyun, who had Korean citizenship, to be careful.

‘If you are dispatched after receiving a report without a warrant, you can refuse the test. But if you refuse, they might drive you as suspicious because you have something to hide.’

‘Why would I refuse? I should be broadcasting the test live on YouTube. Ah, if they really come, I should broadcast it live.’

‘Um… Don’t people usually try it once out of curiosity at that age?’

‘I’m a little more mature than my age. But is it okay for you to tell me this?’

‘What does it matter? If I get fired, Lee Sanghyun will give me a position at H&R INC.’

Sanghyun laughed at President Oh Yeonju’s joke and said that he couldn’t give her the position of president.

“What are you doing? There are only a few hours left until the performance. You have to finish well.”

At that time, Hadel approached, breaking Sanghyun’s thoughts.

“I was taking a break. Don’t be too obsessed with me.”

“Stop it, it’s not funny. Standard! Did you check the sound?”

“The number three microphone is peaking due to poor contact, but it will be perfect if that is taken care of. I already told Paul.”

“What about Alan? Did you get the stage equipment Jay-Cole requested?”

“Yes. But since it’s a device that goes in the middle of the performance, I replaced it with an acrylic plate because it seemed like it would have to be dismantled within one minute. The stability test is over.”

“If it’s an acrylic plate, wouldn’t it not feel like a roof?”

“We decided to cover it with non-woven fabric and put model bricks on top of it. It’s perfect.”

“Let’s just check that it’s dismantled within one minute in front of my eyes. Luke, what about the chorus and guitarist who had a cold?”

“The guitarist was replaced with a backup man, and the chorus was picked up from a Korean orchestra. They are very talented.”

“If you say it’s good, it must be good. Okay, let’s go for one more dry rehearsal! The audience will be entering in three hours, so let’s work hard!”

The inspection for the last performance in Korea and the last performance of the Golden New Era Tour continued endlessly.

Three hours later, the audience began to enter.

***

Hyun Taemin, who was a clumsy trainee reporter six years ago but is now a six-year veteran reporter, had a small relationship with the 888 Crew.

He was the trainee reporter who strongly requested coverage of the 888 Crew’s small festival, ‘Real Hiphop 888 ST’ [Street], which took place next to AIMMF [Asia International Music & Movie Fair] in 2006.

Real Hiphop 888St

The very festival that made columnist Choi Hakrim write a column titled .

Therefore, this last performance of the Golden New Era Tour was meaningful to Hyun Taemin.

This was because the situation was the same as six years ago.

At that time, the 888 Crew held their own festival next to AIMMF. Not only that, but they also attracted all the audiences from the sub-stage and completed a street festival attended by over a thousand people.

In short, the 888 Crew made a mess of the Ohkyung Group’s AIMMF.

The situation was no different now.

In that they were making a mess of the Ohkyung Group’s Oh! Card Super Concert.

In addition, Usher was scouted for the main stage of AIMMF, and Maroon 5 and Lady Gaga were scouted for the Oh! Card Super Concert.

In other words, the two ‘messes’ were similar in that famous overseas singers were scouted.

However, there were also some differences.

The point was that this time it was not Lee Sanghyun of the 888 Crew, but Lee Sanghyun of H&R INC who was the mainstay, and that six years ago, he was far from Usher, but now he was not.

Therefore, if the Ohkyung Group was just feeling upset six years ago, now they were actually being hit hard.

Some people thought that Lee Sanghyun’s revenge was excessive and persistent.

Anyway, Ohkyung is a group that represents Korea, so it was evaluated that dissing [disrespecting] on a program that has global influence like the Oprah Winfrey Show was too much.

However, Hyun Taemin thought that this point was too utilitarian and consequential.

If Lee Sanghyun had not overcome the tyranny of Ohkyung Media, no one would have known his sorrow.

In addition, Hyun Taemin thought that Lee Sanghyun might have been considerate of the Ohkyung Group’s situation. If he had really drawn his sword to the best of his ability, would it have ended like this?

Of course, if that happened, there would be a long and tedious legal battle, and Lee Sanghyun wouldn’t want that either.

Anyway, Hyun Taemin and many other reporters were ready to link today’s performance with the situation six years ago.

And there was one more thing that the reporters were interested in.

It was the discord between the 888 Crew and Lee Sanghyun.

In fact, their discord was mentioned once every quarter, so it was a bit clichéd.

However, this time, it wasn’t just a guess, but there was a plausible reason.

This was because the 888 Crew had not been invited to the Golden New Era Tour even once.

Of course, since the Golden New Era Tour was not a performance that Lee Sanghyun did alone, there would be complicated situations involved in selecting guests.

However, the 888 Crew were the most popular rap stars in Korea, no matter what anyone said.

If you ask, who is the best at rapping in Korea? Who is the most famous for rapping? About eight out of ten people would say the 888 Crew.

In addition, considering that ‘Band L&S’ and ‘Stars Records’, which are evaluated as being one step behind the 888 Crew in terms of popularity, had each taken on the opening of the Golden New Era Tour once, the concentration of discord became even thicker.

‘I heard that they showed a friendly appearance in the Show and Prove preliminaries….’

It’s going to be a while before Show and Prove is broadcast, so I don’t know for sure, but the lesson I learned from my long reporter life is that all the actions of public figures in front of the camera may be false.

Hyun Taemin, who liked Lee Sanghyun, thought it wouldn’t be, but the surrounding reporters were putting more weight on show business production.

‘The 888 Crew wasn’t on today’s performance lineup either.’

Hyun Taemin was thinking about that while filming and interviewing the reporters and audience members who came with him.

Interestingly, there were a lot of people wearing 888 X 888 T-shirts at this performance, where the discord between Lee Sanghyun and the 888 Crew began to ignite.

No matter how famous Lee Sanghyun became worldwide, the Korean public still used the phrase ‘Lee Sanghyun of the 888 Crew’ a lot.

In that sense, the 888 Crew was a really great team.

While Hyun Taemin was thinking about this and that, the entrance continued.

Already, the Seoul Olympic Main Stadium, the largest concert hall in Korea that can accommodate 80,000 people, was filling up.

Even if a performance held in Korea is labeled as super-sized, the scale rarely exceeds 15,000 people.

The Ohkyung Card Super Hall also had a maximum capacity of only 20,000 people. Even that didn’t record a sell-out.

‘The day will come when I express 20,000 people as only.’

As far as Hyun Taemin knew, Cho Yongpil was the only musician who had sold out all available seats in the Seoul Olympic Main Stadium so far.

However, considering that it was the 90s when there were not as many things to enjoy as now, the significance of the Golden New Era Tour became even greater.

Perhaps today’s performance will be a performance that will never disappear from the Korea Record Institute.

A time of boredom and anticipation flowed and flowed.

The long entrance, which was a cliché expression of the wave of people, finally came to an end.

February 3, 2012, 7:30 PM.

That’s how the last performance announcing the end of the Golden New Era Tour began.

< Verse 47. On & On > End

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