The Rap Star [EN]: Chapter 31

< Verse 3. 888 Crew >

***

California, USA. Los Angeles (LA) in the south.

Standard stared blankly out the window, thinking that LA’s June and July weather was perfect for partying. May is too cold for light clothing, and August is too hot.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

“Downloading the Long Beach party audio. It’s damn slow.”

“You’re diligent. Practice suits you better than DJ Standard.”

Standard frowned at his roommate Welder’s words.

“Stop talking nonsense and give me some aspirin.”

“How much did you drink yesterday that you need aspirin?”

“It would be a relief if I only drank.”

Welder handed over the aspirin. Standard swallowed it and grumbled while making coffee.

“This neighborhood is really trash. This goddamn internet! I heard Korea has incredibly fast internet.”

“Why have you been singing about Korea lately? Isn’t Korea a dictatorship that hosted the World Cup with ninjas in 2002? Do you miss the Soviet Union?”

“What would a moron who doesn’t know the difference between North and South Korea know?”

While scolding Welder, the audio download from the party he hosted in Long Beach finally finished.

Standard grabbed his monitoring headset and connected it to the computer.

Usually, the host DJ is too drunk on marijuana or Budweiser from the start of the party to accurately recall his DJing or the audience’s reactions to the music. Standard didn’t smoke marijuana, but sometimes he felt dazed from smelling the smoky odor in the enclosed space for hours.

Therefore, Standard always recorded the party’s audio during host parties and tried to find shortcomings by listening to it repeatedly.

‘The sound quality is terrible. Shit, did someone spill beer on it?’

Turning up the volume made the noise even worse. After turning up the sound and analyzing it with the monitoring headset for hours, his ears were ringing and aching.

Looking back, Welder had already collapsed on the sofa and was asleep.

‘Shure speakers really have deep bass. Still, ‘Dolphin Wave’ needs to be remastered.’

While checking the setlist for the party, Standard noticed a new email in his inbox.

The sender was his first fan, Korea Boy.

In fact, when Standard first received an email from a Korean, he wondered if it was a new type of eBay [online marketplace] scam. He still had some doubts.

Title: Practice.

Standard chuckled at the email title. It sounded like Welder was joking. He moved the mouse to open the email and saw a huge attachment and a short message.

-This is a song made with track number 4, ‘Hotel LA,’ that you sent me. It’s a video taken with a camcorder while practicing with a local band.

Standard looked at the attachment and worried about viruses or hacking attempts for a moment. After hesitating, Standard clicked the video download button.

‘If they’re putting this much effort into spreading a virus, I’ll let them get me, Korea Boy.’

In fact, he was incredibly curious. What kind of music do they make in Korea, a country in the corner of the Asian continent? And how did that Korean musician interpret my beat?

‘As expected of Korea, the file size is enormous. It must have taken forever to attach it?’

-There was some arrangement while changing the beat to a live band sound. I didn’t touch the melody line, just changed the instrument configuration a bit. It might sound strange, but I removed the keyboard and bass and added a djembe [a West African drum].

The hook was changed to a guitar solo, and verse 2 is a twin system of guitar and drums. I hope you don’t feel bad that I arranged your work without permission, and I hope you, as the original creator, will allow it.

Of course, I won’t use it for commercial purposes. If that happens, I will pay royalties and use it legally.

Standard felt a deep interest after reading the email. He definitely placed the keyboard as the main instrument in the song, but he removed the keyboard and added a percussion instrument, the djembe?

He wanted to see the video quickly to find out if he was a guy who knew nothing about music or if he had made an interesting attempt.

-The vocals were done by Mr. Bang, the vocalist of the local band L&S. The rap was done by me and my friend.

Mr. Bang! It was an insanely cool name.

Standard reviewed the audio from the Long Beach party two more times, checked the existing setlist, and even went out to buy cigarettes and beer, but found that the download was not finished.

‘This goddamn neighborhood.’

The internet seems particularly slow here.

Exhausted from waiting, Standard dozed off in front of the computer and woke up in the early morning due to the uncomfortable position.

“Damn it… what time is it?”

Looking at the clock, it was 3:30. Rubbing his sleepy eyes, he saw that the download was complete on the computer screen.

Standard was so sleepy that he was thinking about just going to sleep, but he felt it was a waste to have waited this long, so he opened the video. When he opened the video file, he saw a stage filmed in incredibly clear quality.

“Damn it. You should have lowered the quality and sent it, except for the sound quality? The file size is crazy because of the quality.”

Four Asians were visible on the screen.

One was on drums, one on guitar, one on djembe, and one on the microphone.

The four Asians, who were chattering in an unknown language, soon began to play.

“Oho.”

Standard, who felt interested in the intro that started with Bang Min-shik’s humming, focused on the video. When it came to Junhyung’s rap, Standard nodded and kept the beat.

Sleepiness slowly disappeared from his sleepy eyes.

“Straight up!”

Standard shouted when the hook came out. Welder, who was half-awake on the sofa, grumbled and fell asleep again.

‘The hook is amazing?’

The arrangement is dry, centered on percussion, but the chorus is such a melodic hook!

Finally, when the hook ended and Sanghyun’s rap began, Standard was silent. He watched Sanghyun’s rap without breathing. As the video came to an end, he broke the silence and uttered an exclamation mixed with curses.

“Oh my fucking god!”

***

Sanghyun and Junhyung went to L&S’s practice room whenever they had time. Even if they didn’t practice, they enjoyed meeting musicians. Bright ideas often came up during small talk.

L&S members sometimes evaluated Sanghyun as a ‘knowledgeable person who doesn’t know well.’ This was because Sanghyun was ignorant of professional music knowledge, but he was strangely sensitive to the direction, inspiration, and trends of music.

Of course, it was due to Sanghyun’s 20 years of listening experience. Thanks to this, L&S was able to gain a lot of inspiration through Sanghyun, and Sanghyun was able to gain a lot of knowledge thanks to L&S.

Not only Sanghyun but also Sangmi often came to the practice room.

Rather than coming to play, Sanghyun brought Sangmi so that she wouldn’t be left alone at home, and Sangmi became friends with L&S members, especially Miju, faster than expected.

Sangmi seemed to be completely regaining her old self. The weekly counseling sessions were also reduced to once every two weeks. According to the doctor, there was almost no problem except for a severe dependence on Sanghyun, her only family. Her agoraphobia [fear of places and situations that might cause panic, helplessness, or embarrassment] also improved a lot.

Sanghyun sent Sangmi and her friends to the amusement park for a Saturday off.

He wanted Sangmi to get some fresh air because she seemed to be stuck at home too much, and he also had a place to go with Junhyung.

“How many people?”

“Four people.”

“So, six including us?”

“That’s right.”

Sanghyun and Junhyung were waiting for people at the coffee shop. The people they were waiting for were the crew members that Junhyung had gathered with all sorts of hardships.

< Verse 3. 888 Crew > End

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