The Rap Star [EN]: Chapter 58

< Verse 9. Twisted World >

“Team Leader.”

“What! Damn it, don’t tell me bad news.”

“Well… the front desk called, and the negotiation fell through. They absolutely won’t allow the theme song.”

“Ugh…”

Ahn Cheol-seung, the PR team leader of the Gwangju Tigers, sighed deeply. The weather was sweltering, and nothing seemed easy.

“Turn up the air conditioning.”

“The front desk will complain if we go over the regulated temperature.”

“Damn it… I mean, the Pyrus guys are even offering royalties, so what’s the problem?”

“It’s because they’re our rivals. And he’s a key hitter, isn’t he?”

“Did you tell the front desk that we absolutely have to get it?”

“They won’t budge.”

The Gwangju Tigers and the Ulsan Pyrus have been long-time rivals.

It started 16 years ago when Gwangju recruited the famous coach who led Ulsan Pyrus to victory. Since then, there have been a lot of issues whenever there’s a trade between the Tigers and the Pyrus.

Recently, the Gwangju Tigers acquired Han Gwang-soo, the fourth hitter from the Ulsan Pyrus, and Ulsan Pyrus is absolutely refusing to give up Han Gwang-soo’s theme song and entrance music.

“Petty bastards.”

“If you think about it, we kept Lee Wang-hyo’s cheering song three years ago.”

“I told them to give it back, but the higher-ups threw a fit and said absolutely not. They can’t see the bigger picture.”

Team Leader Ahn Cheol-seung cursed and put a cigarette in his mouth. But he didn’t have the courage to light it. The four letters ‘Absolutely No Smoking’ on the wall caught his eye.

“Ah, so what do we do? Han Gwang-soo’s cheering song is his irreplaceable trademark.”

Usually, the club pays royalties for the original song and arranges it, so the club has secondary rights. In other words, you can’t use it without permission unless the club sells it.

The Gwangju Tigers drew up a blueprint to attract fans from neutral areas by acquiring the superstar Han Gwang-soo, but it was creaking from the start.

In baseball, where admission revenue is everything, cheering songs are a very important element.

Usually, the number of songs sung in a game ranges from 50 to 60, and professional baseball uses about 600 cheering songs in total.

“Um… but Han Gwang-soo has a request.”

“What request?”

“If the existing cheering song can’t be used, he wants to replace it with another song.”

“What is it? A song he used in his first year?”

“No. It’s a completely new song. I listened to it, and it’s pretty good. It suits Han Gwang-soo well too.”

“Really? Let’s hear it.”

“But… there’s a problem.”

Ahn Cheol-seung frowned, spitting out the cigarette he had been chewing on.

“Why are there so many problems? Why? Is the copyright holder unclear? Or is it another team’s song?”

“No. It’s the opposite. The song has no copyright at all.”

“What does that mean? No copyright? Did Han Gwang-soo make the song? No, then Han Gwang-soo would be the copyright holder.”

“It’s a song that doesn’t exist yet.”

Ahn Cheol-seung got angry.

“A song that doesn’t exist? Are you making fun of me?”

Ahn Cheol-seung’s subordinate, sweating profusely, led him to the computer.

“Just listen to it.”

Ahn Cheol-seung put on the earphones his subordinate gave him. There was a song on the computer desktop, as if he had prepared it in advance.

‘What? It’s a video?’

It wasn’t a song, it was a video. The video showed a dark stage.

“What’s with this camera angle?”

“An amateur filmed it.”

When the young, no, young man in the video started introducing the song, the subordinate skipped the video by about a minute. Suddenly, there was a static noise.

“Damn it! Oh, really!”

The moment Ahn Cheol-seung cursed, enraged by the sudden noise, a cheerful beat started with the song. Ahn Cheol-seung barely swallowed his curse and focused on the song. As he listened, he automatically concentrated.

Ahn Cheol-seung’s expression, which started with ‘What is this?’, gradually became serious.

The three-minute song ended in an instant.

“What’s the title of this song?”

“Gwangju UP,” the subordinate quickly replied.

“Han Gwang-soo wants to change it to ‘Gwangsoo UP’. If we can use this song, he wants to use it as both his entrance ‘theme song’ and the ‘main song’ that plays when he hits a hit.”

“Gwangsoo UP… that suits him.”

“Right? I think so too, and Han Gwang-soo seems to like it a lot.”

It suits Han Gwang-soo well. He’s a big hitter, but his image in interviews and with his colleagues is playful.

Ahn Cheol-seung, who had been thinking for a while, suddenly remembered something.

“But what’s with the nonsense about a song that doesn’t exist?”

“It’s exactly as it sounds. The song you just heard exists, but it’s not registered as a sound source.”

“Huh? It’s not in the Korea Music Copyright Association [KOMCA]?”

“It’s not just in the Korea Music Copyright Association, it’s nowhere. There’s only that live video.”

“Are they the owners of the song? Is it a cover song?”

“It’s not a cover song. It’s a band called L&S that’s active in Gwangju, and according to what I’ve found out, the owner of the song is Lee Sang-hyun, a high school student who is a guest rapper for the L&S band. He’s quite famous.”

Ahn Cheol-seung shook his head.

“This is going to be complicated.”

“Right?”

If the song Gwangju UP was registered for copyright, things would be simple.

KBOP, which is in charge of KBO’s [Korean Baseball Organization] marketing, pays money to three related organizations, including the copyright association, on an annual basis, and the problem is solved. Of course, that money is deducted from each club’s revenue.

But if the copyright isn’t registered, you have to negotiate with this Lee Sang-hyun guy. Korea has adopted the non-formalism copyright, so the fact that Lee Sang-hyun is the author never changes.

The problem is if this Lee Sang-hyun guy gets greedy for money during the negotiation. Then Lee Sang-hyun becomes the boss, and the PR team becomes the subordinate.

“Ah, geez. Can’t we just register with the copyright association? Is L&S or whatever famous? How great would it be if we just did some media play and said we didn’t know, it was a coincidence? We’d save money too? We’d get some flak for a while, but?”

“I roughly calculated it, and more than 10,000 people have seen that video in various places.”

“Ah, damn it! I’ve never even heard of them, how are they so famous!”

The subordinate scratched his head and briefly told Ahn Cheol-seung, who was yelling, about the story involving show business, L&S, 888 Crew, and Under Kidd.

“To put it in a nutshell, it’s the center of attention among bands and hip-hop artists, right?”

“The song that’s become the center of attention is another song called ‘Fxxk the Show Biz’, but Gwangju UP is mentioned in that song. It’s even mentioned in the Show Business magazine.”

The Gwangju UP video will be uploaded soon, and

If you feel regionalism after listening to that song, you have poop in your ears.”

Ahn Cheol-seung listened to ‘Fxxk the Show Biz’ to confirm. It’s certain. This is a dirty job. In the end, if you want to use this song, you have to negotiate with Lee Sang-hyun personally.

‘Ah, but this guy is an interesting character.’

Ahn Cheol-seung is listening to rap for the first time since the songs that ‘Roo’Ra’ or ‘Clon’ sang, and it’s quite interesting.

“Hey. Let’s proceed in two directions.”

“Tell me.”

“One, first ask Han Gwang-soo if he can use another song.”

“I don’t think so? He seems completely hooked.”

“Ah, damn it! Just do it if I tell you to!”

The subordinate hurriedly nodded.

“Second, go find this Lee Sang-hyun kid and coax him gently. Tell him we’ll record for free and give him free baseball tickets. So, coax him to see if we can just use it as a cheering song.”

“If he says no, should we just smoothly register the copyright?”

“That’s right. Make sure Lee Sang-hyun doesn’t think, ‘Oh, what? Am I being taken advantage of? Should I sign a contract personally?'”

“I understand!”

“Go, you.”

The subordinate left the office. Ahn Cheol-seung secretly lowered the air conditioner temperature to 20 degrees and watched the Gwangju UP video several times.

It’s frustratingly good. He can picture Han Gwang-soo hitting a hit and shouting ‘Gwangsoo UP!’

“Ah, damn it!”

Ahn Cheol-seung threw the mouse and pressed the buttons on his cell phone to send a text message to his subordinate.

-Buy some gifts when you go to see Lee Sang-hyun and suck up to him! Anyway, make a good impression!

***

The Jeonju World Wide Indie Music Festival has ended.

L&S advanced to the semi-finals by defeating Golden Finger with Cha In-hyun’s ‘Once in a Lifetime’, but lost in the semi-final stage where Sang-hyun was the main performer.

The song ‘On the Hill’ was created by Sang-hyun with determination for the Jeonju World Music Festival, but there were too many mistakes. It was as if the lyrics had leaked out because his head was full of thoughts about the ‘Once in a Lifetime’ that Cha In-hyun had stolen.

Sang-hyun forgot the lyrics three times, and once he even forgot two bars entirely.

“Good job.”

“I’m sorry. Hyung… [Older brother or respected male figure]”

“No. Thanks to you, we made it to the semi-finals, what are you sorry about?”

Sang-hyun’s heart grew heavier at Bang Min-sik’s sincere consolation.

If they had won just one more time, the runner-up prize would have been 5 million won [approximately $3,700 USD].

If they had won one more time there, the grand prize would have been 10 million won [approximately $7,400 USD].

But Sang-hyun was so grateful for Bang Min-sik and the L&S members who didn’t care about such things at all.

‘But…’

Sang-hyun now had to make a choice. L&S has Cha In-hyun. For the band L&S, Cha In-hyun is an irreplaceable vocalist.

The problem was that Sang-hyun could no longer face Cha In-hyun.

Maintaining a good relationship with L&S meant covering up the problem with Cha In-hyun, and that was unacceptable.

‘Why am I so angry at Cha In-hyun?’

Sang-hyun tried to sort out his own feelings on the bus from Jeonju to Gwangju. In the process, he was able to confirm some emotions that were in his subconscious.

First of all, Sang-hyun really, really likes Caliph.

For someone, this situation might just be the loss of a song they liked, but for Sang-hyun, it was more than that.

Sang-hyun bought Caliph’s albums, looked up his stories, and savored the lyrics, saving money on food, and he projected himself onto Caliph. He was like a spiritual substitute for Sang-hyun, who wanted to make music but couldn’t because of the burden of being the head of the family.

He sincerely sympathized with Caliph’s poor and unfortunate family history, and he was sincerely happy for his success. He had gained strength from his lyrics many times.

This Caliph was Rapstar himself to Sang-hyun.

Of course, it all started with ‘Once in a Lifetime’.

‘But…’

There was a bigger reason for Sang-hyun’s anger at Cha In-hyun than respect for Caliph.

It was absolution.

The reason Cha In-hyun was able to steal Caliph’s song was entirely because of Sang-hyun. The only person who can sing a song that doesn’t exist yet. A person who has done something very reckless about that.

Sang-hyun was getting angrier at Cha In-hyun in order to be forgiven for his mistake. Like a young child telling on his younger sibling’s bigger crime so as not to be scolded by his parents.

Even though he realized these feelings, nothing changed.

Cha In-hyun stole Caliph’s future, and Sang-hyun was furious.

“We have something to talk about, right?”

Those were Sang-hyun’s first words when he called Cha In-hyun.

< Verse 9. Twisted World > End

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