The Rap Star [EN]: Chapter 90

< Verse 14. Be the Underground >

***

“Did the team leader just…?”

“Huh? Did I hear that right?”

Deputy Director Go Won-guk and Team Leader Ahn Cheol-seung, who were watching the performance through the window in the hallway next to the Codename waiting room, widened their eyes.

“Codename, shut up?”

“Since ‘Myeong’ is a name, is it ‘Codename Shut Up’?”

“Wow, they’re dissing [disrespecting] the show business and are merciless. Were they always such a militant group?”

“Aren’t rappers usually like fighting cocks [aggressive and competitive]?”

“Is that so?”

Ahn Cheol-seung grinned.

Originally, Codename should have been waiting in the relay vehicle next to the stage. However, not knowing what might happen inside, Codename was placed on standby at the information center on the first floor, closest to the stage.

“If they were in the relay vehicle, they would be fighting in the second round, right?”

“That’s right. Wouldn’t Codename’s faces be all bruised when they came up?”

Team Leader Ahn Cheol-seung and Deputy Director Go Won-guk, who were psychologically closer to 888, laughed as they spoke.

“But they’re lip-syncing, right? And they definitely put on makeup.”

“That’s right. I checked Codename’s AR [all recorded audio track], and they just brought the released track instead of an AR for the performance.”

“Hmm, they must have heard the lyrics, right? I wonder what their reaction is.”

“Who knows? Maybe they’ll prepare to perform live now?”

“Do they have that kind of grit?”

At that moment, the door to the waiting room opened, and the manager walked out hesitantly.

“Team Leader, is it possible to change the song now?”

“Yes? Ah, well, if a performance MR [music recorded track] is prepared, there shouldn’t be any difficulty.”

“The MR is included on the CD we gave you.”

“Really? Won-guk, go with the manager and quickly deliver it to the sound team. Manager, just follow this guy.”

“Ah, thank you.”

“You’re going through a lot.”

The manager, sighing with various meanings, headed to the sound team with Deputy Director Go Won-guk.

***

Why Come, Why For, Why Stand. Ho-!

888 is here, everyone-

– Scream!

With the audience’s enthusiastic response, Hwang In-soo’s drums signaled the end of Why Coming. Why Coming, consisting of Oh Min-ji, Park In-hyuk, and Kim Hwan’s full three verses, finally came to an end.

The sound of inflatable sticks clashing and the roar of cheers filled the stadium.

People who came to enjoy the semi-playoff regional festival were already in high spirits, and their reactions were generous. Despite being a singer and song they were seeing and hearing for the first time, the cheers were tremendous.

Of course, the biggest contributor to this reaction was Oh Min-ji’s opening rap.

“Thank you! Thank you so much!”

“Thank you! We are the 888 crew, fans of the Gwangju Tigers!”

Once again, the audience cheered. The exciting atmosphere that Why Coming had created for the audience was maintained.

After Park In-hyuk and Kim Hwan finished their greetings, Min-ji’s prepared remarks began.

“W-we will be performing a total of three songs today.”

Min-ji’s voice echoed through the main speaker. Even though the performance was over, she was still nervous. It seemed she was more relaxed when doing the verses. Even though she made a mistake.

“The title of the song we just performed is Why Coming. Y-you guys are here to enjoy the p-playoffs, right?”

The audience shouted at Min-ji’s stiff voice, as if reading from a textbook.

-Semi-playoffs!

-It’s not the playoffs!

-Don’t you know baseball!

“Uh…….”

Min-ji, flustered by her mistake, looked around, not knowing what to do, but Park In-hyuk and Kim Hwan were snickering and watching from afar.

Oh Min-ji didn’t react to the audience and recalled the memorized script before speaking again.

“T-the remaining two songs are also very exciting, so I hope they will be a delicious appetizer for those of you enjoying the playoffs.”

-It’s the semi-playoffs!

-Semi-playoffs!

The audience’s voices grew louder. Min-ji, not knowing what to do, said without realizing it,

“Anyway, the championship goes to the Gwangju Tigers!”

Min-ji was surprised by her own words and looked towards the Incheon Sky dugout. She made eye contact with the Incheon Sky players who were chewing gum and eating sunflower seeds while watching the performance.

‘Oh, mommy [expression of fear or regret].’

The Incheon Sky players were watching without much thought, thinking it was just a kind of marketing, but Min-ji felt a pang of guilt and lowered her eyes. And that scene was properly broadcast on the electronic display by a witty camera director.

The audience burst into laughter, and soon the Gwangju Tigers fans shouted. The sound of drums, boom boom boom!, erupted.

-Anyway, the championship goes to the Gwangju Tigers!

Soon, from the third base side where the away fans were, the cheering song of the Incheon Sky’s first batter, ‘No way – no way -,’ was heard. Then the Gwangju Tigers fans shouted once again.

-Anyway, the championship goes to the Gwangju Tigers!

The scene was also broadcast on OMB’s Baseball Story, which was being broadcast live.

“That’s an interesting scene, isn’t it?”

“Isn’t this the charm of the baseball stadium that you can’t feel unless you watch it in person? We are very happy that our Baseball Story can deliver interesting scenes to viewers who unfortunately missed the opportunity to watch it in person.”

The announcer’s comments continued, trying to promote the slogan ‘From congratulatory performances to behind-the-scenes stories’ in any way possible. Since they had to be quiet once the performance started, they had to talk as much as possible before the performance started.

“Come to think of it, it might be awkward for viewers to see the performers openly supporting one team.”

“This congratulatory performance was planned to have a confrontational aspect, like the semi-playoffs. The 888 crew, who are long-time fans of the Gwangju Tigers, and Codename, who are long-time fans of the Incheon Sky, are facing off from the pre-event. Of course, a performance by veteran singer Kim Soo-hee, which signifies harmony, is also prepared.”

“The competing teams coincidentally have the commonality of doing hip-hop music, right?”

“That’s another interesting point.”

While the announcers were talking, the cheering battle between the Gwangju Tigers and Incheon Sky fans continued. The voices of the Gwangju Tigers fans, who were in their home stadium, were much louder, but the Incheon Sky fans were not discouraged.

In the meantime, Sang-hyun, Jun-hyung, and Ha-yeon came up on stage.

The Gwangju Tigers fans, who were cheering, deliberately raised their voices and cheered. The shouts of Gwangju Tigers and 888 crew were heard together. The Incheon Sky fans booed, but the booing was barely audible because they were outnumbered.

“I’m sorry, oppa [term of endearment used by a younger woman to an older brother or male friend].”

Oh Min-ji, who came down from the stage, said to Park In-hyuk and Kim Hwan.

Park In-hyuk and Kim Hwan, who were wondering what she was talking about, caught on.

“You should have been more careful.”

“It’s okay. It happens.”

“Ah, I’m too dazed…… But what exactly did I do wrong? Looking at the beat ending correctly, I think I did the 16 bars correctly…….”

“Tsk, tsk, watch the performance video later. OMB Sports will rebroadcast it anyway.”

“Ah…… I bragged to my mom that I was on TV…….”

“It’s because you didn’t practice enough, practice.”

Oh Min-ji made a tearful face, and Park In-hyuk and Kim Hwan teased her, taking advantage of the situation. While they were joking around for a while, Park In-hyuk heard Jun-hyung’s greeting, ‘Hello!’

***

Sang-hyun took a deep breath and looked around.

The impression was simple. Wide and many.

Jun-hyung introduced the 888 crew with the prepared remarks and cheered for the Gwangju Tigers. Ha-yeon said that she also cheers for the Incheon Sky and asked for an exciting game.

Then the audiences on both sides shouted, and in the Gwangju Tigers cheering section, they shouted in a joking tone, ‘So who do you want to win?’

‘There are really a lot of them.’

When performing at Club Homi, there were about 1,200 audience members. And he felt that 1,200 people were too many to take in at a glance.

But here, there are 12,000 people.

‘Aren’t we performing in front of the most people among Korean rappers?’

He thought that his wild guess might not be so far-fetched. As he thought that, he involuntarily gripped the microphone in his hand.

Lonely Road.

At first glance, it sounded like a breakup or love song. But Lonely Road was the most swagger-filled song that the 888 crew had created so far.

Lonely Road. A road walked alone.

Because there is no one to stand shoulder to shoulder with, I am alone on the road.

Sang-hyun looked at Jun-hyung, who was holding the microphone and making ridiculous jokes. He sometimes shows such foolish sides, but Jun-hyung was definitely leadership material.

In fact, the song for today’s performance was originally not Lonely Road, but a song called Strong Swing. As the title suggests, Strong Swing was a song planned with the clear goal of being a baseball theme song.

There are theme songs that capture the characteristics of each sport. As one example, boxing has Survivor’s ‘Eye Of The Tiger,’ which is too famous as the OST [original sound track] for the movie Rocky. You may not know the song title, but there is no one who doesn’t know the melody ‘bam- bam bamm-bamm- bam bamm-,’ which plays whenever Rocky grits his teeth and exercises.

In the case of basketball, there is ‘The Final Match,’ the OST of The Final Match sung by Kim Min-kyo. Some may think of ‘Road to You,’ the OST of Slam Dunk.

Sang-hyun wanted to benchmark those songs and make ‘Strong Swing’ a song that goes very well with baseball.

‘Let’s compete thoroughly with content. This is a huge opportunity.’

‘So you’re saying we should make a song that’s good to sing at a baseball stadium?’

Sang-hyun thought that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity from a marketing perspective. The goal of a content creator is always external exposure, and the semi-playoffs are a great exposure opportunity with a lot of buzz.

Therefore, Sang-hyun, Jun-hyung, and Ha-yeon received a guide for a moderately paced instrumental song from L&S and began to create the chorus and lyrics. They didn’t have much time, so they spent almost all their time working on the song except when practicing for the performance.

Strong Swing was a song with an addictive hook that repeated the melody thickly, and easy rap written in baseball terms that came out 3 times in 8 bars each.

The final product was quite listenable.

It wasn’t enough to be sure that this was it!, but there was a sense of anticipation that it could stick to the ears and mouths of the audience if it was played a few times.

However, when Strong Swing was completed, Jun-hyung said.

‘This song is not it. I won’t do it if we’re going to perform with this.’

‘What? Why? Is the song bad?’

‘The song is good. But if we sing this song, something that the 888 crew has built up will collapse. I don’t know what it is. I can’t express it…… But I’m sure.’

Sang-hyun listened to Jun-hyung’s words and pondered all day. And finally, he was able to realize it.

Jun-hyung was asking.

A question of whether he can maintain the purity of art even after singing that song.

‘A fundamental problem.’

The Strong Swing that Sang-hyun made was not a song for ‘music.’ It was a song made for the ‘reward’ that he might get through this song.

Sang-hyun said in an interview with HiphopLE [Korean hiphop online magazine]. He doesn’t intend to deny money and fame, but it’s just a measure that we’re on the right track. He doesn’t make music for those things.

Great sports stars crave ‘victory,’ not prize money. Great painters crave ‘completion,’ not ‘sales amount.’ Of course, money is important. But it is a reward for effort, not everything for effort.

Perhaps this is the real difference between art and non-art? Even if they do the same thing.

Sang-hyun felt like his head was clearing up then.

‘If you make music for rewards, you can’t maintain passion and motivation unless you receive bigger rewards.’

He failed to express it nicely, but in the end, this is what Jun-hyung wanted to say.

‘Let’s erase it.’

‘What?’

‘Strong Swing, let’s erase it.’

‘No, well…… I don’t think we need to erase it?’

‘Really?’

At Sang-hyun’s question, Jun-hyung smiled and moved the mouse. Soon, the sound source file of Strong Swing and the project save left in the recording program were deleted.

‘Then what do we sing?’

‘There’s something we almost made last time. The one with only the verse guide. The temporary title was Solo, right?’

‘Are we going to do that at the semi-playoff performance? That has a solemn and crushing atmosphere rather than an exciting one. And it’s not completely finished yet.’

‘Are you going to do it? Or not?’

‘Ugh, let’s do it. Let’s just do it. I wanted to try this once with Ha-yeon. But what about the parts where the lyrics concept or chorus are not perfect?’

‘The concept is a lonely road. There are only a few lines of lyrics left.’

Lonely Road, today’s performance song, was born like that.

< Verse 14. Be the Underground > End

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