The Rap Star [EN]: Chapter 94

“Hyung! Inhyuk hyung! Get up on stage quickly!”

“Huh? On stage?”

The crew members were already out of the broadcast van, watching the Gwangju Up music video. Since the Gwangju Up music video wasn’t being broadcast through Baseball Story, they couldn’t see it in the van.

“Why?”

“We have to do Gwangju Up.”

Sanghyun urged the crew members. The first verse of the music video was coming to an end. The 888 crew members, realizing Sanghyun’s intention, went up on stage, but a staff member approached with a troubled expression.

“We only have four wireless microphones. What should we do?”

Originally, only Sanghyun, Junhyung, and Hayeon were the performers for Gwangju Up, so only one other person could hold a microphone.

“Should we give you the headsets that Code Name uses?”

“Ugh, headsets are enough for me at the PC cafe.”

Park Inhyuk shuddered. When the staff member handed over the microphone, everyone’s attention turned to one person: Sangmi.

“Sangmi, you use this microphone.”

“Me? Is that okay?”

“Of course. You can do well, right?”

Sanghyun led Sangmi to the center of the stage. Sangmi swallowed nervously, but she didn’t back down.

Today, Sangmi was the only one of the eight crew members who hadn’t been on stage. Woominho had also created a great scene with the MPC [Music Production Controller]. Sangmi was also a member of the 888 crew and a great help to everyone. So, she shouldn’t feel left out just because she was the only one not on stage.

The crew members were all mindful of this, and they handed the microphone to Sangmi with one heart and one mind.

“You know all the lyrics, right?”

“Yeah, but I didn’t practice doubling like the others…”

“This song isn’t a solo song, it’s a song that the 888 crew sings together. Just sing it however you feel from beginning to end. You can forget the lyrics, you can mess up. The other seven will be singing anyway.”

The moment Sanghyun stroked Sangmi’s hair, a static noise was heard. Then, sparks flew on the stage.

The members on stage exchanged glances. Then they looked around and started acting badly.

“Where are you! Come out this instant!”

Park Inhyuk ran around the stage, shouting. Oh Minji, who was seriously committed to acting, frowned.

The chorus began.

Gwangju UP! Gwangju UP!

Light (光) High (高) Town (州) Gwangju UP!

Gwangju UP, the city of culture and art!

Gwangju UP, where we live!

The ‘Up!’ sound wasn’t heard well. The sound of balloons colliding, higher in hertz than the voices, filled the stadium.

Among the audience, several banners with the words ‘Gwangju UP!!!’ fluttered. It was hard to see from a distance, but it seemed like Kim Hyemi, the Tigers supporter he had met on the street, had kept her promise.

Sanghyun started rapping.

No, everyone started rapping together.

Beauties spotted arriving at Gwangju Station

Dressed with sense, befitting the city of art

A city blessed with the spirit of Mudeung Mountain

Thanks to that, a stronger accent than elsewhere

Sanghyun threw his microphone to Inhyuk and sang the rap enthusiastically with Sangmi into one microphone. Blood couldn’t be denied; Sangmi was quite good at rapping too.

The audience cheered at the exciting atmosphere. They had already encountered the song through the music video, so their concentration was exceptional. Wycoming and Lonely Road were also successful performances, but they couldn’t compare to the reaction to Gwangju Up.

Tigers players in the dugout, Incheon Sky players, staff, and club officials all shouted ‘Up’ with one heart and one mind.

“Gwangju!”

Up-!

“Gwangju!”

Up-!

Light (光) High (高) Town (州) Gwangju UP!

Gwangju UP, the city of culture and art!

Gwangju UP, where we live!

Just as the chorus was about to repeat, someone began to enter the audience’s view.

A player wearing a Tigers uniform with the number 33.

The tall player with broad shoulders came up on stage with two bats and started dancing like crazy.

-It’s Han Gwangsoo!

-Han Gwangsoo-!

The player’s identity was Han Gwangsoo.

‘What?!’

Sanghyun wore a flustered but excited expression.

In fact, he had previously asked Deputy Go Won-guk if he could get Han Gwangsoo on stage. At that time, Deputy Go Won-guk said that he would ask Han Gwangsoo, but it might be difficult because it could ruin his condition before the game.

Sanghyun quickly changed the lyrics and sang.

Gwangsoo UP! Gwangsoo UP!

Light (光) Hit (漆) Can (數) Gwangsoo UP!

Han Gwangsoo hit the two bats together like balloon sticks, inducing cheers. The audience responded with tremendous noise.

Excited, Han Gwangsoo snatched Park Inhyuk’s microphone and sang the chorus with his name in it himself.

Gwangsoo UP! Gwangsoo UP!

Light (光) Hit (漆) Can (數) Gwangsoo UP!

In fact, Han Gwangsoo had flatly rejected the offer to join the Gwangju Up stage. It was because his concentration would be blurred before the game.

The agency had repeatedly advised him that if the performance went well, his image would be solidified from a transfer student to a Gwangju Tigers man, but he flatly refused. It wasn’t that he didn’t like the song or didn’t want to go on stage, but he was really worried about his condition.

However, the moment he saw the Gwangju Up performance stage, Han Gwangsoo, who was already full of excitement, couldn’t stand it. It seemed ten thousand times more exciting than the Gwangju UP performance video that his girlfriend had briefly shown him.

Gwangsoo UP! Gwangsoo UP!

Light (光) Hit (漆) Can (數) Gwangsoo UP!

Han Gwangsoo’s input helped the atmosphere, which seemed to have no more room to rise, to rise further.

Verse 2 began, and the 888 crew’s group singing continued as well. Hayeon and Junhyung faithfully built up the backup sound within the established framework and matched the doubling. The remaining members rapped and shouted within the unestablished framework.

Chamisul is good, but we prefer Ipsaeju [a local soju brand]

Rankings don’t matter, We love Gwangju Tigers

Gwangju UP. Gwangju UP.

Yes, proud hometown Gwangju LOVE

The location of my heart is always next to Gwangju

Gwangju Up (業) that we complete while living

Since eight members were rapping, the delivery wasn’t perfect. But it didn’t matter.

Among the twelve thousand spectators listening to this song, wouldn’t about half of them visit the Tigers website to watch the music video? And wouldn’t they read the lyrics that come out next to it?

Sanghyun smiled contentedly and sang the chorus. He confirmed an important fact today. It was the power of a song created by pursuing music itself, not by seeking money or fame.

People who make content often say this:

It is difficult to get a thousand people to see content shared by a hundred people, but it is easy to get ten thousand people to see content seen by a thousand people, and one hundred thousand people to see content seen by ten thousand people.

Once a certain level of sharing is reached, the content becomes organic and has the power to spread on its own. This was also the reason why Facebook was so incredibly successful.

At least ten thousand people were watching the 888 crew’s performance now, and even more people across the country were watching baseball on TV.

Today’s performance was an opportunity for the 888 crew to finally break out of the mold of underground hip-hop and expand nationwide, and it was a day to make their name widely known.

But the important thing was that they were still inheriting the spirit of the underground.

Be the Underground.

Sanghyun, Sangmi, Hayeon, Junhyung, Inhyuk, Hwan, and Minho shouted the last chorus with all their might.

Gwangju UP! Gwangju UP!

Light (光) High (高) Town (州) Gwangju UP!

Gwangju UP, the city of culture and art!

Gwangju UP, where we live!

***

Silence flowed in the Code Name members’ waiting room. The members didn’t say a word until the manager, Deputy Go Won-guk, and Team Leader Ahn Cheol-seung made them wait next to the dugout.

-Wowwwww!

-Gwangju Up! Gwangju Up!

-Han Gwangsoo!

-888! 888!

The tremendous cheers filled the stadium, and the cheers dampened the Code Name members’ spirits.

They had never thought that hip-hop music could elicit this level of cheers. They practiced rapping according to the concept set by the company, and they accepted the songs and lyrics written by the company. That was exactly what the Code Name members had been doing.

They felt the limitations of hip-hop music every time they released a new song. It was a genre that was difficult to be accepted in the Korean music market. They felt and accepted a very clear limitation.

But the sight unfolding before their eyes was completely shattering their preconceived notions.

“Ah, fuck…”

The first words the Code Name members, who hadn’t said a word from the start of Lonely Road to the end of Gwangju Up, spat out were swear words.

It was an outpouring of tremendous pressure.

‘A performance after this…?’

The most successful song among Code Name’s songs so far was a song called ‘Let’s Play.’ It had even reached number one on music sites for a few hours. And they had also sung ‘Let’s Play’ on programs like the year-end music awards.

At that time, there were stellar singers ahead of them. But to be sure, there was no singer who made them not want to go on stage and put pressure on them like this. Of course, there was a conflict with the 888 crew, and there was a reason why they made the same genre of music.

“Hyung, you prepared the MR [music recorded without vocals], right?”

“The first song is ‘Let’s Play’.”

Originally, they had no intention of singing ‘Let’s Play’ today. This was because ‘Let’s Play’ was characterized by intense performances and dances that left them breathless, due to the nature of the party song.

However, after seeing Wycoming, they had no choice but to quickly put ‘Let’s Play’ on the set list. And they thought that they might be able to win because ‘Let’s Play’ was a hit song.

But, no.

The crazy atmosphere that Gwangju Up had spread in Mudeung Stadium following Lonely Road was unbearable.

But they couldn’t skip the performance, and the Code Name members had to go on stage.

“Hello! We are Code Name!”

When the members shouted together, the audience erupted in tremendous cheers. It was a cheer they had never received, even after performing at hundreds of events.

The Code Name members were energized by the cheers.

Yes, no matter how hard the 888 crew rapped, they were already popular celebrities, or so they thought. But it didn’t take even a minute for that thought to be revealed as a delusion.

The cheers were still there when the intro to ‘Let’s Play’ first came out. But the cheers were a message of encouragement and expectation: show us the crazy hip-hop vibe that the 888 crew showed!

-No, no, no, no, let’s play once!

The performance began, and the Code Name members’ choreography, full of poison, began. But the atmosphere gradually became strange. The atmosphere of the people who cheered at first faded, and finally, an awkward reaction began to come out.

The audience wasn’t stupid. There was no way they couldn’t distinguish between the ‘real voice’ of the 888 crew, which was spewed out through the three main speakers, and the recorded voice.

“What, it’s lip-syncing.”

“It’s not fun.”

“Aren’t they celebrities? Why are they so bad?”

Even Code Name’s original fans thought the stage was boring.

It couldn’t be helped.

The sound of music made with all their might, pouring out their souls as Sanghyun put it, and music recorded in a recording studio had to be different.

Of course, Code Name’s music, which had huge capital invested and a number of engineers and producers attached, was smooth and pleasant to listen to. But that was it. Something that touched people’s hearts didn’t exist.

And it was the same with the two songs that followed ‘Let’s Play’. No, the two songs that were less famous received a really miserable reaction.

The Code Name members, who performed three songs and left, had their heads bowed.

***

The 888 crew members finished their performance and watched the baseball game in a spot prepared by the Tigers club. The adults were excited and drank beer, and the minors drank cider and tore at chicken legs.

“Um, excuse me, can you, can you sign something for me?”

“Of, of course! Should we take a picture together too?”

The viewing seats where the 888 crew was gathered soon turned into a hot place. People flocked endlessly. The members watched baseball with the audience, took pictures, signed autographs, shook hands, and chatted.

“Wowwwww!”

When a Tigers player hit a hit, they shouted together, and when Han Gwangsoo entered the plate and the cheer song came out, they sang the song together enthusiastically.

-Thud!

The game was fun. It was a close game with ups and downs.

However, the Gwangju Tigers, who had poured all their energy into the cheering match, lost the first game as if by a lie… but Han Gwangsoo’s two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth inning turned the game around.

-Gwangsoo Up! Gwangsoo Up! Light (光)! Hit (漆) Can (數)! Gwangsoo Up!

Han Gwangsoo’s cheer song filled Mudeung Stadium, and the 888 crew members also sang the cheer song together, tearing their throats.

< Verse 14. Be the Underground (End) > End

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