RAP STAR

Chapter 43 [verse 6. Fuck Tha Show Biz]

“As lunchtime passed, people started gathering in the workshop. The 888 Crew members, Baek In-hyuk, Kim Hwan, Oh Min-ji, and Shin Ha-yeon. Along with them were members of the band L&S, Min-sik, and Yong-jun. And guest keyboardist Mi-joo.

A strange silence hung in the workshop. Some were getting angry and speaking up, while others were silently pondering solutions. Seong-hyun stood somewhere in the middle.

As the silence lingered, Seong-hyun gave Jun-hyung a meaningful look. Regardless of what anyone said, Jun-hyung was the leader of the 888 Crew. It was right for Jun-hyung to take the lead in handling such matters.

Jun-hyung spoke up. "Did everyone see the magazine?"

"I bought it this morning and read it. I never imagined the interview would be edited like that," said Yong-jun.

Mi-joo, Seong-hyun, Jun-hyung, and Min-sik, who were at the interview venue, all agreed.

Then, law student Baek In-hyuk raised a question. "I wasn't at the interview, but if it was maliciously edited, couldn't we raise legal issues? There should be original recordings since they likely recorded it, right?"

Seong-hyun didn't express it, but he didn't think legal action would be as easy as In-hyuk believed. In-hyuk, as a law student, probably believed in the power of the law, but in reality, not many matters are resolved legally in society. Moreover, in this case, the likelihood of a proper legal challenge was low. There probably wouldn't be any recordings left.

Jun-hyung sighed and spoke up. "The editor mentioned at the end that they would edit the interview."

‘It would be great to publish the full interview in the magazine, but that's impossible due to space constraints, and there might be some edits in the parts where the conversation is compressed and summarized. We try to maintain the original nuance as much as possible, but sometimes there are complaints from musicians.’
‘Ah, that's okay.’

Seong-hyun reread the magazine he bought from the bookstore as soon as he woke up.

The beginning of the incident was simple. Originally, the July issue of Show Business magazine was supposed to feature an interview with a team called 'Indie Kid.'"

"Indie Kid, despite its name, was a team that dedicated themselves to Korean indie music for a long time. In short, they were the big adults of Korean indie music. They played difficult and high-level music, so their mainstream popularity was low, but they appeared on mainstream music programs several times and were respected by indie musicians. They were the musicians' musician, so to speak.

'It seemed like the release date was too rushed.'

L&S band and the 888 Crew stepped into the shoes of those musicians and entered the interview space. Of course, up to this point, it wasn't a huge problem even if it might upset Indie Kid's fans a bit, as the selection of interviews is something the magazine decides.

The real problem was the aggressively edited interview that replaced Indie Kid's interview. It provoked band players.

Q: What do you think about the future of band music and hip-hop music?

A: Lee Sang-hyun: Bands advocating rock or grunge music will lose their mainstream popularity. And I believe that indie music genres like black music will take their place. I've only been doing music for three months. Also, most of the songs on this performance's setlist were completed in just a day or two. But did the editor even see which song received the biggest cheers at this performance?

Seong-hyun never made such remarks. That answer was a cleverly edited response, combining three different responses from Seong-hyun.

The talk about Korean band music losing popularity seemed to stem from discussions about the sudden appearance of 'idol bands' following the popularity of Buzz.