RAP STAR

Chapter 79 [verse 13. Circle]

Sanghyun was feeling a mix of anticipation and anxiety about the rhyme controversy that he had sparked. Firstly, the reason he felt anticipation was because the direction of the controversy seemed promising. It was about the expression style and potential development of Korean rap. In fact, because Korea is in the cultural sphere of Chinese characters, it was relatively easy to rhyme words by simply matching the final characters, excluding some pure Korean words. However, this raised the issue of whether the word usage fit the context and theme of the entire song.

Therefore, rappers had researched various methods over time, and the answers varied. Verbal Jint utilized rhymes within consecutive lines to find diverse rhymes, while Swings emphasized sentences using rhetorical devices and created suitable rhymes. Dok2 mixed English and Korean, and E Sens explained that in songs like "Trouble," words like "피고 (pigoh)" and "현기증 (hyungijeung)" provided a similar feeling, hence they were considered rhymes. There were countless other methodologies.

Although the exact timeline is uncertain, the controversy arose around 2007 and was resolved around 2008. Hence, Sanghyun had a strange sense of anticipation that the controversy he initiated might accelerate progress by about two years.

On the contrary, the reason Sanghyun felt anxious was due to doubts about whether the current hip-hop scene had accumulated enough foundation for evolution. As far as Sanghyun could recall, the Korean hip-hop scene had undergone four major transformations.

The first was in 1999, with the release of the album "1999 대한민국 (1999 Republic of Korea)," which can be considered the starting point of Korean underground hip-hop history. This album formed the underground market and attracted numerous aspiring rappers.

The second was in 2007, at the end of what is commonly referred to as the golden era of Korean hip-hop (2004-2007), which saw the birth and development of many rappers. Verbal Jint, San E, Swings, and Basic emerged, while Supreme Team, Dok2, and Beenzino were born or achieved musical progress. Verbal Jint's album "누명 (Nuumyeong)" solidified his position as a classic in Korean hip-hop history.

The third was in 2012, with the emergence of outstanding rap stars and the introduction of the TV program "Show Me the Money," which significantly expanded the Korean hip-hop market. While there were many opinions that "Show Me the Money" moved Korean hip-hop in a negative direction, it undeniably expanded the market size several times over.

The term "rap star" began to be used, and musicians who made big money through hip-hop emerged. The year 2012 marked the beginning of the commercialization of the hip-hop scene, completely erasing the title of "their own league" and starting the process of popularization through external capital.

There was also a backlash against such popularization. Rappers who inherited the spirit of "Be The Underground" emerged, starting with E Sens' "에넥도트 (Anecdote)," a masterpiece.

The last transformation was in 2020, when Korean, Japanese, and Chinese rappers from non-English cultural backgrounds began to knock on Billboard's door. Keith Ape's "잊지마 (It G Ma)," released in January 2015, received a great response in the United States, and Korean-American rappers like Nafla and Loopy gained recognition. In the same year, Tablo collaborated with Joey Bada$$.

After that, producers entered the US market, and rappers began to draw a bigger picture. It was a time when rappers aimed at the distant US market, and they started to envision larger goals.

Sanghyun's worry was about the gap between these changes in 1999, 2007, 2012, and 2020.

This gap was not just a void. It was a time to accumulate enough nutrients for the leap to the next era. In 2007, when Verbal Jint released the album "누명 (Nuumyeong)" and promoted the slogan of "birth of new Korean rhymes," it generated a large number of fans and anti-fans simultaneously. In the midst of such controversy, the Next Stage was formed and developed.