“Your beginnings will seem humble, so prosperous will your future be.” As ironic as it is, a quote from the Bible appropriately summarizes the path of Korean hip-hop. Since the appearance of songs imitating the music genre popular in America in 1990, hip-hop grew to be one of the mainstream cultures of the Korean music industry. Hip-hop songs begin to be ranked on the deserved place in music charts, and related issues dominate the search bars on the internet.

 

In the early 90’s, the genre of hip-hop introduced itself to the public in Korea with the name of ‘Rap Dance.’ It was a mixture of Korean pop of the time with a slight flavor of hip-hop. Another movement appeared in songs like ‘Bye (Annyeong)’ by Hae-Chul Shin, and ‘Dream (KKoom)’ by Hyun-Woo Lee, which showed insertion of one or two packets of 16 measure English raps into the songs. However, some experts do not take any of this as the start of Korean hip-hop. Both the movement had an attitude of imitating the trend-culture of the West, and the consciousness of taking it as Korean hip-hop was absent.

 

The justifiable beginning of Korean hip-hop is considered to be the appearance of Seotaiji and Boys, Jin-Young Hyun, and Deux. All of these artists showed adequate amount of hip-hop in their music. Especially, ‘I Know (Naan Aal-Aa-Yo)’ by Seotaiji and Boys gained popularity from teenagers, and the public started to recognize hip-hop.

 

Deux exhibited something closer to USA’s hip-hop. Their 2nd album ‘Deuxism’ scored a big hit with songs based on hip-hop. It contributed to the extension of the word ‘hip-hop’ as a frequently used word.

 

However, the music of the time cannot be called hip-hop perfectly. Seotaiji and Boys flavored a cross-over of hip-hop and metal. Hyun Jin-Young and Deux also had more portions on melody and singing. They did not perfectly compose music of rhythm and beat, but perform music of melody. Overall, they showed more of a rhythm and blues genre, specifically ‘New Jack Swing‘.

 

Influx of hip-hop still went on, and the scene started to gradually become bigger. Advocates of hip-hop grew slowly, and more artists performed hip-hop. In 1996‘s, two movements are witnessed in the Korean hip-hop scene. The first one is carried on by Korean artists that came from overseas. Uptown, Drunken Tiger, and more artists that had experienced hip-hop from the US showed off authentic hip-hop. The fluency of their rap in English was elaborate enough for the public to become aware that rap is not an ingredient of a song, but something comparable to singing.

 

The driving force of the second movement was interestingly the development of technology. It was the time when computers became more prevalent through the public. Though only basic communication was available at the time, it allowed people to make a large community in the cyber space. Thus, people who have interest in hip-hop started to connect with each other, and it created a community of hip-hop called Blacks. As it got larger and gained professionalism, dozens of people of Blacks opened a nightclub called Master Plan, and hip-hop concerts were held there every day.

 

Masterplan itself worked as a crew . a group of rappers working together . and in the small hip-hop scene, rappers at the time could be easily classified by being either a Masterplan member or not. As a gigantic crew, it lead the hip-hop scene of the time, and rappers from the crew holds a lot of influence to Korean hip-hop currently as well. This is the time when the underground hip-hop settles down stably, and wide enough to move up to the overground scene.

 

In 1997, Hyun-Seok Yang started Yang-Goon Solution. The enterprise starts with producing Jinusean, a hip-hop duo. They were able to introduce hip-hop in the overground scene. More artists are produced from Yang-Goon Solution, and they create YG Family . a crew. The company soon becomes a big company rooted from hip-hop, but it produces popular music far from hip-hop.

 

Though it is small, a room for hip-hop is created in both overground and underground. More hip-hop artists appear, and their constant production of hip-hop labels diversify and deepen the definition of Korean hip-hop. Thus, the hip-hop scene experiences development in both quality and quantity.

 

In 2013, a significant event happens in the Korean hip-hop scene. That is, ‘Control Crisis.’ With Swings pulling the trigger, rappers start to criticize each other by rapping on the beat of the song ‘Control’ by Big Sean. The criticism are about what they did in the hip-hop scene, and being off the track of real hip-hop in order to become a pop star.

 

This is definitely a note-worthy event. Competition and criticism are major components of the hip-hop culture, and this event demonstrated such trait meaningfully. This was able to show how mature the hip-hop scene has become. Furthermore, it worked as a mirror to introspect the hip-hop scene and correct the direction of hip-hop, which had been erroneously modifying itself as a tool for fulfilling personal greed rather than music itself.

 

Hip-hop now exists as one of the mainstream culture in Korea. Songs of the genre often take first place in music charts, and rappers occasionally appear on TV. Moreover, the reality TV program ‘Show Me the Money’, an open competition of rappers, was able to draw the general public’s attention, making it the hot topic for several months. What once used to be just an imitation of the foreign music, is now a popular music genre. The only step left to be in a stage of perfection is complete independence from US's, hip-hop; while it always seemed like the Korean hip-hop scene was catching up with the US’s it is time to overcome them and form an autonomous party. It is not that far away. Let’s just calm down and feel the beat.

 

 

By Jae-Won Eom (DG editor)