Andrew

Christmas is almost here! And as a gift, we’re presenting you with a playlist full of Korean R&B underrated/unknown tracks. Listen to the up-and-coming, multi-talented artists of the Korean underground scene and find your new favourite songs.

---

Listen to the entire playlist:

1. Yungmoodmedia – Bad High
2. Channel 23 – Cloud
3. Jnkfood – You. (With Lym En & Hanscur)  
4. Steel – Tell Me Now (Feat.민영)
5. J.Lu – Erica (Feat. Rosy)
6. B-Jyun – C Ha Ng E
7. Steel – All Day (Feat. Sleek Jeezy)
8. 이아일 – Trust
9. Punchnello – True
10. Rheehab – 나여야만해 (It Has To Be Me)
11. Nodsgn – All I Wanna Do

---

1. Yungmoodmedia – Bad High

Yungmoodmedia is comprised of singer Cokebath, rapper Lafic, and producer O.V. Cokebath and Lafic are also part of the PIRAPS crew (Ambition Musik/Show Me The Money 5 rapper Hash Swan is a crewmate as well). With excellent singing, rapping, AND producing, I’m expecting big things from Yungmoodmedia in the future. It’s interesting to note that Lafic created the album artwork for Mad Clown’s “거짓말 (Lie)” and San E’s “나쁜년 (Bad Year)”, and directed the music videos for Junggigo/Palo Alto’s “Hey Bae” and Jay Moon’s “Ease Remix”. Talk about multi-talented!

---

2. channel 23 – cloud

channel 23 is a bit of a mystery to me. They posted a song on their Soundcloud two years ago, went on a hiatus, then posted two more tracks earlier in the month. I don’t know what they did in the past couple years but the new songs are bomb. As for who actually makes up channel 23, they linked two instagram accounts on their profile so I’m going to assume they’re a duo (@ch_oia1 & @ch.wusgood). “cloud” gives off vibes similar to HIGHGRND artist offonoff’s songs.

---

3. jnkfood – you. (with Lym en & Hanscur)

Producer jnkfood collabed with singer Lym en and rapper Hanscur to create this track. I’m diggin’ the beat and chill vibes – perfect for those rainy days. You may remember Lym en from juiceoveralcohol crewmate Lil Money’s song “hcilu” that was featured in the first Underground Korean R&B post.

---

4. Steel – Tell Me Now (Feat.민영 [Minyoung])

Steel is a producer and to my surprise, a seriously good singer. How are these underground artists so damn talented yet still relatively unknown? In “Tell Me Now”, Minyoung and Steel’s voices effortlessly blend to create a perfect harmony. Fun fact: Minyoung is just a music student at Hanyang University but recently had one of her covers go viral with over 450,000 views on a popular Korean Facebook page! I love her voice and hope she’ll eventually break into the Korean music scene once she graduates.

---

5. J.Lu – Erica (Feat. Rosy)

Beatmaker J.Lu dropped a pretty dope mixtape titled “ON AND OFF” with spectacular guest vocalists like Say and Summer Soul but this track with Rosy was my favourite. Her airy vocals pairs well with J.Lu’s piano-focused beat to create a hauntingly beautiful track about longing for that one special person.

---

6. B-Jyun – Changes

B-Jyun also released an excellent mixtape recently (which you can download for free!) titled “#WAITFORMYBLUE”. It features both rap and R&B songs but “Changes” stood out to me most. Another favourite from the mixtape is “Perceived”, which features B-Jyun singing over the popular beat “Elhae’s Joint” by Rascal. If you’re looking for something that goes harder, check out the videos on his crew’s Facebook Page: Jay Co Bees.

---

7. Steel – All Day (Feat. Sleek Jeezy)

Down For It Records members Steel and Sleek Jeezy teamed up to make this sexy track. Although Steel didn’t make this particular beat, his vocals and falsetto are top tier and Sleek Jeezy provides a solid feature on the second verse to spice things up.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Q9qvcdQohKU

---

8. 이아일 – Trust

This is the song that actually introduced me to Channel 23. 이아일, who I assume is one half of the duo, really reminds me of Dean in this song. Which is meant to be a major compliment since Dean is currently one of the kings of the K-R&B scene right now. Does anyone else hear the similarity? I’m expecting BIG things from Channel 23 / 이아일 in the coming year.

---

9. punchnello – true

For me, punchnello can do no wrong. He put out so many dope tracks on his Soundcloud in the past year+ and released his first official mini-album with HIGHGRND that was straight fire. Dude is only 19 years old (born in 1997!) and is a strong contender to be my hiphop artist of the year. The beat for “true” was made by LIVOFFMIND producer IOAH who also has quality releases you can check out here.

---

10. Rheehab – 나여야만해 (It Has To Be Me)

Rheehab is a definite favourite underground artist of mine. The man has serious work ethic, releasing 18 songs in the past four months – 5 of which were released in the past month! I like to compare him to Jay Park because he’s so consistent with the quality of his releases. Every time Jay comes out with a feel-good R&B track, I know I’ll like it and I can depend on Rheehab to do the same. If you like this song, I strongly encourage you to check out his others on Souncloud or you can listen to my favourites in this playlist.

---

11. Nodsgn – All I Wanna Do

Last, but certainly not least, Nodsgn (pronounced “no design”)’s track “All I Wanna Do” is a love song that features a simple yet catchy beat. He provides both the vocals + rap and the song just puts me in such a good mood. Another artist to keep your eye on in the new year.

---

Daniel is the admin for undergroundkpop on Tumblr and runs “danielions music” on YouTube.