Music is a cornerstone of black culture. R&B is a descendant of the Negro spiritual. Hip hop is the voice of black and brown youth. Both genres come from great struggle. They’re voices for the disenfranchised, the exploited, the abused, and murdered. R&B and hip hop have become worldwide influences for all cultures and people. This, of course, includes the people of South Korea. Many singers, rappers, producers, songwriters, and composers gain inspiration from these genres and as a result profit from black culture and black fans.
We at HiphopKR know and appreciate these facts. In the end, these hallmarks of black culture are why HiphopKR exists. As such, we have a duty to absolutely stand by the people of this culture that we, as well as all South Korean R&B and hip-hop artists, gain so much from. Our black and brown friends all over the world have suffered endlessly throughout human history. With the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Dreasjon “Sean” Reed, and George Floyd all in the month of May, the unrest came to a head. Years of tension, fear, heartbreak, and anger has caused black and brown people to rise up and demand justice.
And we at HiphopKR stand with them.
Support from South Korean Artists
There has been an outpouring of support from the South Korean hip-hop and R&B communities. Jay Park and the artists and staff at both his AOMG and H1GHR MUSIC labels, Crush, Tiger JK, Dumbofundead, Rekstizzy, YEAR OF THE OX, Ann One, Syn, DAMYE, Jessi, DPR LIVE, and Sam Kim have all raised their voices. They’ve also provided resources for those from South Korea and of the South Korean diaspora who are allied with their black and brown peers in this fight.
An interpretation of the title track ‘Fall (가을엔) (Feat. Kim Nayoung)’ of Crucial Star’s latest mini album ‘Fall 2’, as well as a few background facts about the album.
Fall 2
was released on October 28, and is the second part of the mini album ‘Fall’ that was released on November 27 in 2012. This second part is Crucial Star’s first album release under C-JeS Entertainment, after leaving Grandline. While in ‘Fall’ Crucial Star participated only in composing four of eight tracks, this time he has left his mark on every single track but the instrumental ‘그녀는 내 것이 아닐 때 아름답다 (She’s The Most Beautiful When She’s Not Mine)’. The promotional text promises “a musically mature album with a trendy feel to it.” The album’s pre-released single ‘또 있을까 싶어 (Ain’t Nobody Like You) (Feat. XIA of JYJ)’ reached 2nd place on the charts and is just an example of the album’s many featurings – again, only the instrumental track does not feature another singer or rapper. Crucial Star usually does not have that many featurings on his albums, ‘Drawing #3: Untitled’ for example had no featuring at all, but he says that this time he borrowed the help of various artists in order to create a multifaceted album. And it really is as colorful as the leaves in fall, expressing the season’s various emotions, from the melancholic-sad ‘Fall’ over the cutesy ‘Pretty’ to the hiphop track ‘Bulletproof’. Talking of leaves, Crucial Star says that the album’s overall topics are the season ‘fall’ and the verb ‘fall’, which opens the doors to a variety of interpretations, more so if we use the Korean word ‘떨어지다’ (tteoreojida) which has even more meanings than the English ‘fall’ (Naver Dictionary lists 19 meanings). The most on-topic ones are certainly ‘falling leaves’ and ‘be separate/parted’, but it could also refer to ‘wear out’, ‘fall down’, ‘fall apart’, ‘fall behind’, ‘fall off’, etc. and each of these meanings can be applied to at least one of the tracks, of which many contain surprising little plost twists that will make your jaw drop fall.
Last but not least, before moving on to interpreting the title track, it should be pointed out that neither the word ‘mini album’ nor the word ‘EP album’ is used to promote ‘Fall 2’, but the Korean word ‘소품집’ (sopumjip) which can be translated to ‘little work/piece of art‘. This shows how much effort has very likely gone into the album and also underlines its artistic side.
[x_alert heading=”Fall 2 – Translated Lyrics” type=”info”]Click on the titles below to view HiphopKR’s translations of all the album’s tracks (minus ‘Ain’t Nobody Like You’ and the instrumental track ‘She’s The Most Beautiful When She’s Not Mine’).
Lyrical Interpretation of ‘Fall (Feat. Kim Nayoung)’
The album’s title track and probably most poetical piece has a bittersweet story: A man leaves his girlfriend to go travel, chasing after something, thinking he can return to her whenever he wants. When he decides to go back, he realizes that he had been remembering everything wrong, that it was not him who had left. He had intentionally changed his memories to protect himself from the pain of her telling him to leave.
Let us start with the intro (part of which is at the same time the outro):
가을엔 가을엔 가을엔
그댈 떠나가려 해요
Go away go away go away
내가 낯설었다면
어차피 우리는
죽은 것처럼
사랑해왔으니
good bye
The syllable counts of these two four-liners are: 9-8-9-7, 6-5-6-2. Supposing an even syllable count as the standard, the last line in each four-liner is notably lacking syllables which creates an emptiness that underlines the lovers’ breakup: something is missing. While the line “내가 낯설었다면” (If I felt like a stranger [to you]) is only missing one syllable (it has seven instead of eight), the ‘good bye’ is missing three (of five), strengthening the impact of that word of parting. Also note that the use of English in between the Korean lyrics allows further emphasis.
While the intro is sung by Crucial Star, the hook that has the exact same structure and syllable count is sung by Kim Nayoung:
In fall, in fall, in fall
I try to find you
Come away, come away, come away
We used to imagine it together
On that day, we
made a promise
as if we’d last forever, so
good night
Each of the artists represents one of the characters in the story (hereafter ‘he’ and ‘she’). While he sings about leaving her, she sings about finding him and uses the phrase “good night” (instead of his “good bye” in the intro). Now, ‘good night’ is a phrase with a very positive connotation. It reminds us of someone dear, maybe a parent or a lover, it conveys love and the promise of seeing one another again in the morning. Observable is also the use of the poetic ‘you’ (그대, geudae) which is used to refer to one’s lover. So, content-wise, his part includes the negative words ‘leave’, ‘stranger’, ‘anyway’, ‘death’ and ‘good bye’ while her part contains the positive words ‘find’, ‘together’, ‘promise’, ‘forever’, and ‘good night’. This tells us that he is done with their relationship while she is still longing for him. However, as mentioned above, the two parts are very similar which is likely a hint at the fact that her part too is a construction of his mind. The whole story is in fact told from his perspective, even her parts.
Verse 1 also has two parts:
Your face that haunts my memories
looked beautifully sad
Your eyes that tried to melt the cold me
were filled with warm tears
Seasons change,
flowers bloom again in my bare heart
and I, who traveled far away because of a fantasy,
once again make my way to you, like a salmon
In the first four-liner he describes his memories of her trying to hold him back, trying to keep him from leaving, and the second four lines describe a change in him which leads him to return to her. The first part is a lot of sugarcoating (“beautifully sad,” “warm tears”) which demonstrates that he does not see his leaving as something sad but as something bittersweet, romantic even. The first and second line both start (or, in the Korean lyrics, end) with “your” (너의, neoui) which brings her into focus. This is also the first time the word “memories” is mentioned, along with the word “haunt” (아른거리는, areungeorineun). The Korean word used here means ‘to faintly remember something’; it expresses that his memories are flickering through his mind and are not vivid and clear but see-through, vague and unseizable like ghosts. This is the second hint at something being wrong with what he is remembering. In the next four lines, the phrase “Seasons change” is singled out due to its briefness. This phrase is a reference to the title ‘Fall’ and also tells us that something inside of him changed naturally, “flowers bloom” in him as if it was spring. Very interesting is also that he compares himself to a salmon. Salmons (so Wikipedia) “spend about one to five years […] in the open ocean, where they gradually become [sexually] mature. The adult salmon then return primarily to their natal streams to spawn.” Pair this information with him saying that he left chasing a fantasy. All of this implies that he was immature, that he did not know he was trying to find something he had already had, and that he was also going through a natural phase of growing up which was necessary for him to mature and return to his roots, i.e. to her where he would then settle down. In other words, he is going back to her with the intention to pursue their relationship more seriously.
However, in comes Verse 2, the disastrous and least poetic verse in which he realizes that everything he remembered was not real:
One night as rain is pouring down, like a déjà vu,
the moment I stop in front of your place the conversation from that day comes to mind
Back then I cried and asked you for forgiveness
and you pushed me away, saying that you don’t want to see me again
I thought I could have you back anytime,
whenever I want, but that was a sophistry I had made up
In order to protect myself I falsified my memory
It becomes clearer and clearer and I fall apart
All the negativity appears: pouring rain, night (to be interpreted negatively in this case), stop, tears, mistake, beg (ask for), don’t want, push away. The lyrics also say “that day,” hinting at the dreadfulness of the day she broke up with him. Though she did not simply break up with him, she pushed him away and told him that she never wanted to see him again. The text does not mention what happened, what mistake he committed, but that mistake is certainly the one thing that was erased from his memories and caused the altering of his recollection of the breakup. He calls it “a sophistry,” thus saying that it was a good thing, an intelligent thing to do in order to protect himself from the painful reality. Here again English is used (“but,” see below) to emphasize and stress the shock he experiences. The rap in this verse is rather fast, expressing his confusion and the sudden realization that pours over him like the rain. A look at the syllable count is more proof:
비가 쏟아지는 밤 마치 데자뷰처럼
집 앞에 멈춘 순간 떠오른 그날의 대화
그때 난 눈물을 보이며 너에게 잘못을 빌었고
두 번 다신 보기 싫다한 넌 밀쳐냈지 날
언제든 다시 널 가질 수 있을거라 생각했지
내가 원할 때면 but 그건 내가 만들어낸 궤변
내 자신을 방어하기 위해 조작해놨던 기억
점점 선명해지고 난 무너져
The first four lines have a count of 14-15-18-15 and the second four a count of 17-17-17-11. The line with 18 syllables is very prominent (“Back then I cried and asked you for forgiveness”) as well as the one with 11: “It becomes clearer and clearer and I fall apart.” The latter is especially prominent because the previous three lines all have the same amount of syllables. This, just like the “good bye” and “good night” lines before, emphasizes the emotional impact.
In the end, the outro presents us with what is apparently an actual, non-falsified memory:
We have been loving each other
as if we had been dead
anyway, so
good bye
Very ironically, this outro is part of his intro but now sung by her; the tables have been turned. They are the exact same lyrics but now have a completely different meaning. It is she who told him good bye.
As you can see, everything in the lyrics seems very intentional, the use of stylistic devices to better convey the story and the feelings involved is excellent. Crucial Star has surely put in a great effort, a lot of care and attention to detail, which needed to be honored. And this not only goes for ‘Fall’, the album’s other tracks are lyrics-wise equally interesting, each a work of art on its own.
Although it is no longer fall anymore, it will return like the salmons, and hopefully you will then listen to the album with even greater gusto than before!
Recent events have turned South Korea upside down, and a few rappers have released tracks about the issue. Read about the effects the “Choi Soon-sil Gate” has on Khiphop, the role of political hiphop in the scene, and why Iron will probably be saying “I told you so.”
Note: The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s and do not represent HiphopKR.
Political Hiphop
“Do not talk about politics” is something most people are taught when going to South Korea on business. And in fact, there are few rappers who do political hiphop (yes, this is an actual subgenre of hiphop) in Korea. In other parts of the world, especially in America of course, political hiphop is one of the central subgenres. From Tupac over Ice Cube, Kendrick Lamar, and Jay-Z to B.O.B., they all had/have something to say about society and politics. And rap is the perfect means to speak one’s mind in great detail.
Now, we have to distinguish between political hiphop and politically/socially conscious hiphop. The latter is not as strongly opinionated and often just wants to raise awareness for a certain issue, without convincing the listener of one point of view. In Korean hiphop, several of Fatdoo‘s songs belong to the conscious hiphop genre, for example the track ‘딸을 만지는 아버지 (The Father Who Touches His Daughter)‘ which is based on actual events. The artist thoroughly researched the topic and wants to remind people of the cruelty of child sexual abuse. Another example would be Iron‘s ‘Turn Back (Feat. Gang Heo Dalim)’ that simply depicts the inhumanities that took place during the Japanese colonial rule, without commenting on them (not that there is a need, in this case). Political hiphop is much more aggressive, more explicit in expressing an opinion, as for example B-Free‘s ’46’, a track in which he underlines the need for the unification of North and South Korea, i.e. peace, and which he has named his favorite verse.
We cannot not mention the foremost representative of political Khiphop, who is no other than Jerry.k. The CEO of Daze Alive readily steps forward when a social or political issue is bothering him and he usually conveys his views with a lot of sarcasm, wit, and attention to detail. Many Korean listeners do not seem to appreciate that, maybe because Koreans only like to hide behind computer screens, as Owen Ovadoz put it in his track ‘Hypocrite’. Which brings us to the current issue.
[x_alert type=”info”]Chief editor of Rhythmer and music critic Il Kwon Kang’s description of Korea’s problem with political hiphop is on point:
“I bet there are many who get envious when US-American or European hiphop artists rap and talk about political and social issues without reserve, right? Why does this rarely happen in Korea? That is because everyone, the media, the artists, and the fans are the problem.
In short,
the media does not speak up because it’s scared of the government,
the artists do not speak up because they’re scared of the media that does not speak up because of the government, or they are not interested in society and politics.
The fans tell artists to stop talking about politics and make them stay put.”
However, now that the upmost entity in this hierarchy is breaking down, the entities below it are breaking free.[/x_alert]
Choi Soon-sil Gate
In case you do not know what the Choi Soon-sil Gate is, do read up on it (for example here) before you continue with this article.
While this is just what conspiracy theorists have been waiting for, the scandal is naturally having a huge impact on the Korean people who are demanding Park Geun-hye’s resignation. Netizens are expressing their opinions everywhere (even in completely unrelated places like comment sections of webtoons) and have already created a number of memes to ridicule the president. Rappers are shocked and outraged as well and take it upon themselves to speak up in their own name, making the headlines. The first to do so was Detempo with his track ‘우주의 기운 (Energy of the Universe)’.
The addictive hook goes “Cheer up, Avatar!” and in verse one Detempo further makes fun of the president and Choi Soon-sil, here aka Siri (실이):
An Android bot waiting for the oracle from Germany Bastards who have to taste both shit and soybean paste before being able to tell A from B Thanks to them I ate it too, damn shit I’m a rapper who has never asked his friends [for an opinion] when writing lyrics Maybe that’s why I can’t become famous, I know that, but who knows what will happen from now on Gotta ask (Please answer soon) Siri
Next up was Jerry.k with his track ‘하야해 (HA-YA-HEY)‘ which translates to: ‘Resign!” Listen below or head over to YouTube for the lyric video.
Pretending to be a white knight, you threw our country down the drain, uh We tighten, tighten, and tighten our belts Those banknotes pile up in the storages of chaebols Then, in those chaebols’ bank accounts the commas f*cking, f*cking, f*cking increase
He also makes fun of Choi Soon-sil choosing the president’s clothing. The photos that prove Choi choosing Park’s clothing show her eating chicken and then touching the outfit for the president (click here to view them).
We too will eat chicken now and then wipe our hands that are dirty with grease at those clothes
Then, Owen Ovadoz of MKIT RAIN came out with ‘Hypocrite‘ which has been music-wise highly acclaimed by fans. He mentions in the lyrics that his mother did not want him to publicly voice his opinion and he apologizes to her for doing so after all, saying that she knows her son is someone who has to say what he’s got to say.
He raps:
I need trust, consideration and understanding not the public play, what we need is to understand I quit university, there’s not a lot I know I already passed middle and high school education when I was in the basketball club so here I am as a rapper talking politics who’s the real hypocrite that only talks the talk can’t you tell?
Last but not least, Deegie Kheem (김디지) released ‘곡성 (GOOD PANN)‘, its title being the Korean name of the horror movie ‘The Wailing’ which includes a shaman and a mysterious woman …
This track contains by far the most swearwords, thus begins with a warning. Deegie Kheem has released a political hiphop track before, ‘No Bullets But Ballots (Feat.UMC/UW)’ which tackled the citizens’ duty to vote and in which he indirectly already expressed his antipathy towards Park Geun-hye. In ‘GOOD PANN’, he makes the following reference to Illionaire’s ‘YGGR’:
Soon-SIRI, PGhye, connecting link, this is the sound of [y]our corruption rotting
He also clarifies the reason for all the profanity in the track:
It’s those assholes who are at fault, why do we have to be careful and hold back?
I Told You So
As the media are investigating, the conspiracy about the mysterious Choi Soon-sil widens further and further. According to this article, major agency YG Entertainment is suspected of being involved with the Choi Soon-sil gate via Cha Euntaek who has directed several music videos for Big Bang, PSY and 2NE1. The article is speculating that thanks to their connection, YG artists G-Dragon, Daesung and Park Bom have been let off easily by prosecutors in their respective cases. This revelation moves the spotlight once again to Iron who depicted a conspiracy in his track ‘System‘ where he also dissed several YG artists. Especially interesting are the following lines (although, mind you, they were referring to the music scene):
Behind business masked as loyalty, there’s a mistress that lives off it
In this scene, the tail wags the dog
Schemes hidden behind the curtain of the press
So using the term “politicking” in hiphop was not that wrong after all. It refers to tactical, profit-oriented actions that rappers or other people in the scene take, for example (supposing the claims are true) Tablo disqualifying Superbee in SMTM4 to keep Incredivle on the show who had already agreed to join Tablo’s label HIGHGRND. Several rappers (especially Swings) have been constantly denouncing “hiphop politics.”
At the end of the day, we should applaud those rappers who dare to cross the line and speak about politics, be it actual ones or hiphop ones, even more so if they convey their opinions in the form of dope headbangers.
Deegie Kheem has made the instrumental version of his track available for download, inviting others to use it for their own “diss tracks” against the president. So, while we are waiting for those potentially upcoming tracks, let us not just listen to their music but to what they are saying. Let’s talk about politics!
