Commentary | Fana & Wegun ‘Words that had to come out of anyone’s mouth at some time’
Hipple: It’s known that the song was supposed to be released around the time that Soul Company disbanded. What’s the reason for releasing the song now?
Fresh Avenue (Fana & Wegun): Soul Company disbanded in 2011. It wasn’t right after that, but we made this song in 2012 when we were preparing a mini album for the people who were watching the ‘Fresh Avenue’ broadcast. This song was to be on the album, but as it always goes, when we have 3-4 songs we want to have 5-6 songs on the album, and when we have 6 songs we want it to be a full-length album. This is a musician’s ambition so we kept gathering more songs.
Hip: What’s the background of releasing this song?
Fresh Avenue: In the middle of 2012, I remember that Beastie Boys’ member MCA passed away from cancer. Both of us like old school hip-hop and have been inspired a lot by them, so we made a song of this style because of that incident. Since we didn’t think much about the lyrics at that time and we had a goal of making an impact while writing [the lyrics] easy like brainstorming, I think it came out easily and lighthearted. It has a feeling that is similar to our broadcast style.
Hip: Already the cover is extraordinary. Listening to the music and looking at the cover I’m reminded of the Soul Company logo.
Fresh Avenue: Already the song’s title is like that, we made the song with DJ Wegun’s 2011 mixtape ‘Soul Food Maker’ in mind. We have to address the story behind the ‘Soul Food Maker’ cover first. At that time, most of the younger members were already very unsatisfied with Soul Company’s management, including Fresh Avenue. We had already made up our mind to leave the company. ‘Soul Food Maker’ is a mix of songs we made under Soul Company, and the album jacket shows Soul Company’s mascot ‘Sam’ pecking at and eating puke. The jacket was kind of a diss. Looking at the back cover, it symbolizes a super delicious dish made out of that pigeon that lived by eating its own vomit. Lately when we were going to release ‘Soul Mood Fakers’ as a single, the idea we came up with was “since the song title is an inversion of the mixtape’s title, let’s have the vomit eat the pigeon”. Through this metaphoric method we expressed our dissatisfaction with Soul Company. For example, the TUJL4 poster that announced our departure from Soul Company: on it, manager Jerry.K-hyeong left fighting alone, while The Quiett and Fresh Avenue who had left Soul Company are excitedly flying away from the decaying nest. At that time, we wanted to cast Loptomist too who had also left, but unfortunately we had to give his position [on the poster and the concert] to Zion T.
Hip: It’s a very aggressive track. ‘The pimple craters you hide under make up’. Is this a song targeting Eluphant?
Fresh Avenue: We do habitually ridicule a lot of people around us such as Eluphant on the Fresh Avenue broadcast, but to be honest we didn’t think about Eluphant only when writing the verses of the song. We wrote the lyrics in 2012. It’s just that coincidentally two days before our song was released, Eluphant released a song called ‘Crater’. While we were just hitting air we jokingly said that Eluphant stood up to take our hits. We asked ourselves if the universe sent them to us to take our hits. Well, not the whole song is like that but at that time it was one of our own bitter pastimes to talk bad about and banter of the incidents that happened under Soul Company, and those parts seemed to emotionally flow into [the song] too. It is true after all that we were unhappy with Kebee’s attitude and actions.
Hip: Dissatisfied?
Fresh Avenue: To talk about it now, there were parts in which we felt that the management of funds and other things was unclear, and also seeing him thinking earnestly about the offer of a major-affiliated label, or recruiting a broadcast manager that didn’t fit our [company’s] size. And with time we felt less like colleagues. In 2010, when we were first planning TUJL, not a single member supported us, they just told us that “It’ll be difficult.” Of course what hit us hardest was that Eluphant’s 2nd album was produced not by Soul Company but by Loen. They said “We’re not doing this for us,” “We’ll become famous and drag you all along,” but to be honest we couldn’t really understand that.
Hip: Did you tell The Quiett and Jerry.k, who constantly talked of Soul Company in their songs and interviews, about the song before the release?
Fresh Avenue: Not at all. We don’t think it’s necessary, looking at the song’s characteristics. It’s a song that we made to for easy listening instead of for deep impressions. It’s not a song that goes “you’ll die and I’ll die.” Honestly, the feelings we have towards Soul Company are a complex and delicate. It feels like a family with problems I guess? Because even though we publicly are full of dissatisfaction, at the same time we think of how we started together as if we were family, because even after leaving we tried to understand each and every thing [that had happened], and because we often had fun and laughed together and learned a lot. It’s not that we only did things that helped the company. I’ve once written lyrics about the good times too. Something like, “Everything has to end well.” Now that I’ve mentioned it, The Quiett was the first to leave Soul Company in 2010 and at the same time he was the first one who brought up to us all to end it. Funny enough, at that time, the only ones who agreed with him at the time were us two. As for Jerry.K-hyeong, he rushed into managing the company too late. If we were to judge, it’s not that we were greatly satisfied with everything [he did] but we also acknowledge that he played a big part in Soul Company’s disbandment.
Hip: Do the other two members of Fresh Avenue, Vida Loca and Booba, know about it?
Fresh Avenue: Of course. When we had some drinks, we would always talk about our dissatisfaction towards Soul Company.
Hip: It seems like it [Soul Company] will be left as a great regret for the fans who yearn for and miss it.
Hip: Any last comments?
Fresh Avenue: Lately we are having fun making our tracks. After releaseing several more singles as Fresh Avenue, they will be released as a full album. And even though we ended up talking a lot about Soul Company, I think someone of our [former] members had to say [all] that one day. Of course, I think that the label fully deserves respect due to its achievements and records themselves at the time. There’s no family that has no problems. We talked about the part of working in a team that can go wrong.
[ Source | HIPHOPPLAYA ]