Joosuc

With rap, rhyme has found its way into the Korean language. Discover how Korean hip-hop artists further adapted rhyming techniques to their language.

Introduction

As in many languages, rhyme is a basic component of poetry in English. In school, we are taught that rhyming is a repetition of sounds and we learn the complicated names of different types of rhyme and their use as stylistic devices.

For us it is normal, but in some languages, rhyming does not exist — just think of the famous Japanese haiku, which is only about the syllable count. The same goes for Korean poetry.

Originally, Korean poetry and song lyrics did not contain rhymes. In lyrics, and later in poetry, writers merely used a fixed syllabic meter (i.e. a specific amount of syllables, similar to the haiku), mainly with the purpose to match the lyrics to the music.
So it stands to reason that hip-hop music introduced the concept of rhyming to the Korean language.

The first rap

In 1989, pop singer Seobeom Hong was the first to rap in Korean. After hearing Run-DMC’s “Walk This Way (Feat. Aerosmith),” he decided to try something similar and made the song “김삿갓” (Satgat Kim, name of a Korean poet). It consisted of a melodic, catchy chorus and “rap” verses. However, Hong just spit out words without flow or rhymes since he had no understanding of rap.

Fun fact

At first, the song was banned from broadcast on the grounds that the verses had no melody. Only after explaining that “rap” was a new musical concept, Hong got the ban lifted.

The first rhymes

One year later, in 1990, Hyun Jin-young debuted, followed by Seo Taiji and Boys, Deux, and many other artists. Their rap lyrics were the first to contain rhymes. They were mostly single or double identical end rhymes, i.e. the same vowels and consonants in the final one or two syllables of each line. Below an example from Deux‘s debut track:

그대는 나를
keudaeneun nareul
슬퍼하는 나를
seulpeohaneun nareul
기다림에 날을
kidarime nareul
계속하고만 있는 나를
kyesoghagoman inneun nareul
Deux - 나를 돌아봐 (1993)

As you can see, even though there is a slight variation in meaning in the third line, all lines end on the exact same vowels and consonants.

A few years later in the underground, in 1995, black music club “BLEX” (short for: Black Loud EXploders) was founded. Its members included rappers MC Meta and Joosuc (for more info on this era, read our article on the ’98 documentary “Do You Know Hiphop?”). In their first compilation album, “검은 소리, 첫번째 소리” (Black Sounds, First Sounds, 1997), BLEX used perfect rhymes, where not all vowels and consonants of the rhyming syllables are the same:

그 소리 헤맸어 우리
keu sori hemaesseo uri
더 이상은 나에겐 무리
deo isang-eun na-egen muri
Joosuc - B.L.E.X (Black Loud EXploders) (1997) 

Despite this small improvement, rhyming was still a foreign concept that the artists evidently hadn’t grasped fully. Their limited types of rhyming naturally influenced the flow and made lyrics easily sound tedious and unvaried. This is a characteristic of what is nowadays referred to as “’90s flow.”

You should know

4WD (read: “forward”), member of hip-hop crew SNP, started out as a singer but turned to rapping with his famous diss track “노자 (Feat. Verbal Jint, Lucy)” (2000). His rhyming was extremely skilled and refined for the time, which gained him a lot of fans and praise. In 2003 he released his debut EP, “친구” (Friends). In the title track of the same name, 4WD shows off his talent next to P-Type and MC Meta.

Fun fact

When rap first appeared in mainstream music, it introduced rhyming to Korean music in general. Thanks to this, rhymes can not only be found in Korean hip-hop these days, but also in other genres of Korean music.

The Revolution

Verbal Jint is credited as the artist who revolutionized rhyming in Korean hip-hop with his 2001 debut EP, suitably titled “Modern Rhymes.” He not only rhymed using more than two syllables, he also worked with similar sounds rather than same letters, proving that he fully understood the concept of rhyming. This is probably an effect of his excellent English skills. Likely, he took the different types of rhyming he knew from English and transferred them to Korean:

내 flow 는 깊어만 가는데
nae flow neun kipeoman kaneunde
날 이겨낸다는 게 너희들로서는 거의 불가능에
nal igyeonaendaneun ge neoheedeulloseoneun geo-eui bulganeung-e
가깝다는 걸 모르나?
kakkapdaneun geol moreuna
노자 시절부터 결론은 다
noja sijeolbuteo gyeolloneun da
 
Suckers can't feel my rhyming
어떻게 이런 놈들과 나란히
eotteoke ireon nomdeulgwa naranhi
Hip-Hop 을 얘기 하니?
Hip-hop eul yaegi hani
아까워 내 시간이...
akkawo nae shigani
Verbal Jint - Overclass (2001)

These two examples show that he not only rhymed with several syllables, but also with several words instead of just word endings.
Let’s take a closer look at the first two lines of the second example, where he rhymes “my rhyming” with “naranhi.” Properly pronounced, these two phrases do not rhyme. However, VJ succeeds in making them rhyme by pronouncing “my rhyming” more like “ma rhaming” (to achieve matching vowels) and the Korean “naranhi” with an English “r” (to achieve matching consonants). Consequently, this is called a “forced rhyme,” one of many types of rhyme he introduced to the Korean language.

Thanks to Verbal Jint’s influence, other rappers caught up:

I live my life 의심 마라
한 치의 부끄럼도 없어 Believe my rhymes
힙합 언제나 She's my wife
 
엎치락 뒤치락 이제 그만
eopchirak dwichirak ije keuman
어찌나 빛이 나는지 확인 하고파
eojjina bichi naneunji hwagin hagopa
Joosuc - 정상을 향한 독주 2 (Feat. BSK) (2003)  

As you can see, Joosuc no longer uses just end rhymes. The first example, in English, attests to the fact that he did indeed understand rhyming better at that point. The second example demonstrates how he applied his knowledge to the Korean language. Each line’s first six syllables have the same vowels, and each second and fifth syllable has similar consonants.

You should know

Beenzino is a well-known fan of VJ’s and successfully studied his way of rhyming and flow. Zino rhymes English words with Korean ones just as brilliantly as VJ and his rhymes flow just as naturally.
Also more than worth a mention for his harmonious rhymes and exquisite English skills is Tablo, no need for explanations.

The Conflict

Around this time, some rappers realized that rhyming brought certain challenges with it. Conveying content became more difficult, and more work and a greater vocabulary were necessary to avoid rhymes that sounded forced and awkward.

On one hand, there were artists like UMC, who insisted on using mostly perfect or identical end rhymes:

학교축제에 랩한거?
hagkyochukje-e raephan-geo
이태원 어저께 갔다온거?
itaewon eojeokke kattaon-geo
신촌 클럽에 갔다온거?
sinchon keulleobe kattaon-geo
집에서 놀다가 랩하는거?
jibeseo noldaga raephaneun-geo
UMC - Shubidubidubdub (2005) 

The idea was to keep things easy and simple, but in terms of rhyming that was clearly a step backwards. Some Koreans call this “English rhyming,” as end rhymes appear to be the most common rhymes in the English language.

On the other hand, there were artists like FANA, who digged further into the various types of rhymes to find something that would better suit the Korean language. The solution he and others found was to concentrate on similar vowels or consonants, so-called assonance or consonance. This resulted in natural-sounding lyrics that flow beautifully:

가슴팍에 - 따분하게 - 가둔 나의 - 작은 바램(을)
kaseumpage - ttabunhage - kadun na-eui jageun baraem(eul)
한국말의 - 발음 안에 - 가득하게 - 담을 차례
hangungmareui - bareum ane - kadeukage - dameul charye
Soul Company - 아에이오우 어!? (Ft. 최적화, Planet Black, Kebee, The Quiett, MC Meta (2004) 

As you can see, FANA has created groups of four syllables that all share similar vowels. In other words, besides assonance he also applied a fixed syllabic meter, a practice Koreans were already used to. This brilliantly takes out any awkwardness or clumsiness and works very well with the Korean language.

Another rapper who realized this was P-Type, and he also proceeded to develop his own, “Korean,” way of rhyming. Similar to FANA’s, this type of rhyme takes into consideration the initial, middle, and ending sounds of Korean syllables and makes use of the syllabic meter:

남들이 나보다 더 놀라
namdeuri - naboda - deo nolla
또 몰라 더 몰락하기 바랄라나?
tto molla - deo molla-kagi ba-rallana
날 망친 건 언제나 나
nal mangchin geon - eonjena na
난 당황했고 넌 황당할 거야
nan danghwanghaeggo neon hwangdanghal geoya
P-Type - Birdman (2015) 

The first two lines consist of groups of three syllables, some of which also rhyme with each other, and the third has two groups of four syllables. Very “Korean” is the line-up of “deo nolla – tto molla – deo molla,” which is similar to a tongue twister. The groups all have the same syllable count as well as similar consonants and vowels.
In the final line, P-Type swaps two syllables to create a new word. (The same is possible in English, e.g.: hold up – uphold.)

You should know

Assonance and consonance are especially useful for onomatopoeic lyrics, as FANA proves in his brilliant track “껌” (Gum).
Other artists who are acknowledged experts in “Korean rhyming” are RHYME-A- (read: rhyme attack), and IGNITO.

What now?

It took Korean rappers a while to fully understand and assimilate rhyming into their language. While it works just like it would in English, the two are different languages after all so the types of rhyme that best suit each language are different.

Nevertheless, the most used type of rhyme in Korean hip-hop nowadays is the end rhyme, or “English rhyme.” It seems like the “Korean rhyme” has already gone out of vogue or is simply too demanding for the majority of artists — and maybe even the listeners. Or, rappers reminded themselves of the other stylistic devices that are available besides rhyme; like repetition, metaphors, or specific narration techniques. The likes of Nochang and Crucial Star have long included such alternatives in their songs to further improve their artistry.

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Sources: Wikipedia, 위키백과, YouTube, Pedrojeong, The Artist, 위키백과, Joongang News, Soyoung Moon, HiphopLE, Hiphopplaya
Thanks to Cy for help with the writing, RIN for the artwork