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SCV’s Mineral Excavation Interview with Cream Villa

Read SCV’s latest interview with Cream Villa‘s rappers Ex8er, Quaimo, Loben, and Ben blank.

Note by SCV: the team Cream Villa, who completely believe in the blood type personality theory, squeeze on a sofa that is too small for four people. Giving off a refreshing impression that let me literally feel the salty Busan air, all four of them adjusted themselves to my pace and I interviewed them unhurriedly. It was a bit early. YG who had some free time that day joined us too. I wanted to have a discussion about music but we had to end the interview early to match their schedules.

SCV: It is a first for me to interview this many people at once. Please introduce yourself one after the other.

Ban blank: I am 30-year-old Ban blank. I am active in both PRIZMOLIQ and Cream Villa. Nice to meet you.
Ex8er: My name is Ex8er and I am 27 years old. I am part of Cream Villa and GrandPics. While I used to be active as a solo artist, I can meet you now  like this, having completed Cream Villa’s project album. Nice to meet you.
Loben: I am 30 years old, active in PRIZMOLIQ and Cream Villa and my name is Loben.
Quaimo: I am the youngest of the team, 21-year-old Quaimo. Nice to meet you.

 

SCV: How was Cream Villa formed? Please tell us about the formation process as well as your team’s name.

Ex8er: Originally, we were all working together as part of the Busan-based crew GrandPics. However, in order to make a living, some members started to work at offices or founded businesses, and music had to take a back seat. So only those who were still making music kept working together. Although there were quite a lot of crew members, there wasn’t that much actual “substance”. Therefore, we thought that we’d be able to unleash a better synergy by holding concerts or doing something as a team, so the most active members got together to release an album and that was us. Our team name comes from the group Slum Village, whose “Village” inspired us to use “Villa” and since all of us are making nineties boom bap we added “Cream” which comes from the nineties’ representative team Wu Tang Clan’s track “C.R.E.A.M”. That is how we created the name “Cream Villa”, it sounds good and also has a bit of a cute side to it so I am satisfied with the name. We are four rappers, DJ Tiz, producers Scary’P and Doplamingo, and designer Bred, all in all eight people.

 

SCV: How long have you known each other?

Ex8er: It’s been a long time. About seven to eight years. With Quaimo it’s been one or two years but with everyone else it’s been a long time.

 

YG: What do you think is your ‘rap ranking’, [who is the best]?

Ban blank: I guess everyone thinks that they are the best (laughs).

 

YG: Recently, people rarely release albums as teams, I am curious if you got along well with the producers. What and how much did you expect before making the album and what meaning did you attribute to it?

Loben: After we had formed the team, we had many conversations because we had to find out what kind of style [of music] every team member has. At that time I thought that our style wasn’t very distinctive. And that each one was making slightly different music. We definitely had something in common, but from a listener’s point of view it wasn’t clear what kind of style the team Cream Villa has.
Ex8er: We have been doing rap really well but I suppose our only disadvantage was that we didn’t have a distinctive style. These days, having a certain ‘character’ is very important. In the beginning, I was dissatisfied with it (that people are so focused on a constructed concept). Now, I think that we have found our very own ‘character’ too.
Ban blank: While searching for our own style, we first got inspired by the four-member teams Clear Soul Forces and Slaughterhouse to make trendy boom bap. So we decided to mix various jazzy styles with boom bap. And while working and asking for everyone’s opinions, I think we slowly found a heavy, grave style. As we got immersed in that [style], we ended up with heavy-sounding tracks like ‘Dead Wrong‘, ‘격‘ [Class], and ‘면도날 Flow‘ [Razor Blade Flow].
Ex8er: As there is no other 4 MCs & 1 DJ group in Korea yet, I think that is something that distinguishes us, something only we can show. Duos or trios occassionally show up in our country[‘s hiphop scene]. However, a formation like ours is unprecedented and we will use that to our advantage. When the audience listens to a track of ours, it always is a track we completed as a group. With that in mind we finished work on the album and we tried our best to produce each song even better by making every verse with 16 bars, as if all of us were competing against each other.

 

YG: When you were working on the songs together as a group all the time, did it ever occur that you wanted to redo or improve your own verse when another team member had written a really dope one?

Loben: Sure. It happened especially often with Ex8er, he really changed his lyrics several times. Slightly as if he had an OCD.
Ex8er: That’s true. I have rewritten my lyrics for the album’s title track ‘Burn’ eight times. And the track features eight people, so since I alone have written eight verses, I could perform it by myself.

 

SCV: Are you a bit of a perfectionist?

Ban blank: I think he is. And not only that, although he (Ex8er) is the one who recorded [his verses for] the tracks, he doesn’t know which recording is better. He always asks us in our chat group.
Ex8er: I sometimes ask the others and go with the majority opinion.

 

SCV: Do you think that you succeeded in creating a good synergy by combining each one’s style?

Loben: When we work together, we do try to adapt our styles so that they sound more similar. And when we work on our own music, we completely show off our very own style.

 

SCV: Please introduce your album ‘In The Village’ in a few words.

Ban blank: The album is made up of tracks of the boom bap genre, and it is very enjoyable if you listen to it in the correct order of the tracks. These days, people often rap for the sake of rapping, but we carefully decided on a beat and a clear subject after long consideration and paid a lot of attention to the lyrics. The album should have come out in the beginning of this year, but since we considered many things like these it took that much longer. I can proudly say that this album is a really good album. I have released several mixtapes and albums before, but even compared to all my own music I am confident and proud of this album. I do find it a pity that we weren’t able to promote it [properly] but … I am so satisfied with the album that in my opinion we should be receiving an award for it this year.
Ex8er: Tracks one and two explain that we were influenced by Busan and foreshadow what we can do. Tracks three to five were released in advance and are heavy-sounding tracks which show the overall style of our album. Like track five, track six tells of our attitude but is made from a different angle. Tracks seven and eight emphasize what we are capable of as a team. They especially underline the advantages of a DJ. In track ten, each of us says something to their respective role model. Track eleven is about attaining rap money, the prize for our efforts.

SCV: If it was supposed to be released in the beginning of this year, how long did it take you to make the album?

Ex8er: We had started planning it before but we started working on it last year around November. Since it came out this year in October, it took us about one year.
Loben: In the first two weeks or so, we had finished nearly half of the album’s tracks. That’s why we thought we could release it this year in spring, but the work started to lag and got delayed so we had to do a final spurt. We were telling people that the album would come out around March or April, but like all work it took much longer.

 

YG: Which track of the album do you personally like the most?

Quaimo: I like the last track ‘Black Cream’ the most. Of course I feel attached to all eleven songs, but if I had to choose one of them it would be the eleventh track. The reason for this is that I wrote my lyrics for it the fastest. They’re just my most well-written lyrics. ‘Black Cream’ is a track about hopes and aspirations, and at the time I was the most hopeful and full of aspirations.

Loben: I wanted to include stories about us in the album. I also wanted to sjow off our skills and attitude. So that when someone listens to the whole album, they will know what kind of skills and attitude Cream Villa has. Maybe that’s why I like the first track ‘Bib’. After finishing work on all the eleven tracks, I felt happy when I listened to the first one. Its content is “We grew up in Busan, and being inspired there this is the kind of music we make.” I felt proud through and through that as a rapper from Busan who is making music in Seoul I have made a great song in which I give a shout-out to my hometown.
Ex8er: I am satisfied with all tracks since they all have meaningful messages, but the track I like is number six, ‘No One Does’. The beat matches my preferences the most, but as it is the least popular song of the album I realized that my taste is too dope (laughs).
‘No One Does’ is about things nobody does [as the title says]. I guess that everyone has a role model. I often thought about what it would be like to work together with that person or meet them. However, after doing rap for about 7-8 years and experiencing the whole thing myself, I realized that the person I had considered my role model wasn’t that great [after all]. I was disillusioned and thus started to go my own way. That is what the song number six is about and it’s the reason why I like it the most.
Ban blank: I like the track ‘격’ [Class] the most. While making music, I got the feeling that rappers have lost a lot of respect for DJs. It seems like they consider them as someone who only plays the instrumentals. There is a DJ in our crew and I’ve always wanted to revive the respect for DJs. Watching our team’s DJ Tiz-hyung from the side, I found out that he is the first to arrive at a concert venue and the last to leave it with his equipment. He is extremely skilled too and I think that he doesn’t get the treatment he deserves. We are often not acknowledged either but that doesn’t matter, however I saw quite often that people look down on him. As a close friend of his and his teammate that made me very sad. That is the reason why nearly my whole verse in ‘격’ [Class] is about respect for DJs. Of course, I also rap about my hometown Busan. That is why I like ‘격’ [Class] the most.

SCV: That [about the DJs] is something people really cannot know if they haven’t seen it for themselves. That is a good attitude you have and I really hope everyone would listen to the track. I heard you also filmed a music video this evening. Which track is it for? And when can we see it?

Ban blank: It will be released either in the beginning of or in mid-November. The music video will be for our title track ‘Burn‘. It will probably be a very cool video, so look forward to it.
Ex8er: Actually, the concept we had in mind before filming the music video for ‘Burn’ was very similar to Deepflow-hyungnim’s ‘당산대형‘ [The Big Brother] so we had to change plans in a hurry. Since [the music video for] ‘당산대형’ [The Big Brother] was made so well, we thought that we  shouldn’t clumsily add [our own video] to the subject.

 

SCV: Did all of you decide together on which songs to use in the album?

Ex8er: We nearly had no conflicting opinions while working together. That might have been due to us being close anyway or due to our similar tastes, but while working on the album we agreed nearly unanimously. I’d say that it was rather us rappers and the producers who had a bit of conflicting opinions, but when we [rappers] chose a beat there were no problems. Of course, there were slightly differing opinions but since we are all good people, we solved things by discussing them. Amongst us, there is nobody with blood type A. However, the producers both have blood type A so I think that’s why we clashed.

 

SCV: Do you usually care about blood types?
YG: I am blood type A but I don’t get offended easily. (He seems offended already.)

Ban blank: Ah, really? Our whole team swears on the blood type personality theory. We think there is an actual correlation.
Ex8er: I don’t get along with AB bloody types … for real.

 

SCV: (I am AB though …) I shall introduce you as a team that believes in the blood type personality theory.
YG: What advantages do you have as a team?

Loben: I think since we are four people our advantages can be experienced especially at concerts. You’ll know if you see it but we clearly have power. And even though we don’t agree on certain gestures or anything before the show, we naturally have good teamwork. That is where our advantages stand out. We planned this album for the sake of giving good concerts with it, so I’d like it if many come to see us perform and spread the word about the album. If I had to name a disadvantage: since we are so many, it happens that we have to change concert setlists due to different schedules.
Ban blank: I am someone who doesn’t really think about disadvantages, so I think we have a full range of advantages. Since a strong friendship connects us, I don’t think we will ever disband.

 

YG: Do you have any concerts scheduled?

Loben: In the coming week we will perform at Rolling Hall amongst others.

 

YG: Can we expect to keep hearing boom bap from Cream Villa?

Loben: If there is a different genre that matches our preferences, it is absolutely likely that we consider it. We don’t want to limit ourselves to the boom bap genre. If it is a genre that goes well with our constellation (4 MCs, 1 DJ) then we will give it a try.
Ban blank: We love boom bap but each of us has their own preference so we are considering several possibilites. It’s not that we think: “We only have to make boom bap.”

 

SCV: Are you working on anything new?

Ex8er: Preparing Cream Villa’s album robbed us of a lot of our strength, so I think it will be difficult to produce anything new for a while. There might be a possibility that we suddenly and spontaneously release something, though.
Ban blank: We’d like to perform at many live shows from now on. As each of us is working on their own stuff, we don’t have plans for anything new yet [as a group].

SCV: How do you want to receive the spotlight as Cream Villa from now on?

Ban blank: I have never thought that we had to make it as Cream Villa. We simply do this while believing in each other, no matter if people buy our music or not. Since we do the music we like that is nothing we care about. We aren’t doing this thinking, “Cream Villa has to attain this or that position in the hiphop scene!” either. We’d just like to be known as cool people who make good music.
Ex8er: I hope that Cream Villa will get its own ‘turf’ in the hiphop scene. So that when people talk about our very own style, there is Cream Villa’s exclusive ‘area’.

 

YG: Are you having any troubles lately?

Loben: As we are people who make music, advertising is difficult. We don’t really know how to advertise ourselves and the fact that we’ll go under if we don’t do anything is hard on us. While making music all this time I have often seen those things happen and have experienced them myself, that is why I feel as if the same thing will happen this time again. Therefore, we should promote ourselves actively but there is a limit to what we can do and since most things involve monetary issues, it is indeed a burden to us. I lose a lot of energy to worries like these, so it’s hard.
Ex8er: Also, we should have finished working on the [music] video before the album release but a schedule-wise problem we couldn’t do anything about came up and the music video ended up being late. The effect of showing [music] in a video is great, but we cannot really blame anyone for what happened and it is truly a pity.

 

SCV: Who was in charge of the album’s overall engineering?

Loben: All of us know how to mix but we got greedy in respects to the sound so we paid someone to do it for us.
Ex8er: Ah, our CD is going to be released soon.

 

SCV: Give me just one CD please. (Looks at them and changes his mind.) I will buy one. And I will upload a photo to proof it.
YG: You said that each of your solo works will come out, please introduce your personal upcoming plans and goals to us.

Ex8er: I am working on my album. These days I like watching director Hong Sang-soo’s movies and I’d like to convey the emotional flow [I have while watching them]. I am thinking of something similar to how “The Anecdote” can move you deeply with one or two lines as part of one big flow. Of course, I did not think of this idea while listening to “The Anecdote.” My goal is to release it in November but it could get later because of the same reason Cream Villa’s album got pushed back for.

Loben: PRIZMOLIQ are preparing an album for, earliest, the end of this year. Since we will decide on the album’s style while working on it, it is not certain yet, but I think its content and style will be completely different from Cream Villa’s.
Quaimo: As for me, I have been preparing an album since the beginning of this year, but I didn’t like it and overturned it. In the middle of this year I got stuck and things didn’t work out well, so after pondering on the genres and styles I have finally cleared things up a bit. Not too long ago I had planned to abandon it and was out playing. I didn’t just hang around though, while having fun I did a detailed introspection of things like my appearance or how I treat others. Since something bad had happened in the middle of this year I had been feeling edgy, so I think I took a rest for a while to regain my composure. I now clearly know what I want the album to be like and feel like officially starting to work on it. I have decided on the album’s overall structure, its sound and genre too.
Ban blank: I will devote myself to PRIZMOLIQ’s album too. It has now been about two years since I came to Seoul. Loben and I have been living positively even in hard times; we will have a good time while making good music.

 

SCV: Can you tell us anything about HIGHFLIES and DJ Tiz’s upcoming activities?

Ex8er: Scary’P is preparing a producer album for November, and Doplamingo has released a full-length album which received good reviews. He is spurring work on his solo project to continue those activities while supporting Scary’P’s album.
Loben: DJ Tiz is quite a free soul, sometimes when he feels like it he releases a free mixset. He even makes the covers himself, I don’t think they’re that nice (laughs). I think he should let someone else make them, but he quite likes to design things and do stuff like that himself. Maybe because his blood type is B, he doesn’t care what other people think of him. He doesn’t care at all if many people listen to it or what kind of reviews people write about his music. He simply immerses himself in what he enjoys. He has always liked sports so he often plays soccer too. So, we don’t really know what he’s doing.

 

SCV: Ah. To put a long story short, you have no idea what he’s up to?

Loben: I can’t guess anything but you never know, he might suddenly release something. We will perform at many concerts together.
Ex8er: Ah, I am thinking of working again on the Scary’P X Ex8er album which fell through because I had to go to the military. After releasing an EP I will start working on that.

 

Last but not least, please say a few words to ROKHipHop’s readers.

Video: Hello, we are Cream Villa. Nice to meet you! I am Cream Villa’s Ban blank. / I am Cream Villa’s Ex8er. / I am Loben. / I am Quaimo. / We, Cream Villa, have released an album on October 1. Please listen to the album from the first track to the last while reading the lyrics. We’d be very grateful. We did our best to prepare the album over the span of one year. We can proudly say that it is a good album and many other musicians we know have also told us that it’s a good album. So we hope that many people listen to it. Please look forward to Cream Villa’s concerts, a possible next album, and each of our solo albums. Also, we hope that everything will go well for ROKHipHop too. Thank you. Peace out!

 

 

Related links:
Cream Villa’s Facebook, Instagram, iTunes

 

Interview by SCV, YG

Original interview on ROKHipHop

 

Translator’s note: a big shout-out to SCV for not only allowing me to translate his interviews, but also especially creating the English version of the banner which you see above, and even checking the finished translation! Also many thanks to ROKHIPHOP’s head who made all of this possible.

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SCV: You are already my fourth guest. Please introduce yourself briefly.

Khundi Panda: I am Khundi Panda, I am 19 years old and live in Suwon. My real name is Bok Hyun and when I create artworks I use the name Veni Vidi. Nice to meet you!

 

Khundi Panda. It sounds cute but is also a nickname with character. How did you make it?

Back in the day, I made myself a fantasy world, and one of the characters living there was Khundi Panda. As it is a character I like a lot, I started using it as my nickname. It is a cool character.

 

Many people I know say that you’re good at rap. You are still young, when did you start and why?

To be exact, I think I started listening to rap music about five years ago. In second year of middle school while studying abroad, I was being bullied once. In that unhappy time, one of my really few friends sang Epik High’s ‘One’ for me at noraebang. In my difficult situation, those lyrics gave me strength, and from that day on I listened to all of Epik High’s songs and became more and more interested in Korean hiphop. That way, I started writing lyrics too, thought I needed a nickname so I chose one too, and I even made a crew together with friends who like rap and we did activities together. That is how I started [with hiphop].

 

It is possible that for the reason that you are young, your belief or the depth of your music might be looked down on. Has that ever happened to you?

That has definitely happened a few times. Especially after I uploaded the song to MC Meta on SoundCloud (of course there also were many people who stood by me). A not small number of people left comments like “You’re still wet behind the ears, you have no idea so stop acting up!” At other times, it scarcely happened that people who have never talked to me about music saw me as someone very shallow.

 

That is quite a possible thing to happen. You must have had many other difficulties with people who were biased against your age. Tell me about some of them.

Like I said just now, when I state my opinion, especially if it is about something that could cause a dispute, people respectlessly play it down on the grounds of “He’s still a kid” before even thinking about it. When that happens, then even though it seems like a perfectly normal conversation, from the other person’s point of view it’s like they are listening to complete nonsense. Even if that conversation ends and we arrive at a conclusion, it is like no conclusion has been reached at all. Even if I tell my opinion as objectively as possible, that person still sees me as immature because they are biased against my age. I have close to no other problems [with biases towards my age] besides this.

 

You are at an age where you can try many things, did your parents object [to you rapping]?

Actually, my parents are still against it. Nevertheless, I convinced them that I want to make music, so now they say, “Do what you want to do. We won’t bother anymore.” Still, they often tackle me when I’m about to do musical activities. I was contacted by someone who I have really been wanting to work with and there is something we absolutely have to talk about face to face, but they often keep me from going out so I still haven’t been able to meet that person.
“You may only do musical activites within the range of what we allow you to do, then we won’t care. But don’t try to escape that range,” kind of like this? (laughs) It is like they only gave me half-permission.

 

As you still are a high school student, you must have many time-wise constrictions. Is your school understanding?

At school, they have absolutely no understanding. I have to take the college entrance exam and go to college just like other students, so I always go to class. I even go to cram school. I have considerably less time to work on music. Even after this interview I have to do homework for cram school.

 

You seem like a tough exam learner … Have you decided to go to college?

Seeing as I don’t have any interest in college at all, I have not been able to decide yet. This has become a bit of a serious problem as I have to make a decision soon, but I don’t think it is a bad idea to decide based on my grades.

 

How is life at school? Since hiphop has become a trend lately, many of your classmates must be interested in it. Even I don’t remember my own life in high school very well, but if there is any funny episode from your school life, please tell me about it.

School life … to be honest, it is really boring. Since I spend the day at school rather quietly, I have close to never had a conversation amongst a lot of friends. And of course I eat alone too. But it is not that I don’t have friends. A few guys come and ask me about Show Me The Money or a rapper whose song they listened to, but that is … well, it is nothing pleasant for me. They ask me questions like “Is Black Nut good? Is Song Minho good?” about a program I am not interested in and don’t watch. The questions are ridiculous, so I just reply with “They’re all good.”
Also, I have entered my current high school in the second semester of the first year, so everyone had already made friends and probably also because I don’t live in the area, I just ended up by myself. Of course, I don’t try to get along with people of my own accord. I suppose that is because my interest in school has disappeared.

 

After the release of your last mixtape, I’d call the track ‘Stax Fliight’ your representative track as it has the highest number of plays on SoundCloud. Which other tracks of yours would you recommend?

‘정글왕’ [Jungle King], ‘Fishin 6 AM’, ‘HATEHΔTEH_TE’, ‘VENI VIDI VICI’. These should be enough. ‘정글왕’ [Jungle King] is on my first mixtape and the other tracks can be found on my SoundCloud.

 

You haven’t released any albums yet. Are you planning to?

Because I think that I am not well-known enough yet, instead of being pressured by monetary problems that come with making an album, I think that I need to release free music first. After I have become a bit more famous, I’ll probably release an album.

 

In the credits it says that you mix the songs yourself, how did you learn that?

I actually do the mixing a bit foolishly. I was in a crew called GANG ELLIOT before. The hyungs of that crew were all using the same equalizer settings at the time. They told me about them too, as well as a few tips for basic mixing. Afterwards I read up about mixing on my own. When I mix, I regularly use several external voice samples or other samples. I’m trying things like these especially often lately and strangely find it enjoyable.

 

You said you personally create artworks, have you ever learned photoshop or something about design?

I have never learned photoshop or anything else art- or design-related, I just thought that an album cover is needed for tracks as well, so I used the cellphone app ‘PicsArt’ to make covers. The more I did that, the greedier I got and read up about it a lot. I am still making album covers with ‘PicsArt’.

 

It seems like you’re promoting that app. (laughs)

Hahaha. You could see it that way.

 

You write a lot of verses. Do you tend to spend a lot of time on writing lyrics?

It doesn’t take me that much time. Longest, it takes me two hours.

 

There is a lot of English in your lyrics, have you studied abroad for a long time?

After the first semester of third grade in a Korean elementary school, I went to Shanghai in China where I studied for about eight years and a half. I also went to New Zealand during that time. I can speak both Chinese and English.

 

You recently dissed MC Meta. What did you not like about him?

As you can find out from the diss track’s lyrics, the biggest reason was that I first wanted to question MC Meta’s right to diss Show Me The Money. As far as I remember, Meta went on SMTM as producer in season one and two, and I think that he already profited from the program then. Even though the problems with Show Me The Money became more serious after its second season and Meta quit, he was a judge on season three’s successor Unpretty Rapstar and seemed to enjoy two female rappers battling each other on the show. Releasing a track called ‘Show Me The Hiphop’ in that situation looked ambivalent to me.

 

But MC Meta has contributed a lot to Korean hiphop and many rappers respect him. Therefore, what you did could put you in a bad position. With what kind of feelings did you diss Meta?

As a person who raps in Korea I am contributing to Korean hiphop, although only little, and of course I cannot ignore everything MC Meta has contributed to Korean hiphop. And I too have deeply felt something when listening to Garion’s lyrics before. However, their past acts being right does not justify the mistakes they are committing now. The reason why I think that this has to be addressed even clearlier is that if nobody expresses doubt about that, then all the Korean rappers are doing politics, just like TakeOne said. I wasn’t afraid.

 

I can imagine that you were criticized a lot after you released the diss track.

As the diss track was posted on quite a lot of Facebook pages, I saw many people’s comments. Those who were against my opinion said so much nonsense. It wasn’t logical and although I clearly wrote in my lyrics why my respect for Meta has disappeared, those people wrote: “Do you know the hiphop mind? Meta has done a lot, do you have the right to put that down? You’re not on that level.” In other words, it was no refutation of my track’s content. It’s not just that I cannot grab every single one of them and convince them, but also that the moment I read their comments I thought, “They will not understand.” They simply have deified Meta and found Khundi Panda, a rookie who came out of nowhere, disgusting. This is a problem I would like to address, you can call it “thoughtless deification of first-generation rappers.” According to them, BLUECHAN is the best and I am at the bottom of the bottom.
I did not decide that I had to express all of this in a diss track because I listened to TakeOne’s ‘Come Back Home’ and was inspired. Meta’s ‘Show Me The Hiphop’ came out a few days before ‘Come Back Home’ and dumbfoundead, I had already been preparing the [diss] track together with friends who also make music. Of course I mentioned TakeOne in the lyrics later because I found his attitude dope, but even without the ‘Come Back Home’ crisis, I would have definitely revealed that track. If someone says that I “took use of this time to diss Meta,” all I can say is that the time coincidentally overlapped [with the release of my diss track]. However, had I really wanted to make use of that crisis, I would have used Seo Taiji’s beat and I wouldn’t have released the track on the same days as Jo Woojin either, to have the spotlight all for myself. Nevertheless, since it is my fault that there even is a possibility of misunderstanding the whole thing, I do not feel too wronged if people do misunderstand.

 

What kind of music do you normally listen to? Which artist are you into recently?

I think I listen to Stonethrow Records and Brainfeeder’s artists the most. Also, I don’t listen to rap only, I listen to a lot of beat music. Albums I have recently listened to a lot are Jonwayne’s ‘Jonwayne is Retired EP’, Flying Lotus’ ‘1983’, Tokimonsta’s ‘Creature Dreams’. As for a national act, DSEL & Hipincase’s ‘Ready to 20blossom’. This album is really dope.

 

Which artist has influenced you the most?

It is difficult to choose one person. I like combinations, so as for my rapstyle I took a close look at Basick, Lil Boi, and Gganmo’s rapstyles. Yet, I don’t think that my music itself was influenced by their music. The style of my tracks was influenced a lot by Blu or Earl Sweatshirt’s music … I would like to release an album like Von’s ‘CREAM’ who was part of Salon 01 Crew before. I receive influence from quite a variety of people.

 

What kind of position will you take up in the scene in the future? I would like to hear your aspirations.

I’d like to make my style of music into a genre of its own later. So that in case someone makes similar music, people who hear it will naturally say, “Hey, this is Khundi music!” This is how big my aspiration is to establish my position with my very own characteristic music style.

 

Are you part of a team?

I’m part of a crew called Purpura Ethics and the team Dumbrain.

 

Please introduce each of them.

Purpura Ethics is an art team I’ve founded because I want to represent that characteristic music style I mentioned before. Its members do solo activities and what they want to do, but each work with the crew’s trademark contains Purpura’s very own style. Its members are the two producers Sec Paul and Limmernel, rappers Loathgold and Khundi Panda, and painter Duf Pablo. All are hidden monsters, and each of them has made plans to proof their competences. Do look forward to it.
Dumbrain is a one-producer-one-MC team made up of me and producer Brouharian. We decided to each do our own thing and then get together in 2016. Actually, our musical tendencies are so different at the moment that we don’t know if we will work together at that time, but because we are both convinced of the other’s skills I think that we will get active at exactly that time.

 

Do you have any plans to perform live?

Since I am preparing for the exam and nobody asks for me, I don’t think I will perform live anytime soon. However, I do like rapping at concerts so I am always inclined to go if anyone asks for me. Do call me.

 

I’m looking forward to what you will do next. Is there anything you can tell us about your upcoming plans?

I would like to make a mixtape out of the stories from my fantasy world. Of course, it will be stories which you can sufficiently understand even without knowing about it beforehand. The mixtape will probably come out this year around the middle of November or in December.
I also have a few works in the making with some fun hyungs, so look forward to those as well!

 

Last but not least, please say a few words to ROKHipHop’s readers.

I love you.

Video: Hello, I am Khundi Panda. I am the fourth guest of SCV’s Mineral Excavation Interviews. I believe that many of you might not know me very well, which I think is possible since I only became more famous with releasing that diss track. And this time, now that I have people’s attention with the diss track, is the most dangerous time for me, so please stay on the lookout for my new tracks, I will prove myself with them. Please look forward to them. Also, if you are curious about the rapper Khundi Panda, I think most questions should be answered with this interview, so do read it as it also is my first interview. I will release [another] mixtape later. Since I am preparing for the exam these days, I will probably not have any time for a while, but after the exam I will clearly do my best, so please wait and see. Show ROKHipHop a lot of love too! Thank you.

 

 

Interview by SCV

Original interview on ROKHipHop

Translator’s note: a big shout-out to SCV for not only allowing me to translate his interviews, but also especially creating the English version of the banner which you see above, and even checking the finished translation! Also many thanks to ROKHIPHOP’s head who made all of this possible.

SCV's Mineral Excavation Interview banner

SCV’s Mineral Excavation Interview with Dbo

With friendly permission and support from ROKHIPHOP, we are happy to present you SCV’s Mineral Excavation Interviews! ROKHIPHOP has started this interview series that looks for rappers who have released good mixtapes and albums but receive relatively less attention, thus the series is titled ‘SCV’s Mineral Excavation Interview’. The first guest invited for the interview to ROKHIPHOP’s office with its friendly atmosphere was Dbo.

SCV: Please introduce yourself.

Dbo: I am Dbo. I live in Anyang, was born ’92 and rap. Nice to meet you.

 

How did you make the name ‘Dbo’ and what does it mean?

My artist name wasn’t Dbo from the beginning. When I was in Canada, my friends suggested that each of us chooses a name, so I chose ‘Domino’. At the time, I didn’t give it much thought. Afterwards, I took the last syllable of my own name, Shim Hyunbo’s ‘bo’, and joined it with Domino’s ‘D’ to Dbo. With my first mixtape, I sent off the nickname ‘Domino’.

 

You have been chosen as the first guest of ROKHIPHOP’s new content, how do you feel?

As this is a first for me too, it feels quite fresh.

 

You actually got more famous through Show Me The Money. In season 3, the edit showed you as a freak which not only gained you more fame but also an eccentric and crazy image. Please tell me about your feelings at the time and your current situation in comparison to it.

I didn’t feel too well about myself back then when I made a mistake with my lyrics and was eliminated by Vasco-hyung. I was angry too. I didn’t feel too well because being eliminated meant that I couldn’t show everything I had wanted to show. But when I watched it on TV later, I liked how they edited my appearance funnily.

 

Don’t you think it was evil editing? You’re saying you actually liked it?

That’s right. I had fun watching.

 

What part of you made YDG acknowledge your musicality, and what do you think of the so-called titled of ‘prophet’ which YDG gained for choosing you and Jung Sangsoo?

I am really thankful to him for passing me at the time. I agree with the term ‘prophet’. I’ve liked Donggeun-hyung’s music well before. I didn’t especially look up his songs to listen to them, but I liked them a lot, so I am simply grateful that someone like him chose me.

 

I heard that after SMTM4, you were contacted by Okasian and thus performed for the first time at All Force One together with The Cohort. What had happened?

After Show Me The Money, he contacted me via Instagram. He invited me to Hi-Lite Records’ 4-year anniversary party, so I went. And there, Okasian-hyung told me that he had listened to my mixtapes and I got to perform with them on stage.

 

How was the performance at All Force One? Was it successful?

Hahaha .. I think it was just so-so.

 

After that concert, you have worked with Hi-Lite on several songs. Recently, the free single ‘우주선’ [Spaceship] with B-Free came out. How do you work together with Hi-Lite?

These days, when they ask me, “Do you wanna do this with us?” I tend to do so. Sometimes when they send me a song, I listen to the beat first and when I like it I write lyrics for it right away.

 

Will you continue to work together?

I’m continuously working, so they can ask me anytime. If both sides like the content then I would like to continue to work with them.

 

I remember that Giriboy and Nochang were trying to get your contact details via social networks after last year’s season [of SMTM4] ended, what happened and did you get to do anything together?

At the time, they contacted me briefly but then they were busy with concerts and I was in the midst of working on something at the time too, so the contact broke off naturally.

 

What is your new song ‘Cloud’ about?

It is just music about intercourse. Just …. like …. clouds …. uhm … (He seems flustered for some reason.)

 

So, what kind of … meaning does it have ..?

Intercourse … uh … you should try to find the meaning for yourself. (laughs)

 

How did the people around you react to it?

Those who like my music have liked the song even before it came out.

 

And afterwards?

The reactions .. I don’t know. I mean … I don’t know. Lukewarm, somehow?

 

The cloud rap genre is still new to listeners in Korea. How did you start with it?

As many artists of the US-American scene are already doing cloud rap and I listen to a lot of foreign music, I naturally ended up doing it.

 

Is there any album or music you often listen to these days? And if, what do you like about it?

Most recently, I’ve listened to ‘It G Ma’ remixes. I enjoyed them.

 

What kind of music are you into these days?

I listen to my music. (laughs) I’m busy listening to my stuff, so I can’t listen to anything else. I think I should, though.

 

Which artist was a big influence on your music?

Lil Wayne.

 

I did not expect that at all. I thought you’d definitely name Yung Lean or Mick Jenkins.

Of course I was influenced. I receive inspiration by nearly all the music I listen to.

 

Where do you see your position in the scene and how would you like to take responsibility for its future?

I think I’ve just opened the door and came in. (makes gesture of opening door) It feels like I’ve arrived just now? I’ve arrived at the entrance, and it turns out that many people are doing their thing. I’d like to try this and that first to find my place too.

 

What is the biggest difficulty you’re currently experiencing?

Money. Money is the problem. I’d like to be able to do music without any hindrance.

 

How did you meet your current team?

It’s a team that got together in Toronto, Canada. There’s a station called ‘Finch’ where we decided to hold cyphers. Whenever anyone said to meet there, I participated too. We all stood in a circle and had fun. As we met often, we became friends. One after the other, we returned to Korea. Don Mills-hyung was there too, at the time we called him ‘황마’ [read ‘hwangma’, translates to ‘jute’]. Don Mills-hyung wasn’t in the same crew as us but he was the first to go to Korea and become a rapstar.

 

That’s quite a cool way of forming a team. What kind of team is the FPL Crew that you’re part of at the moment?

FPL stands for ‘Fuck, Peace & Love’, it’s a team where we combine our goals, help each other, and do the music we like. It originally started out as ‘Finch Parking Lot’, but the name changed when we came to Korea.

 

What can your team be proud of now and do you have any upcoming plans as a team?

The crew’s oldest member KIGGA raps well. He’s our boss. Also, there’s a lively exchange between us crew members. We tell each other what we want to do and help each other by producing or mixing songs. Sometimes things slow down but until now everything’s still going well and it’s going to thrive even more.

 

Disputes about Show Me The Money have increased a lot these days due to things like problems with Black Nut and Song Minho’s lyrics .. Although I don’t think you mind it very much, but as last year’s participant, have you ever felt treated unfairly or displeased by the image that was shown of you on Show Me The Money? And what is your opinion on the show?

That alone is not all, so if you want to watch it for fun you just enjoy it, and if you want to watch it seriously then you watch it seriously. First of all, I think it’s good that Show Me The Money made hiphop known to the masses. However, I wish that Show Me The Money’s final season ends well. Honestly, if they tried they could do it, but I think they might not do it.

 

Last but not least, anything you’d like to say to ROKHIPHOP’s readers?

Bye.^^

 

That is … it?

Yeah … uhm … if you read until the end, thank you very much and if you like my music, I’d be grateful if you’ll show me love from now on too.

 

dbo

Interview by SCV

Original interview on ROKHipHop


Related link:
FPL Crew’s Facebook

 

 

Translator’s note: a big shout-out to SCV for not only allowing me to translate his interviews, but also especially creating the English version of the banner which you see above, and even checking the finished translation! Also many thanks to ROKHIPHOP’s head who made all of this possible.