Korean hip-hop
Korean hip-hop, also known as K-hip-hop or K-rap, is a subgenre of the South Korean popular music.
It is widely considered to have originated in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and has since become increasingly popular, both in South Korea and abroad.
While South Korea's hip-hop culture includes various elements such as rap, graffiti, DJing, turntablism, and b-boying, rapping makes up a significant part of the culture. The term "hip-hop" is largely recognized and understood as "rap" in Korea.
Characteristics
Linguistic hybridization
The interplay between the Korean language and English has been used as a technical and aesthetic device in Korean hip-hop. Many Korean hip-hop songs contain syllabic similarities that could be interpreted in either languages. The bilingual aspect of this music is one distinguishing factor between Korean hip-hop and American hip-hop.As early-stage Korean hip-hop was heavily influenced by African-American hip-hop, Korean hip-hop artists began using AAVE in their lyrics. The dominance of Korean-Americans in the Korean hip-hop scene also contributed to the use of mixed languages in Korean hip-hop. English-speaking Korean diaspora artists such as Drunken Tiger, Epik High's Tablo, Swings, Jay Park, and San E have included English lyrics in their raps.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, there were debates on the authenticity of lyrics written in English, and some artists deliberately refrained from using English in their lyrics. Garion was well-known for using only the Korean language in their lyrics. The group's name, Garion, is a Korean word referring to a mythical white horse with a black mane, and it also reflects their heritage. Today, however, the movement has weakened as Korean rap is now believed to have become fully established in terms of its linguistic and rhythmic qualities.
Subject matter
Although Korean hip-hop adopted American hip-hop music, the difference in culture naturally led to the difference in lyrical content. For example, in the early stages of Korean hip-hop music, many Korean rappers referenced Confucian values and idioms. Bill Stax, a Korean rapper, explains, “While American hip-hop mainly dealt with themes of women, money, and drugs, there are no drugs in Korea. We need to tell stories that our friends can relate to and enjoy.” Themes that are most often dealt with in Korean hip-hop music are everyday life, personal stories and social issues specific to Korean culture in the case of underground hip-hop, and love in the case of mainstream hip-hop.Musical elements
Source:While differences in sound were deemed small in distinguishing Korean hip-hop music from American hip-hop music, there has been a consistent effort to incorporate Korean traditional sound into hip-hop music. Seo Taiji and Boys, the first Korean musician to adopt hip-hop elements in music, added a short solo playing of the traditional Korean conical oboe in their song "Hayeoga". MC Sniper, an underground rapper and the founder of the hip-hop crew Buddha Baby, is known for his early use of traditional musical and religious elements including the 12-stringed zither and the transverse bamboo flute and the Buddhist wooden percussion in his productions. Ones, a first-generation Korean hip-hop musician, is known for his cross-over experiments between hip-hop and Korean traditional music. In April 2016, "Eung Freestyle" produced by DPR crew which mainly used the Korean instrument gayageum attracted global popularity after being released on YouTube.
Korean hiphop music also often shows musical influences from Korean ballads and trot, such as melodies based on Korean traditional pentatonic scales, so-called "gugak scales", and "bbongki", a bounciness closely associated with trot music.
There has been criticism for such a movement. Some musicians noted that Korean hip-hop should not have a unique sound, but follow or use a recognizable global hip-hop sound. For example, Code Kunst, a Korean hip-hop producer, noted that “I do not think Korea needs a unique sound of its own. People who are not Korean can sample ‘Korean’ sounds as well.”
Virtual and local scenes
Unlike American hip-hop, Korean hip-hop started in the rooms and personal computer spaces of hip-hop fans and then moved to the streets and performance spaces of Hongdae.Web-based communities
Early stage Korean hip-hop was closely linked to the web-based communities created on web servers. Servers such as Chollian, HiTel, Daum, Nate, and Naver provided free web-based emails, messaging services, and forums. PC communities created in these servers such as BLEX, Dope Soundz, and Show N Prove worked as a place to share Korean translations of English lyrics, swap imported cassette tapes and CDs, and discuss the meaning of hip-hop in their lives. First generation artists such as Verbal Jint, P-Type, Defconn, and Garion actively participated in these online communities. Web server-based communities diminished when people stopped using web servers in the early 2000s, and the communities moved onto webzines and online sites. These webzines not only published articles but also facilitated communications in the hip-hop scene. Some online sites such as Hiphopplaya, Rhythmer HiphopLE are still actively used as an online community for hip-hop discussions as of 2019. Many of these online community users started holding a monthly offline meeting called jeongmo to discuss hip-hop music and perform their works, leading to the development of local scenes.In early 2017, the very first Korean hip-hop Awards was presented by two of the largest Korean hip-hop webzines, HipHopLE and Hiphopplaya. Some of the awards included Rookie of the Year, Producer of the Year, hip-hop Track of the Year, hip-hop Album of the Year, and Artist of the Year. The winners being JUSTHIS, Groovy Room, BeWhy's “Forever”, Nucksal's The God of Small Things, and Jay Park respectively. In addition, the awards included a category showing which artists to look out for, such as Live and Mac Kidd.
Hongdae as a local scene
Since the mid-1990s, Hongdae became the physical center of the Korean hip-hop scene. Hongdae, a northwestern part of Seoul, is named after a nearby Hongik University in the area. Widely known for its prestigious art/music college and liberal atmosphere, Hongik University contributed to the emergence of youth culture including hip-hop music in the area. From the late 1990s, many clubs began to emerge in Hongdae where various types of music such as rock, techno, and hip-hop were played. Master Plan, originally an indie rock club located in the greater Hongdae area, is often regarded as the birthplace of underground Korean hip-hop. MP worked as a site for consuming, performing, and sharing hip-hop music. Street hip-hop events such as Everyone's Mic hosted by Hiphopplaya also took place in Hongdae. Everyone's Mic is a weekly open rap competition for underground musicians where participants perform freestyle rap based on the beat played by the DJ. Hongdae not only functioned as a tangible place for production and consumption but also became a symbolic place for underground hip-hop music and imaginary gohyang for musicians to build their identities.Relations with the media
The media has played a huge role in forming the Korean hip-hop scene. The TV program Show Me the Money gained massive popularity and enabled hip-hop music to be mainstream music in Korea. However, criticism against the authenticity of the TV show resulted in the emergence of independent YouTube channels operated by hip-hop labels and musicians.Hip-hop TV shows
Starting in 2012, hip-hop audition programs such as Show Me the Money, Unpretty Rapstar, and High School Rapper became widely popular in Korea. SMTM is an audition program for amateur and professional rappers in which the top 16 rappers divide into 4 teams and compete to be the final winner. Unpretty Rapstar is a female counterpart of SMTM and High School Rapper is a high school version of SMTM. As of November 2022, SMTM has had eleven seasons. Unpretty Rapstar has had 3 seasons since 2015 and High School Rapper has had 3 seasons since 2017. These reality competition shows are produced by Mnet, South Korea's largest cable music channel operated under CJ Entertainment & Media, an entertainment and media conglomerate.These TV shows changed the notion of underground and overground hip-hop music in South Korea. Before the show, musicians who signed with major labels and frequently appeared on TV were considered overground rappers while ones who performed on small stages and worked independently were recognized as underground rappers. However, as hip-hop TV shows made hip-hop music mainstream, even the underground rappers who were critical of overground rappers gained visibility through TV and started working with pop artists. Also, with the success of SMTM, underground rappers who negatively thought of signing with labels started considering the idea due to the promise of rising profits in the genre. For example, Deepflow of VMC who criticized overground rappers for commercializing the hip-hop scene, actively participated in several hip-hop TV shows as a producer from 2017. Nafla and Loopy of Mkit Rain who criticized overground rappers for joining SMTM eventually joined SMTM season 7 as participants as well. Rather than being a stage for only the overground rappers, media and TV shows are now viewed as an opportunity for all types of new rappers to gain visibility and rise to the stardom. This transition has eventually blurred the distinction between underground and overground musicians.
Social media and YouTube
Social media platforms such as YouTube and SoundCloud has been one of the main channels Korean hip-hop artists present their works and communicate with its fans. Mic Swagger, a YouTube-based freestyle rapping content that invites different hip-hop musicians as guests each episode, became a huge success throughout its four seasons since 2009 and contributed to the popularization of freestyle rap. Also, in response to the criticism against the mainstream hip-hop media like Mnet, hip-hop artists started creating independent channels to express their thoughts and present their music to the public. Label H1ghr Music partnered with Dingo, an online media content creator, to promote new songs independent from the mainstream media. In 2018, rapper Mommy Son released a song named “Mommy Jump” through his YouTube channel after being eliminated from SMTM season 7. The song, which directly condemned Mnet and SMTM, became a massive hit and was nominated the hip-hop song of the year with 38 million YouTube views.Rappers and idols also use social media apps as a way of connecting to their fans, creating a sense of friendship with their fans. The use of music streaming apps such as SoundCloud, YouTube, and Spotify can help in exposure for Korean artists, as many of these apps, especially SoundCloud, are used by young kids around the world to discover these artists. Much of the music on these apps provide a similar sound to American rap music, which is popular not only for American teenagers but teenagers abroad as well. There is also room for more experimentation on music platforms such as SoundCloud because artists can upload their work and express their creativity in a way they could not in the Korean idol system and form a deeper connection with their audiences with their work, as well as promote their solo work.
The emergence of bilingual Korean rappers also helps bridge the gap between Korean and American hip-hop music along with social media. They can communicate with American fans in a way most non-English-speaking Korean rappers cannot. DPR Live explained his newfound presence in the US with his first-ever concert, by saying “I always thought, you know, me being bilingual, just looking at the quality of both music, it's both up to par. But Korean music has just as nice flavor and amazing qualities. just the world doesn't know yet. And obviously, America is everywhere. Everyone knows. And I'm just excited to close the gap a little more.”