"The Little Prince" (어린이왕자) by Haon & Pullik (Produced by Godic), Monday, June 28, 2021

In 2012, a Korean rapper taught everyone around the world about K pop by talking about the wealth in a particular neighborhood in Seoul. That rapper was Psy and that neighborhood was Gangnam. However, Korean Hip Hop has not been the bread and butter of the K-pop industry. Sure, hip-hop certainly is featured in the K-pop that gets popular. While BTS has rappers, they fit into the genre of teen pop music. Korean Hip Hop; however, teaches you all the bad words in Korean and will often contain some English profanity too. These days it's especially popular among high school and college-aged boys.

WHEN YOU FEEL ME TWICE. Korean Hip Hop dates back to the late '80s when the government loosened its censorship laws. In early Korean Hip Hop, artists often talked about daily life and Korean virtues. It was not widely performed at first. DJs produced music and the scene was quite underground. But in the mid-90s Hip Hop emerged in Hongdae, one of Korea's most hopping college towns in Seoul. Korean American artists, some influenced by the music in Korea others influenced by the Hip Hop in the states started writing and producing music. However, Korean Hip Hop would go mainstream (for Korea) in the 2010s when such programs like Show Me the Money, Unpretty Rap Star, and even a show promoting high school students with a dream to be a rapper, High School Rapper hit the airwaves. 

SO WHAT? SO WHAT? I heard Korean Hip Hop every day before the pandemic. Every Korean gym plays popular tracks by Beenzino, Bewhy, Zico, and a slew of other artists. Some of the songs start out sound abrasive. The English f bombs or sometimes the rapper's voice is annoying. Some of the songs are instantly catchy, showing how the Korean language is a much more rhyming and naturally rhythmic language than English. I found myself adding more and more songs, even the abrasive ones, to my library. Korean Hip Hop production is formulated to make every song catchy. Take today's song. A groovy bass-line, sound effects, and the boys interrupting each other, all to the pretty innocuous subject of a French classic. Certainly, the high school boyish tactics might annoy some listeners, but to me it really sounds like how my students talk to one another. This kind of lighthearted rapping is something that I can't say I've heard before in rap music--though I'm far from an expert. One thing's for sure: if we weren't in the middle of a pandemic, probably a lot more Korean Hip Hop would make my daily list because I'd be at the gym.

Korean Lyrics only 

Performance: 

Studio Version: