“Always Awake” by Beenzino (빈지노), Friday, March 29, 2024
South Korean rapper Beenzino (빈지노), not to be confused with American rapper Benzino, began his career by posting his songs on the Korean Hip-Hop community site DC Tribe in 2010. Rapper Simon Dominic discovered Beenzino on the website and eventually, Beenzino started getting more exposure through rap festival performances in South Korea. Beenzino performed with two hip-hop duos, Jazzyfact and Hotclip as well as garnering features on songs by Verbal Jint, Epik High, Dok2, and other Korean Hip-Hop artists as the genre was entering a burgeoning success in the 2010s. Along with producer Shimmy Twice, Beenzino released Lifes Like in 2010 with Jazzyfact. The next year, the duo released the single "Always Awake" before taking a hiatus until their 2017 EP, Waves Like.
WHEN THE CITY OF SEOUL SLEEPS. Following his collaborative effort in Jazzyfact, Beenzino signed with 1llionare Records, a small but powerful Hip-Hop label in South Korea. Founded by rappers Dok2 and The Quiett, the label helped to launch the careers of several rappers and made Korean rappers household names in the country. While his Hip-Hop career was beginning, Lim Seong Bin (임성빈), or Beenzino, was studying sculpture at Seoul National University, Korea’s top university. In 2014, Beenzino released 2 4: 2 6, his debut solo EP. Beenzino collaborates with many rappers in the scene on his debut EP, but the record stood out to critics because of the album’s beats and jazz samples. As a bonus track, Beenzino included “Always Awake,” Jazzyfact’s 2011 single. The Latin jazz-influenced “Aqua Man” later became a Korean Hip-Hop standard. However, Beenzino’s breakthrough into commercial acceptance would be in 2013 with the single “Dali Van Picasso” from his 2014 follow-up EP Up All Night.
I GOTTA LIVE MY LIFE NOW, NOT LATER. Beenzino was not only one of the first Korean rappers I liked but also one of the first Korean artists I started listening to. Granted, by listening it was mostly a few songs. “Dali Van Picasso” was a new song when I was in my second year of teaching in Chuncheon. There was a cafe across the street from the institute run by a lanky guy, I’d guess about 30 who ran the cafe with his “mommy.” He didn’t speak much English. I must have had everything on the menu, but every week, maybe up to three times a week when I wasn’t eating at the cheap kimbap on the other side of the street before the owner got a bad cough and I got worried that what she had was contagious. Chicken carbonara with a latte. I loved the music in the shop, late ‘90s pop-rock and recent K-pop. I loved “Dali Van Picasso” because it was a smooth jazz hip-hop piece about painters. I remember “Aqua Man” as a song that they played in my gym a few years later, and I don’t remember the first time I heard “Always Awake.” All of these three tracks have a rhythmic smooth jazz sound that seems like early ‘80s Hip Hop when the genre started by sampling jazz records. Beenzino’s biggest tracks aren’t aggressive. They’re smooth and dreamy without being sleepy. Before Beenzino, I never thought coffee shop Hip-Hop could be a thing. And, to be fair, many of his songs violate my rules about profanity on playlists for the public. But Beenzino was exactly the rapper I needed to fill a nichè I never knew about.
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