Korean hip hop
Encyclopedia
In South Korea
, hip hop expanded into a form of cultural phenomenon; namely in Seoul
, Busan
and Daegu
. Although the movement has been growing since the mid-90's, Korean hip-hop scene has been gaining a great amount of attention on an international level, since their exposure of bboys who have won various championships around the world since the early 2000's. Aside from K-pop
infused hip hop on the overground scene, there is also a huge underground scene that has developed immensely throughout South Korea.
Hip-hop online webzines like Hiphop Playa has contributed greatly in spreading the hip-hop culture.
and Boys, Deux, and DJ DOC
. The Korean language was used almost exclusively. SeoTaiji, coming from a heavy metal music background, often featured heavy metal guitars in his mixes, and other artists also incorporated techno influences. A few artists, such as Seotaiji and Yuk Kak Soo (육각수), also incorporated influences from traditional Korean music such as pansori
or nongak (farmers' music). One that was distinctive was Seo Taiji's "Come Back Home", with its vocal/production style resembling Cypress Hill
. The first "rap" album that featured rap in every track was Kim Jin Pyo's first album in 1997. First Hip-Hop song in South Korea was Gim-sat-gat(김삿갓) by Hong-seo-bum(홍서범).
According to Epik High's rapper Tablo
, "The form [of Korean Hip Hop], at least, has definitely been mastered now — the beats, the rhymes, the performances, the look — it’s indistinguishable from the United States scene. The social relevance, however, has a long way to go. The message is slowly catching up to the medium."
Many rap artists have been successful in the mainstream of Korean music. These include rappers such as Verbal Jint, Jinusean
, T.O.P (entertainer), G-Dragon
, Outsider
, 1TYM
, MC Sniper
, Psy
, Cho PD
, Dynamic Duo
, Drunken Tiger
, Supreme Team and Epik High
.
Since their succession, hip-hop was introduced to Korean popular culture. Similar to other national hip-hop scene, there has always been a 'taste-conflict' between overground and underground listeners. As many K-pop
groups infuse and add a pinch of hip-hop to their songs, overground listeners became used to associating hip-hop with these simplistic, sugar-coated lyrics. As a reaction, a spawn of underground rappers and listeners have been criticizing the overground hip-hop scene. In fact they have begun to criticize themselves whether you have what it takes to identify yourself as a true, underground rapper/listener. This has actually developed a very competitive atmosphere within the underground scene and have kept on increasing the standard of the necessary skills needed in oder to call yourself as a true rapper. This perspective fuelled the rappers to increase their skills in relation to complex rhymes, metaphors, wit and flow to the point where the standard of rapping in Korea is almost beyond the scale of some American hip-hop scene. Although this phenomenon deserves an international recognition, language difference is obviously the main barrier that is disallowing these greatly skilled rappers to be reached out to the global audience.
enjoys a great deal of popularity in South Korea, so much so that it has become a great cultural export for the country as the South Korean government tries to promote a dynamic image of South Korea. South Korean B-boys say that the B-boy movement dates as far back as 1990s where young men took up the activity as a result of the lack of diversion to military duties. But it is wasn't until 2002 that they received international recognition, when they debuted at the 2002 annual Battle of the Year competition in Germany. Since then South Korea has won several Battle of the Year
titles, and breaking crews frequently appear on national television.
As of 2009, South Korea is the world's leading country in breaking. Some of the well known breaking crews include Rivers, Drifterz, Gamblerz
, T.I.P., Extreme Crew, Last For One
, Expression, Maximum, and Visual Shock.
As the Korean bboying scene became internationally renowned, it sparked the Korean government for supporting to host Korea's own bboy championship for the international audience. R-16 KOREA Bboy Championships is one of the most recognized bboy championships that invites bboys from all around the world to now Asia's bboy capital South Korea.
Bboy scene in Korea has been proactive in blending the bboying style with other dance forms and inspirations. Whilst keeping the essence of American style of bboying, many bboys in Korea have infused their own traditional style into bboying. With elements of Korean traditional dances like Pungmul
(which also incorporates head-rotating and complex jumps) and Taekwondo
-inspired moves, Korean bboys have benefitted from taking two different cultural styles and putting into one unique style.
In 2006, the apartment building company e편한세상 has released a TV advertisement where bboy members from Last for One
were shown dancing onto the hip-hop remix of Pachelbel's Canon blended with the play of the Korean traditional instrument Gayageum
. The mix of European, African-American and Korean style merged together in a great harmony and caught the eyes of the global audience when the clip became viral on Youtube
. Since then various hip-hop/Korean-traditional hybrid music bands began to appear with examples like Sorea
(Sound of Korea) which made the hit track 'Seoul in Panic'.
Korean-American director Benson Lee has captured this 'blending' phenomenon very well in his bboy documentary Planet Bboy where there is a scene of Korean bboys reflecting the North-South Korea conflict. North and South Korean guards (all played by South Korean bboys) battle out in the DMZ border
.
As it is hard to have a stable income source for bboys, many crews have ventured out to doing theatrical performances and musicals. Since 2006, Expression crew
have been performing a new style of bboying called the Marionette, which incorporated puppet-like movements and was responsible for influencing JabbaWockeeZ
crew who have succuessfully used this style during their performances on America's Best Dance Crew
. Extreme crew has combined Ballet
with Bboys as they ventured into the musical 'Ballerina who fell in love with a bboy' (비보이를 사랑한 발레리나).
Hip hop dancing is also pretty popular in Korea. Some well known hip hop dance groups include Prepix.
Another well known dance group, is popping
group K-OGS. Their member Pop Kun won the UK BBoy Championship in 2008 Other well known popping groups are Cyborg G (Popping Hyun Joon
well known member of the dance community), FREEZE and Newest35.
Aside from various dances involved in hip-hop, Krumping
has also become popular within a niche underground supporters. The krumping crew Monster Woo Fam lead by Monster Woo has been one of the many crews that have gained a great international attention via Youtube
.
One of the leading artists who have been pioneering this freestyle-rap culture since the mid-2000's is Sool J. He is well known for winning Miller 2005 Freestyle Rap Battle and has then set his goal in popularising this freestyle-rap culture. He was responsible for hosting the internet freestyling show Mic Swagger, where famous rappers are invited to have a freestyle session with him similar to Rap City over in the United States. He was also the founder of Freestyle Day and has toured all over South Korea to find young freestyling talents. He is currently hosting a 'no-beat' battle show called Boxer. Other artists who have been heavily associated with freestyle rapping would include Huckleberry P (of Pinodyne), JJK, Dragon A.T, Dumbfoundead
and many more.
As the aftermath of heated freestyle battles can end up in a violent manner from time to time, a new type of battle was invented in Korea in order to encourage freestylers and hip-hop fans to maintain peace and respect. It is called 'compliment battle' (칭찬배틀) whereby the competitors have to freestyle not against their opponents, but to freestyle about their admiration for them and to praise each other's skills and success. The winner of this battle is measured by the skills, wit and also their sincerity of respect. Compliment battles are usually carried out at the end of a normal freestyle battle, which leaves both of the opponents feeling more-or-less respectful of each other and prevents any aftermath violence/hatred.
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
, hip hop expanded into a form of cultural phenomenon; namely in Seoul
Seoul
Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...
, Busan
Busan
Busan , formerly spelled Pusan is South Korea's second largest metropolis after Seoul, with a population of around 3.6 million. The Metropolitan area population is 4,399,515 as of 2010. It is the largest port city in South Korea and the fifth largest port in the world...
and Daegu
Daegu
Daegu , also known as Taegu, and officially the Daegu Metropolitan City, is a city in South Korea, the fourth largest after Seoul, Busan, and Incheon, and the third largest metropolitan area in the country with over 2.5 million residents. The city is the capital and principal city of the...
. Although the movement has been growing since the mid-90's, Korean hip-hop scene has been gaining a great amount of attention on an international level, since their exposure of bboys who have won various championships around the world since the early 2000's. Aside from K-pop
K-pop
K-pop is a musical genre consisting of electropop, hip hop, pop, rock, and R&B music originating in South Korea...
infused hip hop on the overground scene, there is also a huge underground scene that has developed immensely throughout South Korea.
Hip-hop online webzines like Hiphop Playa has contributed greatly in spreading the hip-hop culture.
Hip hop music
Early artists included 3534, SeoTaijiSeo Tai-ji
Jeong Hyeon-cheol , better known as Seo Taiji, is a South Korean singer, musician, and songwriter. After dropping out of high school to pursue a music career, he has risen to become one of the most prominent and influential cultural icons in South Korea; many refer to him as "the President of...
and Boys, Deux, and DJ DOC
DJ DOC
DJ DOC is a Korean hip hop group. DOC is an acronym for "Dream of Children". Popular in the late 1990s, the group has last release an album on July 29, 2010. DJ DOC will often be seen in live productions with similar music group 45RPM and hip hop duo Jinusean.-Albums:# DJ. DOC, 1994# 머피의 법칙, 1995#...
. The Korean language was used almost exclusively. SeoTaiji, coming from a heavy metal music background, often featured heavy metal guitars in his mixes, and other artists also incorporated techno influences. A few artists, such as Seotaiji and Yuk Kak Soo (육각수), also incorporated influences from traditional Korean music such as pansori
Pansori
Pansori is a genre of Korean traditional music. It is a vocal and percussional music performed by one sorikkun and one gosu . The term pansori is derived from pan , and sori .- Overview :...
or nongak (farmers' music). One that was distinctive was Seo Taiji's "Come Back Home", with its vocal/production style resembling Cypress Hill
Cypress Hill
Cypress Hill is an American hip hop group from South Gate, California. Cypress Hill was the first Latino hip-hop group to have platinum and multi-platinum albums, selling over 18 million albums worldwide...
. The first "rap" album that featured rap in every track was Kim Jin Pyo's first album in 1997. First Hip-Hop song in South Korea was Gim-sat-gat(김삿갓) by Hong-seo-bum(홍서범).
According to Epik High's rapper Tablo
Tablo
Daniel Armand Lee, whose Korean name is Lee Seon-Woong , is more commonly known by his stage name Tablo . He is a hip hop musician, rap artist, songwriter and lyricist. He is best known as the rapper and leader of the South Korean hip hop group Epik High...
, "The form [of Korean Hip Hop], at least, has definitely been mastered now — the beats, the rhymes, the performances, the look — it’s indistinguishable from the United States scene. The social relevance, however, has a long way to go. The message is slowly catching up to the medium."
Many rap artists have been successful in the mainstream of Korean music. These include rappers such as Verbal Jint, Jinusean
Jinusean
Jinusean is a well-known Korean hip hop duo from YG Family. The duo is made up by Jin-woo Kim and Noh Seung-hwan .-History:In 1994, Jinu debuted in Korea as a solo artist with the popular song: "I Was the Captain"...
, T.O.P (entertainer), G-Dragon
G-Dragon
Aside from Big Bang, G-Dragon also made several solo appearances. After helping produce Taeyang's debut album, he recorded his own version of the album's lead single "Only Look At Me" , titled as the part two version to the song. The single was released digitally...
, Outsider
Outsider (rapper)
Outsider is a South Korean rapper. He is known for his speed-rapping and is reputed to be able to rap at 21 syllables per second. Outsider considers fellow Korean rapper MC Sniper as his mentor, and he is currently signed to MC Sniper's label, Sniper Sound.-History:Outsider is the world's fastest...
, 1TYM
1TYM
1TYM is a four-member Korean hip hop group. The four members are: Oh Jin Hwan , Park Hong Jun , Song Baek Kyoung , and Im Taebin . Leader Teddy and lead vocalist Danny originated from the United States and moved to South Korea when they were accepted under YG...
, MC Sniper
MC Sniper
MC Sniper is a South Korean male rapper. Recording artist and founder of underground hip-hop crew Buddha Baby, MC Sniper is considered a controversial and relatively influential musician in South Korea...
, Psy
Psy
Psy may mean:*Something to do with psychology*A commonly used term for psychedelic trance , a sub-genre of modern electronic dance music*Something to do with psionics...
, Cho PD
Cho PD
Cho Joong-hoon , better known by his stage name Cho PD, is a South Korean hip hop record producer and rapper. In 2010 he announced his retirement...
, Dynamic Duo
Dynamic Duo
Dynamic Duo is a Korean hip hop duo, made up of members Choiza and Gaeko. Unlike the rough and off beat sound of their past group, CB Mass, Dynamic Duo changed their style to a more audience-friendly sound with a brighter ambiance...
, Drunken Tiger
Drunken Tiger
Drunken Tiger is a critically acclaimed Korean/American hip hop group which debuted in 1999 and has since released eight albums.As of 2009, Drunken Tiger's central figure is Korean American Tiger JK...
, Supreme Team and Epik High
Epik High
Epik High is a South Korean indie hip hop group from Seoul, South Korea. The group is composed of Tablo, Mithra Jin and DJ Tukutz...
.
Since their succession, hip-hop was introduced to Korean popular culture. Similar to other national hip-hop scene, there has always been a 'taste-conflict' between overground and underground listeners. As many K-pop
K-pop
K-pop is a musical genre consisting of electropop, hip hop, pop, rock, and R&B music originating in South Korea...
groups infuse and add a pinch of hip-hop to their songs, overground listeners became used to associating hip-hop with these simplistic, sugar-coated lyrics. As a reaction, a spawn of underground rappers and listeners have been criticizing the overground hip-hop scene. In fact they have begun to criticize themselves whether you have what it takes to identify yourself as a true, underground rapper/listener. This has actually developed a very competitive atmosphere within the underground scene and have kept on increasing the standard of the necessary skills needed in oder to call yourself as a true rapper. This perspective fuelled the rappers to increase their skills in relation to complex rhymes, metaphors, wit and flow to the point where the standard of rapping in Korea is almost beyond the scale of some American hip-hop scene. Although this phenomenon deserves an international recognition, language difference is obviously the main barrier that is disallowing these greatly skilled rappers to be reached out to the global audience.
B-boying scene
B-boyingB-boying
B-boying, often called "breakdancing", is a popular style of street dance that was created and developed as part of hip-hop culture among African Americans and Latino youths in New York City. The dance consists of four primary elements: toprock, downrock, power moves and freezes...
enjoys a great deal of popularity in South Korea, so much so that it has become a great cultural export for the country as the South Korean government tries to promote a dynamic image of South Korea. South Korean B-boys say that the B-boy movement dates as far back as 1990s where young men took up the activity as a result of the lack of diversion to military duties. But it is wasn't until 2002 that they received international recognition, when they debuted at the 2002 annual Battle of the Year competition in Germany. Since then South Korea has won several Battle of the Year
Battle of the Year
Battle of the Year, commonly referred to as BOTY, is an annual international b-boying series that began in 1990. It is a crew competition...
titles, and breaking crews frequently appear on national television.
As of 2009, South Korea is the world's leading country in breaking. Some of the well known breaking crews include Rivers, Drifterz, Gamblerz
Gamblerz
Gamblerz, formerly known as Gambler, is a South Korean b-boy crew formed in 2002. They are best known for winning first place at Battle of the Year 2004 & 2009, the R-16 Korea Sparkling in 2008, and CYON Bboy Championships 2010 along with many other major competitions across the world...
, T.I.P., Extreme Crew, Last For One
Last For One
Last For One is a b-boy crew that formed in 1997. With their win in the 2005 Battle of the Year, they have been recognized as a worldwide known name and a contributor to the Korean wave, their fans respectively calling them the 'Dancing Taeguk Warriors.' They were heavily featured in the film...
, Expression, Maximum, and Visual Shock.
As the Korean bboying scene became internationally renowned, it sparked the Korean government for supporting to host Korea's own bboy championship for the international audience. R-16 KOREA Bboy Championships is one of the most recognized bboy championships that invites bboys from all around the world to now Asia's bboy capital South Korea.
Bboy scene in Korea has been proactive in blending the bboying style with other dance forms and inspirations. Whilst keeping the essence of American style of bboying, many bboys in Korea have infused their own traditional style into bboying. With elements of Korean traditional dances like Pungmul
Pungmul
Pungmul is a Korean folk music tradition that includes drumming, dancing, and singing. Most performances are outside, with tens of players, all in constant motion. Pungmul is rooted in the dure farming culture. It was originally played as part of farm work, on rural holidays, at other village...
(which also incorporates head-rotating and complex jumps) and Taekwondo
Taekwondo
Taekwondo is a Korean martial art and the national sport of South Korea. In Korean, tae means "to strike or break with foot"; kwon means "to strike or break with fist"; and do means "way", "method", or "path"...
-inspired moves, Korean bboys have benefitted from taking two different cultural styles and putting into one unique style.
In 2006, the apartment building company e편한세상 has released a TV advertisement where bboy members from Last for One
Last For One
Last For One is a b-boy crew that formed in 1997. With their win in the 2005 Battle of the Year, they have been recognized as a worldwide known name and a contributor to the Korean wave, their fans respectively calling them the 'Dancing Taeguk Warriors.' They were heavily featured in the film...
were shown dancing onto the hip-hop remix of Pachelbel's Canon blended with the play of the Korean traditional instrument Gayageum
Gayageum
The gayageum or kayagum is a traditional Korean zither-like string instrument, with 12 strings, although more recently variants have been constructed with 21 or other numbers of strings. It is probably the best known traditional Korean musical instrument...
. The mix of European, African-American and Korean style merged together in a great harmony and caught the eyes of the global audience when the clip became viral on Youtube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
. Since then various hip-hop/Korean-traditional hybrid music bands began to appear with examples like Sorea
SOREA
SOREA is a Korean band that plays modern Korean traditional music and made its debut by winning the gold award in the Creative Korean Traditional Music competition in 2005 followed by receiving the best new album award from the ministry of culture, sports, and tourism secretary, 2006...
(Sound of Korea) which made the hit track 'Seoul in Panic'.
Korean-American director Benson Lee has captured this 'blending' phenomenon very well in his bboy documentary Planet Bboy where there is a scene of Korean bboys reflecting the North-South Korea conflict. North and South Korean guards (all played by South Korean bboys) battle out in the DMZ border
Korean Demilitarized Zone
The Korean Demilitarized Zone is a strip of land running across the Korean Peninsula that serves as a buffer zone between North and South Korea. The DMZ cuts the Korean Peninsula roughly in half, crossing the 38th parallel on an angle, with the west end of the DMZ lying south of the parallel and...
.
As it is hard to have a stable income source for bboys, many crews have ventured out to doing theatrical performances and musicals. Since 2006, Expression crew
Expression crew
Expression crew is a South Korean b-boying crew that is famous for winning Battle of the Year 2002, making it the first ever Korean crew to win the title. The crew is also famous for its "Marionette" performance, a show it used to tour around the world performing.-History:Expression Crew was formed...
have been performing a new style of bboying called the Marionette, which incorporated puppet-like movements and was responsible for influencing JabbaWockeeZ
JabbaWockeeZ
Jabbawockeez is a Bay-Area-based Urban dance group formed initially by members Kevin " KB" Brewer, Phil "Swagger Boy" Tayag, & Joe "Punkee" Larot under the name "3 Muskee". They were the winners of season 1 of the show America's Best Dance Crew...
crew who have succuessfully used this style during their performances on America's Best Dance Crew
America's Best Dance Crew
America's Best Dance Crew, often abbreviated as ABDC, is an American competitive dance reality television series that features street dance crews from the United States and around the world. It is produced by American Idol judge Randy Jackson and airs on MTV...
. Extreme crew has combined Ballet
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
with Bboys as they ventured into the musical 'Ballerina who fell in love with a bboy' (비보이를 사랑한 발레리나).
Hip hop dancing is also pretty popular in Korea. Some well known hip hop dance groups include Prepix.
Another well known dance group, is popping
Popping
Popping is a street dance and one of the original funk styles that came from California during the 1960s-70s. It is based on the technique of quickly contracting and relaxing muscles to cause a jerk in the dancer's body, referred to as a pop or a hit...
group K-OGS. Their member Pop Kun won the UK BBoy Championship in 2008 Other well known popping groups are Cyborg G (Popping Hyun Joon
Nam Hyun Joon
Nam Hyun Joon, often referred to as Poppin' Hyun Joon or Happy Hyun Joon, is a famous South Korean contemporary dancer. He is best known for his unique popping techniques...
well known member of the dance community), FREEZE and Newest35.
Aside from various dances involved in hip-hop, Krumping
Krumping
Krumping, also spelled Krumpin, is a street dance popularized in the United States that is characterized by free, expressive, exaggerated, and highly energetic movement involving the arms, head, legs, chest, and feet...
has also become popular within a niche underground supporters. The krumping crew Monster Woo Fam lead by Monster Woo has been one of the many crews that have gained a great international attention via Youtube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
.
Freestyle rap
As the underground hip-hop scene became increasingly popular throughout the 2000's, people started taking interests in various subcultures within hip-hop. With cyphers in Hongdae playground and annual freestyle competition/events such as Freestyle Day and Freestyle One, freestyle rapping really caught on to the underground listeners.One of the leading artists who have been pioneering this freestyle-rap culture since the mid-2000's is Sool J. He is well known for winning Miller 2005 Freestyle Rap Battle and has then set his goal in popularising this freestyle-rap culture. He was responsible for hosting the internet freestyling show Mic Swagger, where famous rappers are invited to have a freestyle session with him similar to Rap City over in the United States. He was also the founder of Freestyle Day and has toured all over South Korea to find young freestyling talents. He is currently hosting a 'no-beat' battle show called Boxer. Other artists who have been heavily associated with freestyle rapping would include Huckleberry P (of Pinodyne), JJK, Dragon A.T, Dumbfoundead
Dumbfoundead
Jonathan Park , better known by his stage name Dumbfoundead, is a Korean American battle rapper originating from the Los Angeles Underground's Project Blowed...
and many more.
As the aftermath of heated freestyle battles can end up in a violent manner from time to time, a new type of battle was invented in Korea in order to encourage freestylers and hip-hop fans to maintain peace and respect. It is called 'compliment battle' (칭찬배틀) whereby the competitors have to freestyle not against their opponents, but to freestyle about their admiration for them and to praise each other's skills and success. The winner of this battle is measured by the skills, wit and also their sincerity of respect. Compliment battles are usually carried out at the end of a normal freestyle battle, which leaves both of the opponents feeling more-or-less respectful of each other and prevents any aftermath violence/hatred.