The Korea Herald

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Legendary Hip-hop Show combines old with new

Large-scale hip-hop show meshes generations, genres from underground scene

By Korea Herald

Published : July 27, 2014 - 19:17

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For fans of Korean hip-hop, Legendary Hip-hop Show on Saturday lived up to its name. It was a night full of the biggest names in underground hip-hop from newer artists like Swings to first-generation artists such as Verbal Jint and Bulhandang Crew, nearly filling the Indoor Stadium at Jamsil Sports Complex.

The show opened up with performances by students in dance and hip-hop at Korea International Institute of the Arts and New Champ, Ven and Kye-bum Zu from PJR Entertainment.

Spinning for several of the acts was DJ IT from Brand New Music. He then wowed the crowd with his own frenetic solo set, banging out both the melody and rhythm on the beat pad to roaring cheers from the fans.

Three artists recently cut from “Show Me the Money” season three ― Born Kim, Jolly V and New Champ ― definitely showed that they don’t need Mnet’s survival hip-hop show. Born Kim came out and ramped up the crowd with his rapid-fire lyrics, saying, “I’m not doing this for the money, I’m doing it to show my worth.”
Popular local artists perform during a hip-hop festival at the Indoor Stadium at Jamsil Sports Complex on July 26. (Lee Woo-young/The Korea Herald) Popular local artists perform during a hip-hop festival at the Indoor Stadium at Jamsil Sports Complex on July 26. (Lee Woo-young/The Korea Herald)

Jolly V performed not only her audition song from the show, but also her dis track, “Bad B****es” and songs from her album “Have Faith,” which dropped on Friday.

Unfortunately, she came after an unforgettable performance by first-generation artist Insane Deegie, who not only had the crowd cheering, but shocked everyone with his explicit-ridden performance. He opened up with a remix of “Do You Want to Build a Snowman” that was sure to ruin the Disney movie for all who listened, and continued by drinking the contents of a bottle of soju on stage and lighting up a cigarette.

The high-energy sets continued with Vismajor crew ― which had not only strong performances by members Wutan, Deepflow, Odee, Don Mills and Nucksal ― but had spontaneous break dancing by a member of dance crew 24K. The set also included good-natured ribbing of Wutan after they performed his song, “I’ll Take You Home” from his recent album.

The highly anticipated Bulhandang exploded on stage with DJ Skip spinning.

The members performed songs from their latest album, “Juljoong Vol. 3,” while announcing they were working on the next installment of the series. They kept up the show’s energy by throwing in freestyle and performing songs from the crew’s various groups including Eluphant and Garion.

Verbal Jint and Swings from Brand New Music also took the stage towards the end of the show, though after the series of high-enthusiasm acts Swings’ solo set mellowed out the crowd. However Verbal Jint brought it back up. Despite taking the mood down a bit, the crowd still gave them an enthusiastic welcome.

The show rounded out with performances by reggae king Skull, hip-hop legend YDG and hip-hop duo Baekchigi. Skull performed songs from his latest album, with YDG joining him on stage for their collaboration song “The Original Two.”

By Emma Kalka (ekalka@heraldcorp.com)