K-pop 2013

Well 'Control' sure lit a fire under Korean hip hoppers' ass.

I know, it's crazy! This isn't even about diss tracks to build hype and show off, anymore, there's some real dirty laundry coming out.

Here's an unsourced tumblr post purporting to have the inside story (I know, I know): http://ijustwannarhyme.tumblr.com/post/59081364116/story-behind-e-sens-diss-track

Apparently one clumsily executed appropriation of someone else's feud is all it takes totally blow the lid off the hottest label in K-hip-hop (and maybe in South Korea, period, cause Amoeba Culture - Gaeko/Primary in particular - have been putting out great stuff this year). "That escalated quickly" is a phrase that comes to mind.

All the laundry-airing did get me to go back and listen to the Dynamic Duo album from earlier this year. It's still great.

omg when did this start? this is the first I've heard of it

After Control was released. Swings went at Gaeko and Amoeba Culture, and Simon D for leaving E sens out in the cold like this. After that various responses and responses to responses, most notably back and forth between Gaeko and E sens. Swings is a bit of an idiot imo, it doesn't seem like the relationship between former Dynamic Duo colleagues Simon D and E sens is that bad, in yesterday's track Simon says you know, he acknowledges mistakes on both the label and E sens' behalf and E Sens had it tougher than him, he chose to stay signed with the label but had some words that might cause them offense and Swings should shut up about shit he doesn't know.

And Tymee/E.via throws her hat in the ring (ie on the Control beat) https://soundcloud.com/tymee/tymee-cont-lol-on-control-big

Afraid to click on the link for fear the track isn't called "cont lol".

No worries, it's totally called Cont LOL.

Lots of underground rappers using taking advantage of the fracas to get their names out there; here's a list. The hip hop tag on omona has translations for some tracks.

AKP loves this so much, it's like free drama they didn't even have to invent themselves

The track about how much Zico sucks for having fangirl fans is pretty... I dunno, it's special. Also the track about giving up being a rap star, settling for being a rap instructor, having respect for all the guys who made it, omg that dude needs a hug.

Translation of Tymee's http://www.allkpop.com/article/2013/08/tymee-hip-hop-diss

Was going to quote it, but too much. Observations on the industry, experience getting fucked up and call outs to cowardly male and female mcs. it's all there

With Tymee the message is really good... I'm just not sure that what she has to say works with the beat, as a track.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuTuN2GwHbs

nice to see Missy having fun... really don't have any feelings about GD

This is kinda like Missy Elliot ft GD, lol

as it should be tbqh

I like this, hope there's a proper music video (without any sideeye-worthy sartorial mishaps, here's hoping ;_;)

"V," by Lee Jung Hyun - video directed by Park Chan-Wook:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUfH53bYp1Q

I showed "V" to a friend, prefaced with "It's kind of like if Kate Bush was Korean and did an electronic dance-pop video". Maybe it's because I set the bar too high, but he said he wasn't convinced by Lee Jung Hyun's level of crazyness in this video.

He liked J.FLA's "Story (Stupid Story)" a lot though, and Crayon Pop's "Bar Bar Bar" dance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLwKMN316Es

There's a part that's almost directly lifted from "I Gotta Feeling" in this.

Or better yet, I Gotta (Park Bom) Feeling, since the vocal style is similar.

Also, I wasn't too impressed with Nu'est - Sleep Talking when it came out but it's sounding good to me tonight, for whatever reason. Still very, very Sweedish though.

I want to like "V" so much, but it's basically the Lady Gaga problem - the song isn't weird enough for the visuals.

I'm going to go see 4minute perform a solo concert at a pretty small venue tomorrow night, I'm pretty darn excited. I'll try to give a review.

Have fun! :D

For Frank, proof that Crayon Pop and T-ara share a spiritual bond: http://omonatheydidnt.livejournal.com/11730817.html

Also, the first half of GDragon's solo album (ft DIPLO/BAUUER, MISSY ELLIOT and SKY FERREIA) is out. I can't really objectively evaluate GD tracks but I think the track with Sky on it is decent, if safe (here).

The rest... I have to think about. I know I think Missy is good on the Missy track (here), but GDragon is bad on it until he drops the hard pose and defaults back to playground-taunting mode.

The really interesting track is probably the duet with Lydia Paek, where the dubstep wubs clash with the super-pop chorus (here), but it doesn't sound messy.

Kush returns to co-produce Who You?, which is probably only of interest to GD fans as proof that dude can still sing a pop song if he wants to, though it sounds weird thanks probably thanks to all the pill-popping (here), or whatever.

The new G-Dragon song "Coup D'Etat" is kinda weak. The video's okay, the usual dogpile of faux-revolutionary symbolism. Nothing about it comes within 100 miles of Bigbang's "Fantastic Baby," though. I could watch that video a dozen times a day.

Nothing so far off of Coup D'Etat sounds particularly good or memorable. But yes, he can still make striking videos.

I hope you're not really watching Fantastic Baby a dozen times a day, that's a lot of mania for one day

To each their own, though

so 4minute were so much fun the other night! they played at a bar so it was just really fun to have a few drinks and dance along. that said, most people at the front were recording with their smart phones through the whole concert and not dancing but i guess that's k-pop for you. the crowd was really hyped up and giving them a lot of love and i think the group were genuinely surprised and touched, even tearing up a few times. hyuna was very interesting, playing coy for the first few songs then busting out some body rolls when she felt like it and spending a lot of time crouched down with the crowd at the front. she definitely doesn't try to take attention away from the group but at the same time she kind of draws attention to herself by having the power to choose when to perform "Hyunah" and when not to. altogether they all sounded really good and performed hard although they ran out of songs pretty quickly, the gig finished in under an hour. i guess they just aren't used to doing their own show. highlight was probably Hyuna pouring a water bottle on her head in the encore song, resulting in a water fight between 4minute and the crowd. here's the only semi-decent fancam of the night i can find on Youtube (this was the second song so around the moment when they started to realise that it was going to be a fun night)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ad0C1UmkL04

Subdee, there's an English translation* of the entire interview with Chrome Entertainment CEO Hwang Hyun Chang. Seems like a good guy: opinionated, headstrong, honest.**

Besides the part about his being inspired to start Crayon Pop by T-ara ("It was 'Roly Poly.' I felt the group had matched the dance and costumes to perfection. Because I wasn't concerned about idol groups previously, T-ara gave me a jolt. After this, I said to my friends at the photo studio 'Should we try to create a girl group?'"), I especially like his explanation of the "Bing Bing" delinquent girls concept (I assume he's speaking of the second attempt (February 2013) to promote the track):

That time, a message I sent to one of the managers on Kakao Talk is floating on the internet. The manager had asked me what to do on stage, and wanted me to respond with instructions. I just replied "Chew gum. No matter what, it would have been better than previously. If there's any problems, I would handle it. However, do not chew during the rehearsal, only chew while live" (laughs)

And we really did it. The PD was very unhappy with that initially, and the camera directors were quite unsure what to do. But because of that, the realtime search terms ranking rose, and people were praising me asking me how did I think of that.

*But translated by a member of Crayon Pop's Taiwanese fanclub who's obviously not at home in English.

**I notice the commenters at Omona The Didn't have a problem with honesty. It's not in their own repertoire so they assume it's not in anyone else's.</me being pissed at the Internet, as usual>)

Thanks for the link!

There are a lot of really surprising things in that interview - no binding contract, the members aren't good live performers so concerts should be free, the members will probably be bad on variety so they won't be variety shows, "I didn't want their personalities to be too strong", etc. Namedropping T-ara was just the tip of the honesty iceberg, it seems.

The interview makes me want to watch Crayon Pop TV.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLgrtdVKGTs

I keep replaying this <3

Oh but to go back to Crayon Pop - Ladies Code have a Crayon Pop-ish single out: http://youtu.be/xD6VjvfcBIs

Song's not bad but the video does kind of support what Crayon Pop's CEO was saying about yr typical girlgroup trainee being overtrained in generic "sexiness".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiJ9-Pj0FdA

Bollywoodish single from GI.

That Lee Jung Hyun track is all kinds of excellent!

If JYP is tired of being a hard-partying workaholic, who's going to run JYP Entertainment?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-GhkCWuihA

god I can't handle his old-person makeup, that shit has been slaying me since the teaser image.

on an unrelated note, I'm so happy that this finally happened: http://vigilantcitizen.com/musicbusiness/jax-ladies-code-two-blatant-examples-mind-control-culture-k-pop/

Loving this one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl4oLnad1f0

Doing the Crayon Pop thing, but all that mugging for the camera is kind of awkward :/

F-VE DOLLS have a super-low-budget NV out for a song that's actually pretty good! http://youtu.be/22H_DO_twBI

Picking up some of (labelmate) T-ara's mojo, maybe.

i don't know about you guys but k-pop has been dead lately. good thing we have a heap of comebacks next month. I'm looking forward to Miss A, T-ara, SNSD, 2NE1, curious about IU.

yeah, I've been watching WIN, the YG boy group competition show. That's some emotionally manipulative shit right there. :/

MISS A COMEBACK???

It's been so dead, for real. The other day I found myself thinking 'this Piggy Dolls song isn't too bad...' and then I realized there was a reason I'd been playing the local Indian subcontinent radio station 24/7 (http://tunein.com/radio/HumDesi-NY-1047-s89699/, their 3-8pm EST drive-home show is excellent).

GDragon's album was reviewed by Pitchfork and MTV Iggy, btw. I haven't been watching WINNER (the Big Bang documentary was bad enough), but I've been watching VIXX TV, which has a lot of meta-level talk about redoing takes, avoiding standard idol answers, and being edited out.

Speaking of GDragon, I blame him for the dearth of notable new music... other big companies are clearly trying to avoid scheduling their major releases during his promotions. On the music shows, he's been competing with himself for the top spot. KARA did manage to snatch a music show win last week, though (in a week when the competition wasn't aired due to the Thanksgiving holidays).

new T-ara track will be by Shinsadong Tiger... teaser's starting tomorrow!

i read that Shinsadong Tiger is now running a label under LOEN entertainment. So I guess EXID are completely gone now?

RIP EXID ;_; NEVER FORGET!

Don't think they're gone.