Bangtan Boys Facts

[INTERVIEW] April Edition 2015 of 'Singles' - Rapmonster

It sounds a bit like a solemn determination.

Yes, I'm solemnly determined. My heart's determined, the songs on my mixtape are determined... (laughter). I personally want to establish myself using this. It would be me personally making a starting point. It's like a kind of thesis on what kind of person I am that I personally organized. In one word, it's like I finished the first unit.

Is working on Bangtan's album much different from Rapmon's personal music?

It's different. The music that Bangtan aims for is 'youth'. Bangtan's music is where we concentrate on the thoughts and worries that people in their late 10′s and early 20′s would have and speak for them. However, my music is just myself. My music is something that just shows the inner darkness, worries, greed, hideosity, etc that I have. Everything of myself that's inside of me.. Erm.. It's very two-faced, lonely, being lonely, wanting to be lonely, and hurting because of being lonely, but that I don't dislike loneliness just because of that... It has my inner self of wandering around. Also... I think that any person is two-faced, where they can be a devil and an angel... And I think that the person who has both sides to the extreme is me. I don't want to try and hide that, and wish to show it very well to people through music.

You recently released a collaboration song with Warren G... But I had the thought that thoe who are more interested in Rapmon than in Bangtan would really enjoy that song. How was it like working with Warren G?

There are two things that Warren G told me that I will never be able to forget. The first is, hip-hop is open to any one. Despite what your race is or where you're from, hip-hop is a type of music that is always ready to give you space for anyone who enjoys hip-hop. So, don't restrain yourself behind any type of prejudiced thought, and the other one was you're doing well, so no matter what others say, believe in yourself and do what you want. Although it's something that anyone says, I think it touched me even more because he was the one to say it to me. He has a habit of saying, "It's so good." But I think that it became a sort of spell. Someting like Hakuna Matata. 'It's so good', when I think of that phrase lately, my hearts becomes at rest a bit more.

I heard that you fell for hip-hop at the age of 14 and basically lived at a Hongdae hip-hop performance arena, which led you to where you are at today.

That's right. During the days where I went to see performances in Hongdae, Supreme Team was really popular. It was before coming out to the world... At that time, it wasn't like now where illionaire took over everything, but Jiggy Fellaz, Big Deal, Soul Company, Verbal Jint... various musicians all had their own styles like the Black Turtle, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird [], and everyone looked like they were fighting each other, so they were all so cool. Before this, Epik High really gave me a lot of influence. In Korea, Epik High and Garion, in overseas, Nas and Eminem. Those 4 teams set the path of 'what kind of music I need to do in the future' for me.

Is there a similarity between those 4 teams?

Although all four have different inclinations, all their lyrics were just so real that I couldn't help but have the thought that I want to do music like these people too. I thought that they were people who speak of real stories in an even more real way than the actual real story.

I'm curious about the first set of lyrics you wrote. What kind of story it was about, and what kind of real story you talked about.

Although I don't remember the title... It was on September in 2007. I made a song through an amateur producer's beat on Jungle Radio ('Daum' hip-hop community), but I think it was really influenced by Eminem at the time. "Put away the unhappiness mixed with bluffs, and knock down dominoes, I plan to go out like this." It was something like that. It doesn't even make sense. Why would you knock down dominoes? Mixing bluffs... (laughter) It was when I was 14, but I think what I wanted to say in conclusion is the same as what it is now.