hankyoreh

Nachal

By Surh Jung-min

“I will work hard at hip hop until Garion receives this prize.”

So said Drunken Tiger’s Tiger JK when he received the Golden Disk award in 2005. Who was Garion that Korea’s representative hip-hop star would say such a thing?

In 1997, an African-American music fan group was created on HiTEL, an old PC communication group. The group was called “Blex.” Young, 26-year-old Lee Jae-hyeon, who liked hip-hop, thought “I could rap like that” while watching Seo Tae-ji and Deux. With a couple of other members, he created with MP3 files Blex’s first album and put it online. In the album, Lee became MC Meta.

Blex was performing at a club in front of Hongik University. A 20-year-old young man, Jeong Hyeon-il, suddenly jumped on stage from the crowd and started free-style rapping. MC Meta thought he was really something. Afterwards, MC Meta found him and proposed they perform together. Jeong accepted, and became MC Nachal. So was born the hip-hop group Garion. This was 1998, when most people thought hip-hip was just foreign music.

Garion toured the clubs performing. They perfected their songs and performances. In 2004, they released “Garion,” their first album, composed of their improved songs. Producer JU (Choi Jae-yoo) put the finishing touches on it with his superior hip-hop sense. The words were entirely in Korean. The rhymes, groove and flow were entirely in Korean. The album was praised as a milestone in Korean hip-hop, and received the absolute support of hip-hop fans.

MC Meta said, “I don’t like to say we insist on rapping in Korean. We are Koreans rapping in Korea, so I think it is strange that it seems weird to rap in Korean. Shouldn’t it be seen as natural that I rap in Korean?”

Despite being a great album, perhaps because it was underground, it did not become popular. Struggling to survive, MC Meta left the hip-hop scene to become a parking lot attendant at Sinchon’s Severance Hospital. He did his job well and was promoted. Nachal returned to school and prepared to become a gym teacher. They split up for a year and six months. Then MC Meta suddenly thought to himself one day, “Why am I here?” He quit and met MC Nachal. “Let’s try it again.”

They got things going again in late 2005 when they released the digital singles “Mutu” and “After That Day.” “Mutu” was selected as the top hip-hop single in the Korean Music Awards. They immediately prepared to release a second album. The album was 80 percent complete by the next year when they were hit by a number of factors. Thinking it might help their music activities, they participated in the musical “Rapper’s Paradise,” but this just consumed their time, and MC Nanchal slipped a disk in his back. MC Meta, meanwhile, had to return to his hometown of Daegu for personal reasons.

The only thing that did not change for them was the music. After much consideration, MC Meta returned to Seoul and completed his second album with MC Nachal. At last, it bore fruit. Late last month, Garion 2 was released, six years after the release of their first album. The seasoning, tears and effort built up over that time are packed into 17 songs. Helping the album was the participation of many talented producers and guest rappers. Four foreign producers participated, too, including Kanye West producer S1. They, too, acknowledged that the group takes a position second to none at the “front line of Korean hip-hop.”

“I cling to my dream / It just takes the weight from reality / Exhaling a difficult breath / is all that’s left after I shake you from my heart / My aching heart, even if it can’t save me / can brazenly fool me / The question nobody asks / is what I wanted to be? / It feels like it’s too late / The sadness keeps choking me / I just wanted to be special / My dream, which I remembers today.” (from “Living”)

“Street poets” Garion are today living a life between dream and reality, intoning the world.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]