This is the 12th in a series on producers, MCs, DJs and artists working in the Korean underground hip-hop scene. Transla…
I sat down with Deepflow from Vismajor crew back in late October and he was number 12 in the series. My first impression of him was that he was quiet and serious, but at the same time, very kind and really caring when it came to his crew.
While a talented rapper, he wasn’t so much a man who had a way with interviews, often giving very succinct answers, so much so that I ended up adding about 5 extra questions to the interview to get more information, but it was still enjoyable. He was very nice, though not as talkative as some of the other rappers that I had interviewed.
I was very touched by his devotion to his crew. Deepflow has been in the underground scene for 10 years, which is a long time when you think about the fact that he’s still in his 20s (29 to be exact). He started Vismajor about three years ago with a few other MCs and DJs who were all working a club Cocoon at the time.
He devotes a vast majority of his time to helping out the younger rookies on the crew. He offers to produce their music, write their songs, film their music videos and manage their shows. In exchange, they have to support themselves during this time. Some of them have to convince their parents to let them put off military for a few more years. But he said, if they are willing to make sacrifices, then so is he to help them. However, once they’ve made it, then time to take off the training wheels.
“I offer, ‘I’ll do this for you, but you have to do this much.’ So that’s how it works. That’s why I don’t mind doing it,” he said.
It’s something he kept in mind as he built up the crew and asked people to join. “I basically told them they have to support themselves. They have to take risks and they have different positions they need to fill. So, I had to look for people that I knew would fill in those positions and basically be able to know what they’re doing.”
I spent most of the article talking about Deepflow and his work with Vismajor, because it is a very big part of who he is as an artist and what he is doing now. However, there is a lot more to him than just the crew.
As mention in the article, he first became interested in hip-hop through the comic book “Hip-hop,” which was about break dancing. Since he couldn’t dance, Deepflow started listening to hip-hop – artists like Drunken Tiger and Cho PD – and eventually began rapping.
“Because they added cursing into it, as a young person – a middle school student – I thought that was pretty cool and interesting, and different from the regular pop culture, like K-pop. That’s what grabbed my attention at first,” he said.
He said his first year of high school he started writing his own raps and at the time all of his friends and himself, thought they could rap. But as he started writing more, people started telling him they thought he was actually good at it.
From there he started out in the underground with a crew called Big Deal at 20 before eventually moving to Vismajor. Deepflow said it was always tough as an underground artist in Korea.
“Compared to major artists who are mainstream, they get a lot of exposure. But since I’m independent, and comparing the time I’ve been working as an artist – it’s been a long time – I haven’t been that well known. There is no other way to promote myself,” Deepflow said.
But he did concede that times are changing in the hip-hop scene. There are more artists and styles, but more than that, there are more girls. He said back in the day it used to be mostly young men at shows, but now, a lot more women are becoming interested in Korean hip-hop.
When it comes to his own music, Deepflow says musically he is inspired by East Coast rappers such as Nas and Jay Z, but with lyrics, it’s all about everyday life. Things that come naturally to him, such as when he is watching movies. And though he is the leader of Vismajor, he is trying to shift focus to working on his solo album.
He feels that the biggest thing holding Korean hip-hop back is the attitude of the rappers today.
“Everyone wants to be famous. They want to make money. They’re focusing on that and they’re forgetting why they started hip-hop. They forget their roots,” he said.
“They start focusing on following the path of the success stories, the successful artists, forgetting that they did it for the love of music. They are becoming capitalistic. It’s capitalism, because now it’s all about fame and money. It’s not about the love of music.”
He then went on to say that he hoped that the “shitty” music would go away, which he later defined as ballad hip-hop with a laugh. But only after saying he hoped that his music would be the future of hip-hop. As a joke, of course.
On a more serious note, he did say his personal goal is to keep going.
“I just want to put my album out and have the audience love my music. And in the long run, be an artist that lasts for a long time. So that my music is loved by people, you know? They’re in love with my music.”
Which, of course, led to talking about his “Control” track that he made in the midst of all the diss track hoopla several months ago.
The main thing he wanted to express was that he did not put out a “Control” track just because everyone else was doing it. He was one of the first two or three people in Korea to release a track and wasn’t following the crowd.
“I just did it,” he said. “When I actually let out the track, not everyone was doing it. But then it started going that direction.”
He didn’t get into any specifics about the track, probably because it was a good two months since it came out when we did the interview. But I did listen to it before doing the interview and read the lyrics, and I can see where he’s coming from, especially after sitting down for the interview. Deepflow seems to be all about remembering where Korean hip-hop came from and why the whole movement and culture started in the first place. For him, it’s just a bonus that it gets to be his job, because he really is all about the music.
