【Nylon Magazine July Issue】RAP MONSTER’S INTERVIEW
Q: You received 1st place with this album. Congratulations.
A: Thank you. I’ve always said that we wanted to achieve #1 while having a comeback but we were only hoping, we didn’t have the confidence. We are happy that our hard work has paid off.
Q: How successful did you predict this album to be?
A: While preparing for it, we had a bet on the charts. The highest was 13th place and the lowest was 30th place. I think I put down for 20th? But suddenly we got into 1st and 2nd place, we were so surprised. On that day, during the dance practice, we were constantly checking the music charts. It was good. Haha.
Q: It’s a mini album but it has 9 songs. It seems that you have stressed a lot during the production of this album?
A: Of course. I always get stressed over the title of the songs. Especially ‘I Need You’, I had 7, 8 drafts for it. Yesterday, this plan seemed to fit well but then the next day, the other plan also seems to fit and people would suggest the other plans are good too. As this continues, I forget what I was trying to express with this song and the reason why I made this song, then I fall into mannerism. I’ve put a lot of effort into the titles this time.
Q: Where did you get the concept of the album from? How did it start?
A: First of all, the theme of “the most beautiful moment in life” is the anxiety and beauty of youth. We try to have new concepts with every comeback. Right now, we are focusing on what we can talk about. The song ‘이사’ is based on our experience of moving dormitory. I wrote ‘Converse High’ because I like girls who wears it. And all of that is a part of youth. I produced it because I think that is us.
Q: The title ‘화양연화’ means the most beautiful and happy moment in life. Is it now?
A: Actually, we hoped that using this title, this time of period will become the most beautiful moment in our lives. I was doubting that it might not work, but it’s fortunate that it is becoming the most beautiful moment.
Q: Apart from that, the solo mixtape which was released a month ago received a good response. It’s a shame that it wasn’t an album.
A: I feel the same. Of course, it had a good effect on the comeback. It felt like I was getting the attention but it doesn’t float my boat. The mixtape, 8 tracks were made by other people and I re-made it, so because of the copyright issues, it couldn’t be uploaded onto music websites. People unintentionally had interest in it and they even went on hip hop player to search for my mixtape and listen to it, it’s a difficult process. So after releasing the mixtape, I started to produce from the first track (of the album).
Q: Being an idol as well as an artist that produces your own music, don’t you get confused with your identity?
A: I have got over that stage. Now, I don’t think about whether if I want to be an idol or not, or that I don’t know if I’m an idol or an artist. That kind of thought disappeared with the first mixtape. I don’t care about it now. I’m an idol to those who sees me as an idol but to those who sees me as Rap Monster, I can be an artist. Some people who may know me very well, I can be both at the same time. Or I can be nothing, I can just be a person that likes music. I think it depends on people’s point of view and it’s my duty to change their point of view. What I’m stressed about now is the direction (of my music). It is my first time in 8 years to make music from the very beginning. Starting from zero and making original work. It’s different from the vibe that I used to have. I get stressed over how can I show my music (in what ways can I show my music) I’m still thinking about it.
Q: The other members are the same but especially Rap Monster’s stage, it’s full of swag. The gestures when you rap, do you pay any special attention to them?
A: It’s funny that this topic was brought up again, but I can’t dance. I’m in the 6th place in the group (when it comes to dancing), the last place is Jin hyung, he’s a lot worse than me. Haha. That’s why I try to complement with gestures. My legs and arms are long so whatever I do would seem weird. I tried to cover up my weakness. I used to copy from others in the past, but now I just go with the flow, it feels great. Then I gradually make my own thing.
Q: I heard that before debut, you were promoting under the 대남협 crew, What kind of influence did the crew have on you?
A: Musically, it boosted me a lot. Instead of saying that it influenced the direction of my music, it’s more of talented friends gathering together and seeing them makes me think that I need work hard as well. I’ve thought about “I need to do something” for many times. I think it influenced my intention/ purpose as someone that makes music.
Q: Have you thought about doing it again?
A: Of course. As I’ve been a trainee for a long time, I kept losing musical colleagues. I felt lonely, musically. Actually, I want to have a collaboration with female vocalists and I want to work with various of producers, but I only know the hyungs in our company. I’m not rich in human resources. It’s great that I’m doing well with the people that share the same feeling, but there are people who avoid contacting me as I’m an idol and a performer. So, if you read this interview, it doesn’t matter who or which company, it would be great if you can contact me. I feel lonely musically, I want to be influenced by anyone. Actually, I just want to talk about it. I want to talk with the people who likes music and make them listen to my work.
Q: So, which female vocalists do you want to work with?
A: I really like Yoonha sunbae-nim. Sweden Laundry and Kwon Jin-ah are also good.
Q: Talking about music, there’s no way we can leave out lyrics, whether it’s BTS’ music or Rap Monster’s mixtape. Do you perhaps write other things apart from lyrics?
A: I write a lot.
Q: What kind of things do you mainly write about?
A: I got into music in the first grade of middle school, before that my dream was to become an author and a poet. I’ve always liked writing since I was young so I attended many literary contest and writing conventions. Now, I think it has met music and it’s presented in the form of rap. I write on memo notes, on twitter, or in letter forms on the fancafe. I also write some poems. So if I stopped making music in the future, I want to write. Because I started writing (before making music) so I want to go back to it. When I was in primary school, I wanted to go to the Literary Creative Writing class.
Q: You’ve written a lot of lyrics about the stress of being an adult and the society, as well as stress from the peer group. Is it okay to interpret that as a feeling of revolt towards the older generation?
A: I vent out antipathy towards the older generation through BTS’ music. And the mixtape is filled with antipathy towards the others. ‘Do You’ also has that kind of message. ‘Live your own way’.
Q: So, you are not speaking for anyone, right?
A: That’s right. I’ve come to realize that I do get to hear things like “I can do it so you can live your own way too, what’s there to worry about” but actually it’s a song that I want to hear so I wrote it. It’s not about me speaking for some people in order to help them, and then they will be self-conscious and start to live properly. Because I have been living in a confused state of mind so I wanted to pull myself together. And by looking around, the others were the same. They are confused everyday and getting bothered by other people’s words, so we need a song like this. I need it and you need it too. That’s how I wrote the song. It’s not writing out other people’s worries for them but it started from me and my worries.
Q: Is there a song that contains the same idea?
A: There is a song from BoA sunbaenim’s latest album called ‘love and hate’, I heard that it has the similar attitude to how I interacted with people when I was little. There’s a song in the mixtape called ‘Wanna Be Cool’. The content is that I don’t want to be cool. I think being cool is coward/ low. Ah, Urban Zakapa’s 힘들어 is also nice.
Q: It’s still early to say this but what do you want to write about in the next album?
A: The word 이기적인 means ‘selfish’, personally I think it doesn’t matter how altruistic I am, I have a selfish side inside of me. It’s like thinking “it would be great to see the guy I don’t like fall over on the streets or get dumped by the girl that he likes”. With that kind of meaning, ‘selfish’ is just like a fish to me. If you split up the word, you have sel+fish and it reads as fish, right. So, I want to make a track that can talk honestly about how selfish and pathetic I am, with the theme of “there’s a fish named selfish that lives inside of me”.
Q: BTS has the image of idols that has nothing to hide. But it seems that mixtape’s Rap Monster is someone who is reluctant about many things. Is that right?
A: There are many things. When I released the mixtape, the reaction was exactly how I expected it to be. I’m talking about “why do you have a strong sense of inferiority; why are you living in this way, getting bothered by other people’s words”. In the mixtape, it reflects on people with a lot worries and that has their own futile interpretations. The people that dislikes me, many of them have a strong sense of inferiority so they hate it. But that was me, till now it was me and I’m ending it through this mixtape. Because I also need to go through the process of accepting/ acknowledging myself.
Q: Suddenly, I’m getting curious of around when did you go through adolescence?
A: It feels like adolescence is eternal. 10 years ago and now has always been the same.
Q: So the start of adolescence was 10 years ago?
A: It seems like it. When I was in 3rd, 4th grade in elementary school I started to worry about life and loneliness. So I read a lot of philosophy books. But there wasn’t anything that could solve it. It has remained the same for 10 years.
Q: Out of all the books you’ve read during this period, which one has influenced you?
A: I read Jeong Ho-Seung (poet)’s 수선화에게, 데미안 and 니체의 말 diligently. Actually, I’ve read quite a lot. But there isn’t a book that is about my life. And I wrote in my lyrics too, that I don’t really hate books about self-help books. At one time, I read a lot of those books, but you can’t impose your rules to anyone. Those books, their style of writing is pretty much the same, they tell you to “live this way”. It’s great that they tell you the ways, but I think the way they deliver the words can be dangerous. I’ve said in ‘Do You’ but I think having genres in life is a trap. Confined, classified, this is this and he belongs to that. Life is life and music is music, I don’t know why they need to classify it.
Q: Why do you think people like BTS and Rap Monster?
A: First of all, the reason they like BTS and me are quite different. If they only like me, then they also like my uneasiness and wanderings. I think they can feel that it’s a charm. Like “he’s the sexy brain guy and he’s intelligent, but the things he does is stupid, he’s being anxious like an idiot”. I think they can sympathize through that. And there are many reasons why people like BTS but first, good-looking guys coming out performing and singing as if we are destroying the whole world. It feels like catharsis. The things people can’t feel through going to work or school, but on stages, we spit out our feelings through our songs and dances. I think people can gain energy through watching our performances.
Q: Is there anything you want to say to Rap Monster and BTS’ haters?
A: I said “please change, why aren’t you changing?” to them up till few months ago. But now, I won’t say it. Just live in your own way. Just like ‘Do You’. I want to say that if you change (your mind), I can show you better things in return.
Trans: KIMMYYANG
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