Chapter 405 |
Side Story (22)
[“Eyyyy!”] [“Ree-speeeect.”]
‘That damned respect.’
In the history of Drop the Beat, there haven’t been many contestants who received a standing ovation from everyone starting from the first round. His rap wasn’t even that aggressive, but ironically, that’s exactly why he stood out so overwhelmingly in the first evaluation. It really was a choice that felt just like Lee Chise.
‘I’m not sure if anyone other than Lee Chise would have gotten such a positive reaction, though.’
Honestly, I don’t know much about rap. I don’t really understand why, within their own world, someone is considered good or what makes their skills impressive.
But music has universally appealing elements, doesn’t it? A beat that lands perfectly, crisp diction that makes the lyrics hit your ears cleanly, solid projection, a good voice.
Such a feat was only possible because his fundamentals were so flawless.
Lee Chise breezed through to the second round without much trouble, like driving straight down a highway.
Rappers who did well in Round 2 could choose one producer among those who wanted them, and Lee Chise received offers from every single producer.
[“Lee Chise delivered an overwhelming performance and became the first contestant on the show to receive recruitment offers from all producers.”] [“So, which producer will Lee Chise choose?!”]
Who Lee Chise would choose was such a hot topic that the production team even cut to commercials to drag it out.
People had plenty to say about this matter. Some said one producer would suit him because their musical styles matched, others said he should go with the trendiest hitmaker.
But out of all of them, Lee Chise chose the least popular producer.
[“It really hurt my pride. To be honest, I thought Lee Chise would choose me. I was confident I could’ve done great with him.”] [“Why? Why would he choose Deu-Z? I just don’t get it.”]
On the show, he seemed to brush it off by telling the production team “Just because” when they asked why he picked that producer, but he told me the real reason back then. He said it was because he was confident he’d win no matter which producer he was paired with. He told me he deliberately chose the producer who looked intimidated by the others and couldn’t confidently appeal for himself.
“He seemed really skilled, but for some reason he lacked confidence, and that bothered me. That’s why I picked him.”
It was the kind of reason that would have made the other producers faint if they ever found out.
“Ah, but looking back, maybe it was a good call after all. After that show, didn’t that guy’s career really take off? He put out a ton of hit songs.”
“Was it because Lee Chise picked him up and triggered some kind of awakening in him?”
“How is that possible? That hyung is not an alien.”
“Haha, well, I do have a pretty good eye for these things.”
Come to think of it, Lee Chise was the only one in Prism who chose me. The other members weren’t really in a position to choose—they were the ones being chosen—but still.
[<bigdaddy, who was not chosen by Lee Chise, despite once being under the same company>]
[<Production Team: How does it feel to be dumped?>]
[“Ahh … I totally saw that coming from him. That kid is always smiling so brightly, right? But with that face, he keeps pulling the most unexpected moves. Stuff that makes no sense to other people. Someone like me is just left going, ‘Wait, what?‘, but later on, you realize it was all the right choice. Just look at when he left our company, out of nowhere, saying he’d debut as an idol with Seo Yutae. Everyone said he was crazy. But did anyone expect it to be this successful? I guess he did. Crazy (bleep).”]
He had the perfect talent and the perfect environment to debut as a rapper, and yet he threw it all away without a single regret just to come work with me.
‘No matter how well I was doing back then, could anyone really make that kind of choice so easily?’
Some people do great as solo artists but flop when they join a group, and others thrive as idols but are hopeless when it comes to producing. So… had Lee Chise seen something in me?
As I was thinking that, Lee Chise looked at me and smiled, eyes narrowing slyly like a fox.
“Why, what?”
“Nothing. Just, because I’m happy.”
“Stop being so random.”
He really was an impossible guy to figure out.
Anyway, after that, the rappers who’d been recruited into each team began preparing for Round 3.
[“The rapper Lee Chise has been matched against is lilQ!”] [“Wooooah! Ppu-ppu-ppu-ppui!”] [“Wait, what? This is actually happening? All of a sudden?”]
[<Teammates Thrown Into Shock>]
‘They look like excited gorillas.’
Seeing the name lilQ, I belatedly remembered, ‘Oh right, that guy existed.’
[“I mean, lilQ and Lee Chise were basically the two biggest contenders for the win. Their styles are completely different. If Lee Chise is totally mainstream, lilQ is like, total underground, a real gangster type. That guy seriously hates idols. And now those two are clashing in a diss battle? Oh man, this is gonna be insanely fun.”]
He’d been eliminated so early that I’d forgotten he was once considered that promising. Still, maybe the public remembered his name to some extent.
He was eliminated so early that I’d forgotten he was actually such a promising rapper. Still, he must have made a name for himself with the public to some extent? After all, the diss battle between lilQ and Lee Chise racked up an explosive number of views on streaming sites, and even now, plenty of people still go back to watch it.
The sight of him getting torn to shreds, quite literally, will be talked about by people forever. Unfortunately.
‘After that, his image has been completely ruined, and it doesn’t look like his music career’s been going very well either.’
The truth is, Lee Chise doesn’t really like diss battles.
Think about his personality.
Among the sharp-edged members of Prism, he alone maintained an easygoing, gentle attitude. It’s practically a miracle of personality.. Plus, he’s not the type of guy who thinks throwing punches while striking poses is cool.
So despite his teammates’ objections, Lee Chise didn’t prepare lyrics meant to diss his opponent.
[“I’m just going to go out there and do my rap. No dissing. I came on this show to make good music while respecting one another, so I don’t really get why we have to do a diss battle. It’s so much better when things are peaceful.”] [“Still … if you do that in a diss battle, you’re going to be at a huge disadvantage, you know?”] [“If there were something I was genuinely angry about, then maybe speaking through music would be cool. But I really don’t have any bad feelings toward him. I get that the show probably included a diss battle because sharp tension and mind games make for provocative, entertaining TV, but I don’t want to force myself to insult someone who hasn’t done anything wrong to me.”] [“”Well, if you’re really that set on it, I won’t stop you, but…….”]
Yeah. That damned respect.
Lee Chise looked like he was planning to finish the round on good terms, showing respect to his opponent, even if that meant getting a poor result this round.
So then, why is the diss battle between Lee Chise and lilQ still talked about as a legend? It was because of the rap lilQ brought on the day of the match.
If the lyrics had only been insults directed at Lee Chise himself, he would’ve just laughed it off no matter what was said.
That’s just the kind of guy he is.
‘To begin with, aside from being an idol-turned-rapper, there isn’t much dirt to dig up on Lee Chise anyway.’
But from the moment lilQ started scattering papers into the audience—gossip about Prism designed to look like front-page news—the situation started taking a weird turn.
One of lilQ’s teammates even came out wearing a wig similar to my hair, dressed in clothes modeled after what I wore during my solo promotions.
‘Is that really supposed to be an outfit mocking me? Isn’t that just self-harm?’
The hair length was the same, but the height difference was so extreme it looked like the wig might drag along the floor.
— The reason men shouldn’t grow their hair out carelessly. The moment it gets long, your facial features and face shape get emphasized and you end up looking ugly. Seo Yutae has f*cking perfect features, so long hair actually makes him look better and brings out his vibe. But what is up with this guy?? His mid-face is f*cking long┗ How are there looks-obsessed psychos even in a place like this?
Considering those were the kinds of comments being posted, that teammate was probably regretting his decision by now.
The beat dropped, and the rapper dressed to resemble me mimed holding up a phone. Then, a pre-recorded track of him mimicking my voice started playing through the speakers.
[“Hey, Saehwa-ya. I’m thinking of causing a bit of trouble this time, so can you cover it all up for me? There’s some bastard I really want to beat up.”]
[“Oooooh!”]
It seemed like they were trying to diss me based on the rumor that I borrowed the power of a chaebol friend to cause all kinds of incidents and then covered them up with money.
But the premise was flawed from the get-go.
I would never call Choi Jeokhyeon ‘Lee Saehwa‘.
I wondered what had happened to that rapper now.
If he’s disappeared by now, then that diss must’ve been spot-on.
‘He’s not bad.’
The rap that followed was a real spectacle.
Content-wise, it was basically a copy-paste of all the hate comments we’d been getting so far.
[“Must feel great, riding Seo Yutae’s coattails to an easy success Your life is just one giant bus”]
[“South Korea’s number one in music royalty pay Raking in hundreds of billions a year, but spending on your parents? It’s a waste, he says
“Yo, even my mom, flexing the allowance I give her, was throwing shade She says, “You watch your fa[bleep] going around begging, don’t you feel any shame?”
Two siblings, both rotten to the core Guess their family upbringing went wrong long before”]
[– Didn’t your brother-dad ever ask you to lend him money?
For all that fame, looks like there’s not much cash to back it up
Figures—sons of actresses really are built different]
[“Looks like your Hyung’s dad never asked you to lend him cash?1 You got that much fame, but your pockets lookin’ trash
Figures, an Actress’s Son really lives a different class”]
“…Haa.”
I let out a deep sigh and spoke to the members.
“Guys, this all happened years ago already. Don’t get mad over every little thing.”
The atmosphere among the members was pretty grim.
No one spoke lightly. Honestly, if someone had just snapped and said, ‘Who the hell does this guy think he is?’, we could’ve cursed him out together and gotten it over with. Instead, everyone stayed dead silent, like they were barely holding themselves back, right on the verge of exploding.
“Hey, Lee Chise…….”
I figured Lee Chise might be taking it the best, considering he was the one actually featured on the show. He’s usually such a cheerful guy who never holds a grudge anyway. Thinking he could calm the others down, I nudged his arm.
But I got no response.
“…….”
I looked at his face, and the light was gone from his eyes.
He was staring at the rapper on the screen with a murderous glare, like he wanted him dead.
‘This is bad.’
I was fine. I genuinely didn’t understand why something like this made them that angry.
Wasting time and energy being mad at a jerk like that would only end up stressing the members out.
“I told you not to get angry.”
“I’m not angry.”
That’s what he said, but his clenched jaw muscles were visible even to the naked eye. The veins on his face were standing out too. It was obvious to anyone that he was seconds away from losing it.
“Unclench your teeth first. How is this a face that’s not angry, huh?”
I forced a joking tone, grabbed Yoo Jay’s jaw, and gently shook it like I was petting a dog. Jay let me do what I wanted and relaxed his jaw, but the anger still wouldn’t leave his expression. When I shot him a sharp look and went, “Uh-uh”, he finally turned his eyes away and clicked his tongue.
‘That guy and his damn temper.’
Nam Yihwon, who’d been caught up in that scandal with my father, was crushing an empty beer can in his hand. I thought it wasn’t good to take anger out on objects, but this wasn’t the kind of mood where I could say that out loud.
[“You come all the way here just to hear Seo Yutae, Seo Yutae, Seo Yutae Ain’t you sick of it by now? We’re sick of it too So please just go back and play idol with your Hyung”]
[“Hey, Chise-ya Don’t you think even Seo Yutae’s starting to want you to drop off by now? Clinging on with no sense, there’s a limit you should know”]
Normally, when someone else raps, Lee Chise does everything he can to hype them up and lift the stage atmosphere. No matter how sloppy it is, or even if everyone else is laughing, he still doubles their lines and moves along with the beat.
But that Lee Chise stood there completely expressionless, unmoving, just staring straight at his opponent.
And then, it was Lee Chise’s turn.
Ah, was this where that moment started?
The moment that became Drop the Beat’s all-time ratings peak.
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Translator’s Corner:
- In case you’re confused, “You” here refers to Lee Chise ↩︎
Rap lyrics … I just gave up
Thank you Corellia for the coffees!