This is the first in a series on producers, MCs, DJs and artists working in the Korean underground hip-hop scene. ― Ed.


Before producer Artisan Beats was first exposed to Korean underground hip-hop in 1997, he said the scene was effectively nonexistent.

He had just graduated from high school in Singapore and moved back to Korea for university. He was first exposed to hip-hop in the late ’80s, but by the ’90s, what he calls the “golden age of hip-hop,” he was a hip-hop head and had begun writing his own music.

So, when he moved to Korea and met his former music partner Seven, the two decided to start a group and Da Crew was born.

“He and I would just be talking and we were like, ‘Yea, let’s just do this,’” he said in an interview with The Korea Herald. “We were like, ‘Let’s show them the real thing.’”

It was Master Plan ― the biggest hip-hop club in Korea at the time ― that gave Artisan Beats his big break.

He said a friend introduced him to the club in November 1997. He went to a show and afterward approached the manager about how to perform at the club. He walked away with an audition set for the next month.

“We prepared two songs. That was the first time I actually made a genuine song,” he said. “A lot of my friends helped me out, because back in those days I didn’t know how to do it.” The duo passed the audition and officially debuted in January 1998. They later became one of the first groups to sign up with Master Plan to do an album.

Artisan Beats’ transition from rapper to producer followed the release of his album “City of Soul” in 2000. Living abroad in the U.S. and Singapore, he said his Korean wasn’t that great, though he could speak the language. It was a struggle to write lyrics in Korean on top of making the music. Often, he would write in English, and then translate to Korean with the help of dictionaries and thesauruses.

“It was too much to handle for me,” he said. “My partner was actually really good at writing stuff. He was a real brainiac. So, I couldn’t match his level. I just felt like, ‘Okay, I’m just going to produce.’”

Da Crew became a group with one MC and one producer, which he said looked good on stage. But even though they were performing, times weren’t easy in the early hip-hop scene in Korea. He said his first payment for a show was only 5,000 won. He also remembers once performing for just one paying customer.

Luckily, the genre began gaining popularity, especially after the release of a compilation album in 2000 featuring a number of underground hip-hop artists including Da Crew.

Artisan Beats said they started getting calls for shows at other clubs and parties. More hip-hop clubs opened, more groups came out, but none beat the popularity of Master Plan.

“It was a big boom ― a trend ― from 2000 to 2006 or 2007 … so all the clubs were hip-hop clubs. All the parties were hip-hop parties. But then they started to die out, one by one.”

Just as quickly as the boom had started, it began fading. Artisan Beats said today it is still hard for underground hip-hop artists to make a living. Many of the clubs have closed, including Master Plan. Most artists have to keep their day jobs.

“Basically, it’s all about the money. Cash rules everything around me. It’s really hard to make a living,” he said. Artisan Beats started his own label at one point, but the venture put him in debt for nearly eight years.

Now he has steady work and can pursue his own projects or take part in projects with his current crew, Bulhandang. He produced three songs on their latest album, “Julchoong Vol. 3.”

But when he is working on his own music, Artisan Beats said he prefers working one on one with an artist. His last album in 2009 featured hip-hop artist Minos. At the moment, he is working on a project with a single expected in September and either an EP or full album to follow later.

When it comes to influences, he said he is not influenced by other artists, though they do spark a drive.

“I’m watching something else or someone did an amazing track and I’ll be like, ‘I gotta make a better track than that,’” he said.

However, he is hesitant to say he’s had a major accomplishment so far in his career, that there is more he wants to do and try.

“I wouldn’t say that my album was the biggest thing. I don’t want to say that, because that would be the end of it,” he said.

“I think there’s still more to come.”

By Emma Kalka (ekalka@heraldcorp.com)