Korean Pop (K-POP) has been blowing up around the country, to say the least with the emergence of hits like “Nobody” by Wonder Girls, “Gangnam Style” by PSY, and BTS with their global stardom over the last few years.
*This article is specifically about Korean music within South Korea and not Korean Americans doing CHH such as UZUHAN, Sam Ock, and others.
I can say in full honesty I understand why this sound and image has grown so quickly as opposed to the past and it is not because of their processed sound or dancing boy-bands; that answer is technology, the Internet to be exact.
I started listening to K-POP, rap, and rock around the year 1999 when Korean music’s biggest influence was reggae, American rap music, and Euro-techno so the sound was heavily isolated to those genres unlike now. English translations were scarce and videos were only available to watch either on Korean TV channels or through Real Player on their websites since YouTube didn’t exist.
I too, as the Korean youth listened to Seotaiji & Boys which sounded more like B-real from Cypress Hill, mixed with 80s’ rock, 90s’ R&B, and techno all-in-one (link). I listened to the girl pop groups and some of the boy bands but gravitated toward the hip-hop scene.
All my Korean friends at the time knew that many of the stars (whether rappers or boy bands) were being drafted from Los Angeles and other major cities in the U.S. since they had exposure to other music, dances, and especially since they also produced and wrote most of their own music. I won’t spend much time on this since you can watch the YouTube special on K-POP (the Birth of K-POP) which does a great job in explaining how K-POP fused with so many genres over time.
I think it’s important to make it clear that while South Korea as a whole can be considered a Christian country, no different than America is considered a Christian country; both mirrors us in that we rarely communicate our Christian values in media. In the early 2000s’ you may randomly find a song like “What a Friend We have in Jesus” in Korean as the last track on a girl band album or some shout-outs in the CD jacket to God but being Christian and making music in the mainstream did not understandably mix.
Over 10 years had passed and I began to read my Bible and realize that my choice in English and foreign music glorified the same sinful things. Then I began to scale back on what I listened to and really focus on the words before I committed another catchy song to memory.
I had also been a long-time fan of Jo PD (PSY used to also rap with him before his silly horse dance), in fact, Jo PD and PSY were constantly censored for talking about corrupt politicians, haters, fast women, and such although drugs were not an optional topic since even marijuana is illegal in Korea. Believe it or not, PSY wasn’t marketable even as a rapper but his goofy-catchy songs were and the rest was history for him.
Jo PD started showing signs of his faith in his last few albums stating that “We Are All God’s Children” and stopped using profanity in his lyrics and went to production but never fully came out and said it. Although I’m not as fluent as I used to be and the Internet didn’t have everyone translating things as they do now.
Jo PD also had an R&B singer named Ra.D (rah-dee) who started singing more about God. In one of his albums, he did a jazzy version of “Jesus Loves Me.” I know you’re probably saying, Scarface and Tupac talked about God, what’s the big deal if a few Korean rappers throw God into their lyrics?
Enter in actor and rapper YDG 양동근; not the one you’re thinking of from the U.S., the letters stand for Yang Dong Goon. He also was inspired by Seotaiji and began to rap and dance. His music also reflected American culture as did the other Korean rappers. He released albums in 2001 – 2003, 2006 & 2007 which I happened to like a few songs and then he seemed to go silent except for a few features.
Then he appeared on the special stage, popular reality tv show called Show Me The Money (SMTM) in which Korean hip-hop producers discover young artists to sign to their label in the form of a competition in which they have to create new songs and perform them. That was in 2013. Although he released a few digital singles it was around 2019 a track titled, “Going Home” gained a lot of traction. It was a heartfelt song about going home and the pressures of being a man and your family looking to you. If you are a father and you read the lyrics below you see why his career began to rebound:
(rough translation)
Chorus
I’m going home.
Going home, going him.
Going home in my car.
Verse 2
Turn off the fierce switch. A place where even nagging is happy
Even if my body shatters tomorrow. I’m going to overcome my gear* (*what is weighing you down)
Where you can commit Go back, go back.
If there’s paradise on earth, it’s probably where I’m going right now.
With my wife like a rabbit Children like toads* (*referring to behavior coming home to your family)
Throughout this time, he appeared on a few variety shows and considered leaving rap feeling a strong conviction that he couldn’t do what he did before. He considered leaving rap all the way and doing a mix of Trot (traditional Korean music) mixed with rap, which lead him to explore the single, “Package of Love” with the help of his pastor and DJ Havidim (link). Although it wasn’t bad – I’m glad his inner circle pushed him to rep God in how he started.
I was hoping he would continue pursuing God and was more than overjoyed when I saw him appear on Kill Bill (another hip-hop show) and perform the following songs which appear on the album titled after the show, Kill Bill Vol.1. The three tracks completely threw me for a loop.
아버지 – (also means “Father”) but this song was about God. (link) (This is a secular rap show and they happened to have listened to YDG for many years prior so having him use this platform to rep God, which is amazing. Unfortunately, it seems most of the Korean networks have removed all the prior links of the full live performances, the link provided above was all I could find.
Lyrics (from the video)
He’s my father
Loving Father
The Father Who Created Me
Holy Father Father father father
to my father Heavenly Father
Loving Father Let me praise my God
The beat changes at the 2:13 mark to his second single which sampled PSY’s song, “Gangnam Style.”
Lyrics
Thumbs up! It’s me. It’s me. (together)
Lift em higher. Clap your hands.
I believe in the Father (God), washed in the blood
A light that grows, I’m not afraid.
Always making choices, 50/50
He’s (God) guiding me, He’s always with me
2019 Republic of Korea
(I got) Dad Swag, Representing.
Samsung Dong 117 (apartment/complex)
Apartment reversal. (?)
Three-year-old car (?)
Passion burning
I’ll show you my Dad Swag.
He then followed up with, “My DNA is Gold” featuring Manuka that has a brief interview before the performance. See translation of video below (link)
YDG Interview: starting at 0:24
“I am going to show you, my kids. Now I have to make music with other lyrics and atmosphere. When you’re raising kids and only looking at them, you can use/write honest heartfelt lyrics. This represents all dads on stage. Although it’s physically tiring. With all the aspirations of the (dads/fathers), I went out on stage, with bright eyes looking at the kids, I’ll perform on stage.”
Song Lyrics:
F-A-T-H-E-R
What’s so much to say? What’s going on? I can’t understand. Why are you so sad? What do you really want? I’m freaking out. Hospital formula diaper costs.
After a short silence from music since he is also a phenomenal actor who picked up a few roles, he made a silly song in 2021 called “That G” about the Corona Virus also with his kids in it. (link)
It is now 2022 and he has taken that same beat, and released a new song, called “Breast Plate” with a group called “the disciples.” link
This is a rough translation of the YouTube description is as follows:
Actor and rapper YDG, The four-man hip-hop team of film director and rapper Neo Cruiser, composer and rapper DJ Juan, referencing Ephesians 6:14.
Their first single, “Disciples,” was an impromptu song when they went on a tour to New York. It’s old-school-style hip-hop, and the lyrics are filled with Bible words. No one knows how the scaremongering will survive in a hip-hop scene where profanity and irritating lyrics spread like fashion to trendy beats.
For someone who has been listening to Korean Music since 1999, an actor/rapper standing up for Jesus and speaking out in public that he can’t do and say what he used to is a win for the Kingdom. Yes, the lyrics to English speakers for the tracks that I highlighted may have seemed repetitive about being a father but what I see that this man has put on display is the Father changing a father and putting away the old.
Let’s keep YDG in prayer as a husband, father of three, and man of God that he presses into God more and his children see his walk and follow it.
