[Hiphopplaya] The New Wave #3: Evo, Jay Moon, Oltii

Hip Hop
Evo: I listened to a lot of music thanks to my older brother in middle school. At the time, I mostly listened to rock…and I did follow my brother’s footsteps of playing the guitar also…I would practice songs like More Than Words and Tears in Heaven. Then I visited my relatives in America and I guess at a young age, I thought my cousin seemed cool looking in listening to hip hop in the car with tattoos on both his shoulders. I still remember the song that was playing in the car then and it was Big Pun’s “Still Not a Playa.” Then I officially began my digging when I returned to Korea…well, you can’t even really call it digging…I listened to 2pac. Is there more to say than that? (Laughter) You can say I started hip hop the moment I listened to 2pac…it is odd logic…but anyway, that’s what happened. And what was the determining factor for me to get into hip hop was when I was in high school when I joined the “Hip Hop & Rock Club.” It was the first and second jabs that determined my life.

Nickname
Evo: My nickname in high school was Eebjeng. I was the leader amongst my friends in our hip hop & rock club, so kids called me Department Head Lee (romanized as 'Lee boojang') and I guess that was too long for them, so they shortened it to Eebjengee. A couple of years later, my friends thought even calling me by that was too long, so they called me Eve, and at times Evo. That’s how I chose my nickname.

Crew
Evo: After releasing my Ill Jeanz album and having already recorded the guide version for my solo album, I was stuck. The biggest problem was the present time where I began thinking about how I needed to sign an album contract with a company. I was at a coffee shop with Jinbo hyung and we were discussing which companies to send the album out to and that’s when he recommended Hi-Lite. It was a label I personally had in mind as well and so I sent the album through e-mail to them on that exact day. A few days later, I got a phone call from Palo himself and he said it very straightforwardly: “We don’t contract albums. Just join our label.” “Ah, yes, that’s good,” I told them. I think the conversation was along these lines. We talked more over spicy sausage stew.


Title Track
Evo: I really like the track “Get Yours” from the Paloalto & Evo album. It was a track we made with the thought of wanting to make an awesome song. Normally, the routine of making a song is habitually playing with beats here and there, then making a sampling on top of the beat, or making chords, but this song was made solely with the thought of just wanting to make an awesome song. Before we even sang or put rap into the track, the track was titled “Evo the Great” so you know that speaks for itself. But the final factor that made it awesome was Boni’s awesome line that she contributed with which was a big help. Honestly, I don’t even need to say any other words because I think I like this track since I got to work with Boni; I’m a fan of Boni’s (laughter). 


Attitude
Evo: Not having my music be swayed and making music that’s very much like me. This seems like the easiest thing, but it’s also the hardest. It might be a little hard for younger people to relate to. They’ll probably think, “What is he talking about?” Wait till you get to my age.


Respect
Evo: I respect all of those who are pursuing hip hop in Korea. What I mean is that those who are really singing songs that are considered hip hop, these people are crazy. They’re completely insane. They’re not in their right minds and that’s why I respect them. This is also odd logic…

Utopia

Evo: I think utopia for me is to make money while doing music. I don’t ask for a lot. I just want to live in a house in Seoul, have a car that can move, get married, have a kid, be able to take care of my kid’s education fees, go out to eat 4 times a week with my family, raise a dog, and give my parents allowance…and sometimes go on vacation overseas…just about that much…


From Now On
Evo: I plan on releasing my single in August and am holding off on my official album. The latest it’ll be released is probably the beginning of next year.



Lastly

Evo: Hip hop isn’t something that anyone can do. Don’t do it…if you do, you’ll be depressed….and it’ll seem so much like a joke…what I really want to say as my last word is to a critic, specifically a jazz critic. I don’t remember their name but I coincidentally saw what they wrote on Facebook and they said that hip hop music is for kids who like cussing. I’ll say my last word to them: What do you know, you retard?

Hip Hop

Jay Moon: None of my family members are musical so I think that that the skill was acquired and influenced heavily during the prenatal education that my parents had done before I was born. Aside from my father being able to play the guitar a little, my mother had no knowledge of music whatsoever…I heard from my parents that when I was about 3 years old, I would whack on the xylophone and when I was around 6 years old, my mother sent me off to piano lessons. I remember going out to a contest a little while afterwards. When I was around 6th grade, I ran away from home once. My mother found me and asked me what I really wanted to do when we both returned home and she asked if it was music I wanted to do. But back then, I couldn’t give her a proper answer because I was on the fence about music and I wasn’t confident in myself either. Back then, my dream was to become an executive (laughter). And soon after, I moved up to my first year in junior high and I bet my grades in order for me to receive a microphone. Maybe it was because a microphone was on the line that I really studied hard for my first exam in junior high, but I ended up getting the microphone but my grades dropped horribly after that and I ended up transferring schools. It was in the beginning of my third year in junior high that I studied what I wanted and I knew I wanted this to be my job, so I studied on composing as well…anyway, if you look at just rapping, then I think I grew up rapping while listening to hip hop music with my friends starting from 6^th grade and onwards. From 6^th grade to my first year in junior high, a couple of my friends and I gathered up and are rapping together now under the crew name ‘PaperBlockz.’ 


Nickname
Jay Moon: I don’t think there’s a specific meaning behind the penname Jay Moon that I’m using. My real name is Moon Jiwon and if you initialize it, then it turns into ‘mjw’…I thought of the penname from here. It’s also easy to remember, right? Jay Moon! (Laughter) The penname I used was originally Crackplay a.k.a Crizzy (and the name I used before this one is quite embarrassing, so I’m not going to mention it…). I felt that people would see it (Crackplay) as difficult, so I asked my hyungs who are also in the music scene for advice and they said it sucked…(laughter) So this is how I ended up using the name Jay Moon.

Crew
Jay Moon: The crew ‘Paperblockz’ that I’m in is probably known by people who’ve heard of it. The crew is made up of my close friends from elementary and middle school who did music for fun but it was around 2 years ago that we really wanted to get into the scene so we gathered up and started. 


Title Track
Jay Moon: Honestly, I didn’t put out a lot of tracks to be able to choose one as my title track. But I think the tracks “Rock This Thang,” “Expression,” and “6 Foot 7 Foot Remix” can be tracks that people like the best from me, but also think of these tracks specifically when they see me. It’s not that I hate these tracks, but I think I have more of an attachment to “I’m Cheatin’ Remix,” “Young” because it took me a long time to work on the hook making, and “Mr. Ripley” which talks about one of my experiences.
 

Actions
Jay Moon: I think the attitude of people who are pursuing in hip hop music categorizing it by saying things like “American hip hop is like this” and “Korean hip hop is like that” deserves criticism. Although I’m not heavily active in the hip hop scene right now, I find “actions” something for everyone to follow in the guidelines of. Those in Korea who enjoy hip hop music are already used to the sentiments of hip hop and Korea but when you actually pursue in music, there will be some troubles and clashes in between these two, and this applies to everyone – it happened to me as well…but I learned that being stuck in between those two categories, in order to define my actions, I balanced myself between "the standards the majority of people have" and "my own standards," and am now carrying out my actions based on my image and my position in society. This applies to when I compose lyrics or artists, even when I'm interacting with the public. 

Respect
Jay Moon: I mentioned 'attitude' before, but I respect those who abide by this rule of 'attitude' in hip hop music. Of course, this form of respect isn't just applied to hyungs, but also those who are same age as me, even those that are younger than I am who are active in the (hip hop) community and looking up lineups and guest performances for hip hop performances on their own. I don't believe that you have to achieve something great in order to earn respect. It's because I've been feeling this as of lately, but I think the applause one earns after presenting themselves having fun and sweating over something one really like is respect. 


Utopia
Jay Moon: From now and into the future, I'm going to continue studying music. I'm not going to go into separate divisions of just studying composing lyrics, producing, or song arrangements, but studying music that I truly want to do and the studies I need in order to achieve that. For example, whether it's learning the basics of instruments if I'm using them, or doing wave samplings for a person's voice with MIDI and making use of that into a drum sample, I'm going to continue studying. Even when I grow older, I want to enjoy doing music. A lot of hip hop musicians show themselves off in their lyrics and that itself is a characteristic in hip hop; people also do so because it's fun. Although those who feel culture through the outside, listen through solely their ears, and say things like "I don't like this culture because of this, or I don't like it because of that" may not understand, but those who feel culture through their skins will definitely understand. My dream is to enjoy doing music.


From Now On
Jay Moon: I'm currently a student so I don't have a lot of free time and during the time this interview process is going on, I'm writing 5-10 tracks all at once since I'm on break and I know that I have to get out all of my featuring works, personal single, mixtape, and in-depth bootleg works finished. However, I'm not going to result in having my work turn out badly just because I'm breezing through it, so look out for me. 


Lastly
Jay Moon: I'll continue to create an image of the artist Jay Moon in delivering good music and continue to look out for me. I'm always thankful to all my listeners. 

Hip Hop
Olltii: I personally think that the charm to rap music is that you’re able to use the rhythm in diverse ways. Before, I use to be more interested in how a certain emcee would deliver their message and what kind of system they implemented in constructing their rhymes. That alone shows how much rhyming was important to me and how much joy it gave me. A litter afterwards, I naturally picked up interest in freestyle rapping and started looking up videos thinking to myself, "Wow...there's really no you or me in foreign rappers and they're all good. How are they able to weave in rhymes like it's nothing while I rot my brains over just thinking of them?" After looking around for more videos, I came across the Huckleberry P episode for "Mic Swagger" and at the time, the thought "Ah, this guy's crazy" came across my mind. I wanted to be good at freestyle rapping like Huck P hyung so I would practice from the time I got home after school ended till my older brother came home from his evening classes. I would stutter out what I could on top of the instrumental playing and try to catch the rhythm of the beat. I really would rap for 6-7 hours straight. I was in my third year of high school at the time and once I found out that there would be a cypher in Hongdae, I borrowed t-money from my mom and went out to Seoul by myself for the first time, with my only motivation being "I want to have fun rapping"! I arrived at the location where the cypher would be held and at first, I hesitated under the watch of others in joining, but I spit out a rap flow, introducing myself as Olltii, came from Anyang, and how I rap well despite being young...now that I come to think about it, I don't remember it and the context of my rap at the time is something I don't necessarily want to remember but people at the scene complimented me that for a kid so young, I rapped well. I remember the exact blissful feeling I felt then. It felt like my circulation was being cut off and I continued in wanting to feel this same feeling. That's why from then on, I told myself that "I should rap!"


Nickname
Olltii: I thought the word “almighty” was appealing while I was watching the movie “Bruce Almighty” and I had originally planned to use the name “Almighty,” but the definition of almighty just seemed too bombastic so I fixed it in only using the first and last letter of the word, creating “Olltii.” I also forced on a meaning behind the combination of the two letters where “Oll” derives from “being right” and “Tii” being an analogous term to “attitude,” thus the name Olltii was born with the meaning “an upright attitude.” 

[*T/N: Koreans write out almighty as ol (올) – ma (마) – ee (이) – tee (티), so the spelling changes of extra L’s and I’s were a preference by Olltii]

Crew
Olltii: ADV Crew. When I first stepped foot into the street cyphers, JJK hyung had a watchful eye on me and coming from someone who’ve always loved cyphers, ADV Crew was my most respected idols with the crew forming through rap attack cyphers. JJK hyung didn’t hesitate on giving me advice here and there, and he was also the person who taught me the attitudes of rap and areas of respect. This was how I began having interactions with the ADV hyungs. I was under a different crew before but because of personal reasons of the crew members then, we couldn’t be united and the atmosphere of the crew was collapsing. On my own will, I left the crew and J hyung said to me, “Hey, don’t be like that and join ADV with us.” Without any hesitation, I signed with ADV right away!

Title Track
Olltii: The beat for “Look At Me Girl” was made by Duplex Groove hyung, who’s in the crew Buckwilds, which was somehow given to me. The song had a good feel to it so I jotted down lyrics as if I was preparing for a lightning song and that was the first time I tried making a hook as well, which surprisingly turned out well in the end. At the time, I wasn’t really competent to receive such a song, to which I think that fate coincidentally gave it to me and a lot of people to this day like this track. It’s a love song I made in my first year of high school and I still sing it often. I also like “Fangirl” which was a track from my mixtape “Rappin’ OLLday,” which talks about the unfortunate sight of idol fandoms choosing underground as their alternate option for idols. I even picked at the wrongs I find in the attitudes of “fans” while describing the attitudes they should maintain. With the music industry focusing on the appearances of an artist rather than the competency of their music skills, I debated about my dissatisfaction of how appearances are prioritized over music. “At that state, you can’t converse with me. Why do you try to take in music through your eyes?” This was a line in “Fangirl.”  

Attitude
Olltii: I’ve experienced it in the street cyphers, but what I’ve always been stubborn about is that “If I think it’s right, then I have the will to insist that it’s right.” Each and every moment, I'll be doing my best in stepping up to a higher place. From being high up, I'll listen to those who are below and I'll shout the sounds of the lower people high above. I'm going to continue to keep moving up!


Respect
Olltii: Huckleberry P, because he was the person who made me want to officially start rapping! I feel that Huck P hyung’s lifestyle is similar to the philosophy I drew out. In his EP “Freestyle Tutorial,” there’s a track that I featured for and in there, I said, “I’m the second Huck P and I have nothing to fear walking while looking towards the future.” This applies to how one approaches hip hop and you should treat hip hop in how you’d like to be treated in hip hop in return. That itself is the meaning of respect! Also, JJK. If Huck P hyung was the “stepping stone” to this scene for me, then JJK hyung was the “driving force” that even allowed me to step foot into this scene. Through JJK hyung, I was able to grasp the idea of producing and have the right attitude towards music. He never hesitated on giving me advice and he showed me the turf that I wasn’t able to see before. I’m not saying this just because we’re in the same crew, but he’s a figure in life that I really respect. He’s also someone who motivates me to thrive in rapping better since he’s good at rapping to the point where I’m jealous of him for being so good.

Utopia/Role Model
Olltii: Before, without hesitation, it (role model) was Huck P hyung, but now I don’t necessarily have one. Nowadays, I’m putting more anticipation in myself for tomorrow and believing that I can achieve all things.

From Now On
Olltii: I’m planning on releasing an official mixtape filled with only original beats and I’m thinking that it’s honestly closer to an EP. If I have the leisure to, I’ll plan for it to be an EP but I feel that right now it may be too fast paced for me…lately it’s been a time of a lot of thinking for me. However it ends, I know for sure that I’ll be distributing the songs officially.

Lastly
Olltii: I want to be able to keep word of being able to ring the ears of others in the lowest of places from the very highest place above, meaning that in the highest place above, I’ll be representing music from the lowest place. Also, I’m going to prove that I’m able to go up to the highest place from the lowest place. Anticipate for me!

 

Source: Hiphopplaya


--


Sorry this took an eternity...