This is the 16th in a series on producers, MCs, DJs and artists working in the Korean underground hip-hop scene. ― Ed.


For rapper Double K, there was a clear and poignant moment when he decided to do Korean hip-hop.

He was in his first year at Ohio State University in 2001, and had entered a rap battle. He was up against 50 other contestants for a $500 prize with what seemed like the entire school watching. But Double K was confident.

Until disaster struck, that is.

“So, it was my time to battle and I kind of choked,” he said. The crowd watched silently while he faltered, until the DJ yelled that he wasn’t freestyling.

Even with the crowd then shouting “Go back to your country,” Double K was determined not to go down in such a way. With his pride hurt, he begged for 30 more seconds on the mic. Feeling merciful, the crowd started shouting to give him one more chance.

“So they gave me the mic, and I started freestyling in Korean. And then, the whole crowd went nuts. That’s when I realized, what am I doing here? I’m not even going to school. I should go back to my country and do Korean hip-hop,” he said.

Just three days later, Double K dropped out of OSU and returned to Korea to start his hip-hop career.

Double K first encountered hip-hop at age 10 when he moved to San Diego in 1992 because of his father’s work. He saw hip-hop on TV, though he said he didn’t listen to the genre at the time. His first album was a Shaquille O’Neal record, which he said he only bought because he was an NBA fan.

He started out as a break dancer in middle school, after returning to Korea in 1994. He went by the name “Killa Korean,” which influenced his current rap name, and listened to Seo Taiji and Deux.

“I’ve always loved the culture. I thought it was cool when I was young,” he said.

That love continued in high school near Boston. His school had a studio that he would visit often with his friends, though he was still only known as a dancer.

“I always wanted to express myself, not with the body, but something more. I thought that there was something I could do,” he said. One day in the studio, he finally wrote his own lyrics. After that, he was there every day working on music.

He continued rapping and going to open mics in college, attending more shows than class, which influenced his decision to return to Korea after that fateful rap battle.

Back in Korea, he had planned to start out at a major label. But after a month, he found the company intended to turn him into another idol star, something he didn’t want. He left the label and set out on his own.

He was then introduced to rap duo Leessang, which led to his first big break here. Leessang was working on their first album and asked him to feature.

“When I featured on Leessang’s album, everybody was like, ‘Who’s Double K?’” he said. “Just that one verse. That one verse made me a career to make an album. So, after that, I made my album, and that’s basically how I started.”

Since then, Double K has made a name for himself, doing concerts and appearing on the first season of Mnet’s “Show Me the Money,” which he won with rookie rapper Loco. He said he felt he used the show wisely to show off who he was, though appearing on TV is difficult for hip-hop artists.

“There are so many restrictions ... You can’t show tattoos on TV. Or especially with rap music, it’s all about word play and the lyrics ... But there (TV) it’s so limited. They’re so strict about words,” he said, recalling how one of his songs was banned for the sole reason of having a brand name, Super Mario, in it.

“They’re mad picky about hip-hop because they think hip-hop is bad. And the people who judge that lyrically are old people, so the whole system is not open. Like, as in the States.”

But, he said it is getting better. And he hopes that one day that as more people globally become interested in Korean pop music, they’ll also get into Korean hip-hop. He said that just as K-pop is a thing, he hopes one day K-hip-hop will be too.

For now, Double K is working on the release of his next EP and has just finished filming a music video. He also is planning to do shows and appear on TV, though he admitted that shows are more fun.

By Emma Kalka (ekalka@heraldcorp.com)