But lol a k-pop. It’s not bad but srsly, as much integrity as American pop. By which Asia is still mostly on follow mode.

On the artistic front, I do agree with you due to the importance of reaching out to the audiences and demographics one is appealing to. I do understand this quite well and actually do not have anything against this. Convention is not necessarily always a bad route to go in any form of art. The very least the artist can do with any material they have is to perform properly while showing some competence, care, and a level of high standard behind their work. That is just something I don’t see and somehow we end up with crap like songs from the Wonder Girls suddenly being a bar for sheer excellence. Despite this being a clear de-evolution of standards, extraneous factors aside or not.

Anyways, it is nice to note that I can finally talk to a Tablo/Epik High fan without this becoming a crap fest with sudden flame wars inciting me as the devil merely because I disagree with something. Honestly, that kind of stuff is just plain sad and disgusting.

I understand your point about Mithra Jin and Tablo, and I agree. And artistically speaking, Tablo’s ability to draw in the mainstream crowd may seem irrelevant to you but even he admits that he needed (sadly) sell his music through exercising his wits in variety shows and what have you. In my opinion the ability to compose good lyrics and music is the most important factor in hip hop music (expression is important too) and Tablo managed to combine some of that ballad element (you know, things like love, hope, fluffy stuff) to create something exciting and easily acccessible.

Regarding publicity stunts and whatnot, I am the guy who has been living under a rock. I do not pay attention to this stuff since 99% of this stuff is worthless bullshit. There is hardly something of substance in the cesspool of crap, so I do not pay any attention as a result.

I think this might be a little too difficult for me to explain at the moment since my head is feeling scrambled as it is. Without Mithra Jin there to anchor, I do not believe those lyrics would have had the same impact of expressing their messages or even have as much success. The proclaimed front man really does not seem to bring out the potential of his pen to life when performing as much as his comrade does. When I think of the song, Mithra Jin seems to have leave more of an impression with me even if the lyrics were not his. It is hard to explain, but I will just leave it at that for now.

As for that Jinusean song from earlier, I remember the name of it now since I saw some performance vid on Youtube. It is called “Mal Hae Jo” and the version with Yuki Hsu is called “Mei Guan Shi.” Notably, in the Yuki Hsu version, Jinusean raps in English and the lyrics seem to make little to no sense.

Now that I think of it, I really need to try and remember if there is a memorable song out there other then the Natsume Yuujinchou one. And, Sorrow hit the nail on the head perfectly with his response. It is kind of sad that I can’t think of one and the Gundam ones are hardly reminiscent of that too.

I agree with the current state of Epik High but I’m surprised to see you value Mithra Jin more than Tabloo. I mean, he’s mostly responsible for the lyrics and it is his bizarre personality that is making an effective publicity.

When it comes to M-Flo I can’t say I like a lot of the Verbal+Random Pop star combinations from them like some rabid, idiotic fan person. Its not like the group has not produced a few good, fun, energetic songs here and there. But, its not something to abuse or play out for too long. Then again, the Asian music industry as a whole is not good at moderation at all. That is how its been for many years and its sad that its not surprising anymore.

When it comes to Epik High in general, I think they have let their ambitions go over their heads due to their last few albums. Especially, the last one where they just did far too much in trying to create this formula and sound for their own good. However, I actually like Mithra Jin and think he is more of the actual voice of the group due to his great talents as opposed to Tablo in actuality.

For something more old school, you could look to YG’s own Jinusean for their collaboration with someone else, which bore a second version featuring Chinese Artist Yuki Hsu. You could say its one of the earlier examples of a slowly booming trend in Korea. While the song’s name escapes me, I do remember it since it was rather popular. At that time, Jinusean were more active as well. Then again, YG Family was more respectable back then, as opposed to now with their horrendous releases in recent times. Then again, this is dating back to a few years at least.