Kpopalypse Nugu Alert Episode 40 – PNSB, 2TAK ft. Sapo, 7in $cale

Kpopalypse blog has been really popular and has been increasing in traffic a lot lately, so once again it’s time to tone down that influx of readers and clicks back to a manageable level with another episode of the most unpopular series on Kpopalypse blog, Kpopalypse Nugu Alert! If you haven’t clicked away already, let’s take a look at some more nugus!

It’s often said that music taste tends to be formed early in life and that this is why people have a predisposition to new songs if those songs remind them of older songs that they are already familiar with, as opposed to being a radically new sound. There’s a fair bit of evidence out there that suggests music taste is very much determined by socialisation, and this might be why I like a lot of stuff with “retro” elements, but having said that I also like a lot of stuff which sounds like nothing I’ve ever heard before, so it’s a theory I’ve been testing to see how far I personally fall from the “baseline”. So in a particularly low moment of my music quality appreciation history, I decided to search out a bunch of recent Korean rap videos to test this theory. I deliberately wasn’t seeking out the “good stuff”, but instead just any stuff that was recent, mainly to try and see if I could “come around” to some of the crappy “nu-school” style rap beats which are supposedly so popular now even though I know almost nobody personally in any age group who actually enjoys this shit.

Of course this failed miserably, and I still think that this style of rap sucks, but I did notice something else that I thought was interesting – rappers don’t like boxes, they like locations. With the exception of a few isolated songs from the bigger Korean pop labels or where the rappers are either being sheperded by a larger company or trying to integrate into a more idol-pop style, Korean rappers seem to enjoy going more free-range. The following are some nugu Korean rappers and their scenic adventures, and I hope you enjoy these selections – or at least I hope these observations distract you sufficiently from the terrible music enough to allow you to keep your sanity. On the other hand, you might actually like some of the music here, in which case, enjoy, I guess.

Usual Nugu Alert rules apply:

Less than 20,000 views on official channels
Are these people popular? Well I sure haven’t heard of them, and probably neither have you.
Relevant to Kpopalypse

Let’s get started!

PNSB – Suicide Express

Let’s start with PNSB, and he’s not completely nugu – he’s collaborated with other members of the Korean yolo brigade like Okasian and Jvcki Wai for instance, however he’s certainly not that well known in his own right either. I’d suggest that the answer might be due to his music, but honestly that’s probably incorrect as there’s plenty of other shit which sounds exactly like “Suicide Express” and is really popular, and let’s not forget that the #1 most popular Korean rap track is still the thuddingly awful “It G Ma” so let’s not pretend that there’s any strict musical standards at work here. I’m thinking the real reason why “Suicide Express” didn’t set the Korean hit parade is on fire is because everyone copped an eyeball of the ruined church that PNSB was dancing around in and freaked the fuck out. Truly a unique location in the Korean landscape of re-used setpieces (at least for now), PNSB comes off like a mentally ill foil-clad demon who has compromised the OH&S compliance of the holy building’s structure – enough proof for anybody that if god is real he’s definitely an atheist.

YouTube views at time of writing: 5044

Notable attribute: there seems to be some kind of awkward lump around PNSB’s solar plexus. What could he be carrying? Feel free to provide theories below!

Nugu Alert rating: high

2TAK ft. Sapo – A Better Tomorrow

Almost every single first-person computer game ever seems to have a “sewer section”, where the player finds themselves navigating endless samey tunnels of water and concrete because that’s apparently the most practical way to get anywhere when you’re trying to save the world or whatever (and why are we always boringly saving the world in computer games, can’t we just save our own ass and let the rest of the world take care of itself for once). It seems that 2TAK and Sapo agree, spending a reasonable portion of their time during “A Better Tomorrow” hanging around in dingy concrete caverns, wandering around as if they’re going somewhere terribly important. Their adventures seem very purposeful even though we never get to see any of them actually do anything except stare around randomly and wear sunglasses a lot, and the overall visual feel is a lot like a cut-price version of Dynamic Duo and Nafla’s “J.O.T.S” but where nothing actually happens. However at least they do also get to see a bit of the outdoors, there’s a few refreshing scenes with some overcast skyline that give you that same sense of relief that you experience as a world-saving computer gamer when you finally emerge at the end of one of those tedious sewer sections, however I wonder if a world filled with slow beats and mumble rap this maudlin is really a world worth saving.

YouTube views at time of writing: 3245

Notable attribute: At 0:30 2TAK’s boxing skills are so fast that they blur the screen, gosh I hope this guy doesn’t find out about this review and get upset

Nugu Alert rating: very high

7in $cale – Pull The Trigger

As an Australian living in a region of the country that thanks to climate change (cheers, rest of the world) routinely now gets up to 47°C (that’s 116°F for all you people in fake countries) I’ve actually never seen snow with my own eyes, only in movies, videos and pictures. Judging by the hefty vision-obscuring fringe on the blonde guy from 7in $cale, I’m pretty sure he’s never seen snow with his own eyes either, despite standing right in it throughout this music video. Fortunately he has his friend in the cap to help him out and let him know exactly what’s been weighing down his shoes for the entirety of the video shoot. There’s actually some pretty nice snowy vistas worth of MC Sniper going on in this video, especially if you can ignore that standard “It G Ma” washed-out colour-fucking-around that we all have to have in these rap videos for the next few years post-2015 because if some rapper doesn’t follow lame trends for every single waking moment of his life he might spontaneously combust or something. At least if the blonde guy started randomly smoking and catching alight he could roll around in the snow a bit and defuse the flames – that is, assuming he knew the snow was there.

YouTube views at time of writing: 1017

Notable attribute: alcohol is displayed but the bottle is never drunk from or even opened. Good to see rappers setting socially responsible examples for today’s youth!

Nugu Alert rating: extreme