As hip hop becomes more of an "accepted" and a noticeably popular genre in the Korean music industry, up and coming rappers have been sprouting up here and there for their shot at the 'hip-hop king' title (Tiger JK still holds that venerable position). Some are successful—those are the ones with talent—while others create buzz but die out like a flame that is untended to (what happened to you, TakeOne?). It is still extremely difficult to make it as a rapper in the Korean hip hop scene mostly due to lack of resources (proper recording equipment, hip hop labels that are few and far between) and the Korean population's general disregard and indifference towards rappers. Bluntly put, many people are going to think you are delusional and have no future if you tell them you aspire to make it as a rapper.

Despite all the tribulations however, many rappers gained recognition through perseverance and of course, an unprecedented rapping style. And by unprecedented rapping style, I mean a way of rapping that is unparalleled by anyone else in the Korean hip hop scene and is recognizable immediately upon listen. Over my nearly three years of unearthing Korean hip hop music and busily listening to it, I have come across many gems. But only a few number of artists decidedly stuck out to me with memorable rapping styles. For simplicity, I will be sticking to several elements of rapping which include but are not limited to: lyricism, rhyming, delivery, and flow. The most memorable rappers to me in the criteria listed above are Mad Clown, Minos, Dok2, Gary and Fana. I'll be explaining the reasons as to why I believe these particular rappers are memorable based on their rapping.

Just to get this out of the way - In no way am I a hip hop music/culture expert. I am merely expressing which specific set of skills represent exceptional rapping based solely on my opinions, limited knowledge of the genre, and the artists I've been exposed to.

Mad Clown

I initially discovered Mad Clown via YouTube on a Korean hip hop channel and what struck me most about Mad Clown was his voice. It was quite high-pitched for a male rapper. His high pitched voice doesn't at all discredit his rapping which is so sharply polished that if his rapping were a weapon, it'd be a scythe. He spits his rhymes with a near bullet-like speed (though not as fast as Outsider) and precision that flies rapid-fire into your ears. When he raps fast, there are subtle syncopations within his verses; you have to really listen to hear them. The way he stresses syllables—sometimes in the middle of a verse, sometimes at the end or the beginning—is minimalistic yet aggressive enough to keep you bobbing your head along to his flow. His clever punchlines deserve some kudos as well. In one of his songs, "Prodigy of Discipline," he raps, "If discipline was a religion then I'd be your Bible." Now we know how Mad Clown got so good at rapping.

Minos

Minos' wily craftiness with words is the one characteristic that got a hold of my attention when I first started listening to his music. Korean is a hard language to rhyme easily with since Hangul's vowels and consonants are not structured the same as the alphabet. I guess Minos realized this early on and studied a way to make Korean sound as fluid as English—or at least have Korean words rhyme in a similar manner to English rhymes. His effort can be most clearly heard in "21^st Century Aliens," a song that ends with the long "ee" sound at the end of almost every verse, using a mix of Korean and English. If Mad Clown is clever with his punchlines, then Minos is clever with his rhyme scheme. His delivery is not as fast as Mad Clown's, but he is adept at adjusting his usual laid-back rapping and speeding it up when necessary, as was showcased when he featured on a track called "I Need a Beat" produced by Nuol.

Dok2

Before I begin praising Dok2's (pronounced Dok-ee not Dok-two) rapping, it may be appropriate for me to mention he is a rarity in the Korean music scene for popularizing the so-called 'gangsta rap' sub-genre of hip hop music. Be that as it may, gangsta rap has been around in Korea for quite some time, including the western counterpart of the genre. Unfortunately, it was never brought under the mainstream limelight. That is until Dok2 and Illionaire Gang's relatively recent success. How was Dok2 able to make that genre so popular? Well, his beats are pretty damn solid and the same can be said about his rapping. When you listen to Dok2's lyrical content—especially of late—they are none too impressive nor are they brimming with literary brilliance. However, Dok2's flow, or how he delivers his rhymes on beats, is what gives him that edge over other rappers. When spitting his verses, Dok2 converts effortlessly from an almost lethargic droning style of rap, lazily gliding his rhymes along, to trumping the beat with the prowess akin to that of a seasoned surfer riding waves. Whether he rides the beat or vice versa, Dok2 has plenty of control over his rapping that he's going to sound good either way.

Gary

The fourth rapper I will mention is Gary from Leessang (he doesn't really need the introduction, through). As Gary became more and more popular as a 'Running Man' regular, his music started garnering attention as well. And one thing people noted was his unconventional way of rapping (unconventional in the Korean mainstream music scene at least). To me, Gary's rapping is story-telling in its purest form. No fanciful or gimmicky techniques are nested in Gary's raps to baffle you and have you break a sweat trying to decipher the meaning behind those delicate similes, double entendres or metaphors. Not that Gary's lyrics aren't poetic—they are and beautifully so. But they aren't so deeply poetic with some hidden or obscure meaning that the message of the song ends up clouded. In other words, when listening to Gary rap, it's almost as if a good friend is telling you a story—it's simple and easy to listen to. And it's that intimate relatability he establishes with listeners that sets his rapping apart from those of other rappers. Or even if you can't relate (especially when he talks about how he can't believe how much money he's made), you can still appreciate it somewhat because he tells it in a manner that is sincere, not pretentious or overbearing.

Fana

The final rapper on my list will be none other than Fana (pronounced 'Hwana' in Korean). If you mix the punchlines of Mad Clown and the rhymes of Minos, the end result would be Fana. In one song, "Recipe of Lyrical Chemistry," he compares his dexterity in composing lyrics to cooking. It sounds funny on the surface, but if you listen carefully to the verses, you'll be able to appreciate the keen wit behind them. In the aforementioned song, Fana raps the following lines (side note—my crass translations from Korean to English will never be able to fully reflect Fana's genius way with words): "Whilst my passion heats up I pour from the Pot of Language an endless stream of expression / I am the cook that'll sculpt the shape of a sentence / With a level head, my tongue and lungs alongside my paper and pen / Melody fused within rap and rhythm / And quite a neat topic are my ingredients." He delivers these lines with self-assuredness in the signature grainy, gritty voice of his, all the while managing to make his sentences rhyme throughout the song. And mind you, as I have mentioned, not many words rhyme easily in Korean. You can rhyme only with limited vowel-consonant combinations but somehow Fana uses this limitation to his advantage.

I have only mentioned five rappers in this article but there are of course, many, many other—non-idol—rappers that boast memorable rapping styles. So in order to give some of those other artists some due credit, I will list some honorable mentions: Tablo (I deliberately omitted him because he's already well established and I didn't want my list to be too predictable), Jerry K., MC Meta, i11evn, San-E, Ignito, Huck P., Rhyme Attack, Swings, Yankie (yes, that's how he spells his stage name), and others whom I will not list because then the list would just go on and on (to the break of dawn). If you'd like to proffer your own list, please share it! I would love to hear whose rapping styles you prefer and why.